10 WWE Gimmicks That Were Too Ridiculous To Take Seriously

WWE has been the leader in sports entertainment for nearly 50 years now. During that time, the company produced and pushed some of the greatest characters in the history of the sport. Naturally though, when you greenlight as many characters and gimmicks as WWE has over the years, you're bound to have some duds.

For every great gimmick the company has gotten over throughout the years, there are at least 10 that were total flops. Most of the time, those flops were simply because the gimmicks were a little too ridiculous for fans to be able to take seriously.

10 Scrypts

Scrypts is the most recent ridiculous gimmick to fall under the WWE umbrella. The character is technically an NXT performer but was still ok'd by WWE. Scrypts is played by former WWE 24/7 Champion, Reggie. That was the first mistake WWE made. The Reggie character was too comedic and too easily recognizable for WWE to think they could get away with a simple repackaging.

Furthermore, the character didn't match the vignettes hyping his impending arrival. The build-up made Scrypts seem like an anarchist, determined to destroy NXT. That's far from what fans got. Only time will tell if this character can get over with fans but right now, it doesn't seem likely.

9 Gillberg

Oh, Gillberg! Those fans who experienced The Monday Night War firsthand will not soon forget Ol' Gill. Duane Gill was an enhancement talent for WWE throughout the 90s. He was even one of the notorious Toxic Turtles that WWE tried out once. In the late 90s though, Gill stepped into the parody role of "Gillberg."

The character was a not-so-subtle jab at WCW and Goldberg. While many fans enjoyed the comedic Gillberg character for what it was, nobody ever expected it to be overly successful. Although, it is worth mentioning that Gillberg did quite well for himself after his run in WWE ended. The character was never taken seriously but some fans still enjoyed it.

8 Kizarny

Sometimes, WWE creative can be a little too smart for their own good. While there's certainly a section of hardcore wrestling fans who clamor to know as many behind-the-scenes details as possible, the majority of wrestling fans are casual fans. That's one of the main reasons the Kizarny character failed to get over in 2009.

In a nutshell, fans just didn't understand the character. "What's a carny? Why is his name spelled that way? What do carnivals and traveling circuses have to do with wrestling?" Those were all valid questions that the average wrestling fan didn't know the answers to. This made the character especially difficult to relate to. On top of that, the character was too silly for his good. Mercifully, the Kizarny experiment didn't last long.

7 Repo Man

Demolition is one of the greatest tag teams in WWE history. Unlike many other tag teams of their era though, the tandem never produced a standout singles star like The British Bulldogs and The Hart Foundation did. It's not that WWE didn't try, they just horribly botched the process.

After Demolition disbanded, Barry Darsow was set to receive a singles push from the company. Unfortunately for Darsow, that push came in the form of the Repo Man character. The gimmick was just as silly as it sounds. One-half of Demolition was now running around repossessing items from other WWE superstars. Shockingly, the audience never took him seriously and he never achieved any real success.

6 Isaac Yankem, DDS

Today, one of the biggest stars in all of pro wrestling is a legitimate dentist, Dr. Britt Baker, DMD. In the 90s though, WWE attempted to introduce their dentist character, Isaac Yankem, DDS. To say that Yankem was a flop would be an understatement. The character was portrayed by Glenn Jacobs, who would go on to have a Hall Of Fame career as Kane.

Jacobs didn't necessarily do a bad job of playing a dentist, fans just weren't interested in an evil dentist character. To be fair, fans were probably already fed up with the occupational gimmicks Vince McMahon was pushing at the time. This was just another layer on top of that.

5 Mantaur

WWE's New Generation Era was a mixed bag, to say the least. The era featured the rise of many legendary performers like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker, among others. Unfortunately, the era also featured some of the worst characters in company history.

Guys like The Goon. Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, and perhaps worst of all, Mantaur. Yup, Vince McMahon booked a Minotaur character in 1995. Mantaur even made animal sounds and charged at his opponents like a bull. Fans chewed this garbage up and spit it back out at WWE. As well as they should have.

4 Xanta Klaus

Everyone loves Christmas, right? For many people, the holidays are their favorite time of the year. Well, in 1995, WWE attempted to capitalize on the holiday cheer. However, they chose a very interesting way to go about it. At In Your House: Season's Beatings, WWE Introduced their audience to Xanta Klaus.

In storyline, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase bought himself an evil Santa from the South Pole. This twisted version of Jolly Ol' Saint Nick would spread holiday fear and steal presents rather than leave them. The character was portrayed by the future Balls Mahoney from ECW but would mercifully only last a couple of appearances before disappearing completely. It's not like that gimmick would've gotten over anyway.

3 Rosey (Super Hero In Training)

In 2003, Jamal and Rosey became the latest members of The Anoa'i Family to make it to the big stage of WWE. At first, 3 Minute Warning seemed poised to be a big-time contributor to WWE's tag team division. Unfortunately, things wouldn't play out that way and Rosey's next gimmick would be a bit of a head-scratcher.

Logic would've dictated perhaps a role as an enforcer or monster heel. Instead, Rosey was placed alongside The Hurricane as his sidekick and Super Hero In Training. Aside from the demeaning acronym, the character was never going to be seen as a serious threat to anyone. Rosey would leave WWE in 2006 and tragically pass away in 2017 from Heart Disease.

2 Kerwin White

Kerwin White driving a golf cart down to the ring.

There have been some truly questionable WWE gimmicks that have made it on-air in the past. Perhaps none were more bizarre than Kerwin White. In 2005, after repeated attacks at the hands of The Mexicools, Chavo Guerrero denounced his Hispanic heritage and took on the persona of Kerwin White.

Despite Guerrero's commitment to the character, it was always going to be a tough sell. Aside from the silliness, the character often flirted with racism. Guerrero abruptly dropped the character in November 2005 after the untimely death of his uncle, Eddie Guerrero. The Kerwin White character was never brought up again on WWE programming but no one seemed to mind.

1 The Spirit Squad

In a company with an embarrassingly rich history of silly gimmicks, perhaps no gimmick wasted more talent than The Spirit Squad. In 2006, five OVW upstarts were called up to the Monday Night Raw roster to aid Vince McMahon in his feud with Shawn Michaels, and eventually, D-Generation-X.

Kenny, Mikey, Johnny, Mitch, and Nicky would form a stable of male cheerleaders. Right off the bat, it was difficult to take the team seriously and things only got worse. The sad part is many of these youngsters were gifted athletes with future potential. Sadly, only one, Nicky, who would go on to become Dolph Ziggler, would ever be able to escape the stench of this ridiculous gimmick to become a star.