Even MORE of Wrestling's Strangest Repackagings
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STARDUST ... THE FUNKASAURUS ... RED ROOSTER ... BRUTUS BEEFCAKE ... and many more of some of the most bizarre and polarizing repackagings in the history of pro wrestling!
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Brian Can You Cover Great American Bash 2000, Fall Brawl 1999, Superbrawl 1999, Mayhem 2000, Starrcade 2000, Slamboree 1999, Souled Out 1999, Uncensored 1999 And Souled Out 2000 Review.
IT LOOKS LIKE YOU THREW UP ON A PLATE
says the code is no longer valid
@@twerktospec WHY WOULD YOU ORDER VOMIT?
@@mjdf122 have a code for 99.9% off? That's all it's worth
Van Hammer being mad that he didn’t have a higher rank in a made up mid card army stable is my favorite wrestling fact
🤣
is it bad that I forgot about the M.I.A lol
@@z0m813 Not at all lol I forgot about them until I started watching Brian's WCW PPV reviews
As a massive Van Halen fan (with DLR and Sammy Hagar) I always thought it was a crime he was even given that moniker of Van Hammer. I mean he had Sammy Hagar's hair and originally came out with a flying v, A guitar famously used by Randy Rhodes not Eddie Van Halen. Fail all around.
February 2020, I went to one of the last comic conventions before the lockdowns started. i saw Brutus Beefcake in full wrestling gear going ham on 3 large boxes of chicken wings. That alone made he $25 to enter the convention worth it.
Edit - I made eye contact with him mid bite and it was kind of scary.
Eh he's still The Barber.....I'd kinda like to meet him
@@Donathon-qx8kqgo away ya kill joy P.O.S....if you were in WWE you would be HDS!!!!HUMAN DEBRIS SCUMBAG
Brother Bruti housing down those chicken wings brother!! At least he didn't go all Bastion Booger on everyone slopping it up for the convention to witness
That was his new gimmick.
He lived up in Massachusetts for awhile from like 2001-2013 (might still for all I know). I worked at a small bank where he was a customer and waited on him many times. He seems like a pretty sweet guy, but talk about polar opposite personas when not on tv. He almost seemed anxious and introverted all the time. Super weird after watching him on TV as a kid.
He did give my friends and I personalized autographed photos for free, which is way better than Killer Kowalski, who would just have his handler/daughter/wife (whomever they were) hand you a little 4x6 photo if you even mentioned recognizing him as a way of placating you to go away.
Felt bad for Brutus, too. His ex-wife seemed like a total bitch. She would talk shit or bitch about him constantly, even when anyone just asked if we could help her.
Ed Leslie deserves a whole episode all about his repackagings.
Simpsons did it...oh sorry I mean OSW did it
Seconded!
Ed Leslie! What a package!
As does Barry Darsow.
Yes, seconded! What did OSW calculate, he had 16-17 different gimmicks? He's his own multiverse.
Glad to see John Tenta getting some love. Such a good guy&good friend.
The biggest one for me has to be what happened to one of the most dominant big ladies in early 90s Japanese wrestling, Monster Ripper. She was waging wars with the likes of Aja Kong and Bull Nakano, to great success and in turn revolutionizing what women’s hoss matches could be. Then she came to WWE, WWF at the time, and for some reason WWE creative had the “smart” idea to turn her into Bertha Faye, a comedic character who lived in a trailer park and dated Harvey Wippleman, which was far from her days as a monster heel destroying all who challenged her. Also WWE, like they did with Earthquake and Hulk Hogan, brought her in to be fodder for Alundra Blayze, which was just so wrong.
Brilliant heel Big Bertha was!!
I think Diamond Dallas Page going from the fan-favorite every man wrestler to being repackaged as an insane psychopathic stalker probably beats every single one of these. lol
I mean. Couldn't they bring back.... oh yeah. His knee split in half.
WWE really messed up most WCW wrestlers after the purchase. Everyone except the cruiserweights apparently.
Wasn't he stalking Taker's wife? When DDP's wife was a stone-cold fox!
@@Rob_Thorsmanthat made no sense kimberly was much more attractive
Yeah that was terrible.
For how weird the 'Make a Difference' gimmick was, it had personal reasoning on Fatu's end. The gimmick came about as a response to a gang violence incident he was involved in, where he got fucking shot and was pronounced dead for 3 minutes. And that alone inspired the idea of him becoming an example to follow for the young ones out there with rough lives of their own to strike out on their own and NOT do such heinous acts of violence and petty crime.
Funny to think Sharmell upgraded from a Prince to a king... KING BOOKAAAAH!
Kings get more RESPECC
Cody as stardust was actually really great. I know he didn't like it but he showed how great he is in the business by making it great
Cody Hated that gimmck
Stardust was a stupid gimmick Cody couldn't even make it worth while
I liked stardust. But love cody work now ☺
@@isaiahedmonson5832 Cody is one hell of a worker.
@@DiabolikalRA yes he is cody rocks 😎
"YO YOU DEALING WITH FACTOR" made me laugh out loud at work.
You wouldn't believe how many people told me I was full of it when I told them "Stardust" was an old nickname of Dusty Rhodes. THANK YOU for legitimizing it!
Wow, I never had any idea about the Gimmick Billy Graham had! This is why I like this channel: Even tough I think I know most things about Pro Wrestling, there is always something new to learn.
Thank you, Brian!
R.I.P. Supastar
I remember all the video packages they ran showing his hip surgery, and he would come out to Jesus Christ Superstar theme, and he was in Don Muraco's corner by then...I think Kung Fu Billy Graham was before this though
I learned about "Karate" Billy Graham from James' retrospective on "Superstar" Billy Graham's WWF career on WeAreProWrestling's From The Vault series. Still seems weird.
Vince Russo: "Bro, Booker T bro, I want you to be GI Bro, Bro. If GI Bro doesn't work, bro, I'll give you a mega push, bro."
I always felt bad for Terry Taylor getting stuck with the Red Rooster gimmick. I saw him in a house show against Bad News Brown (I'm old) and after the match (which he lost of course) he got a smattering of boos. Terry just shrugged as if to say "Yeah, I know this gimmick sucks."
I'd honestly take the Red Rooster over "The Computerized Man of the 1990s"...*that* one stunk. Hell, the entire York Foundation (aside from Alexandra York/Marlena) was basically guys that were past their prime and on the way out...and it was the best work of none of them.
Why? He's fucking awful. A shit version of Ric Flair, and let's be honest, if you've seen one Flair match you've seen them all....
@@AlsebraThe York Foundation always seemed like a “computer gimmick” from someone who had never seen a computer in their life. LOL
@@StewPac, the Tekno Team 2000 also, lol.
@@Alsebra LMAO Yeah that was awful. The fact someone saw a team that included Erik Watts as the "Wrestlers of the Future" is unintentionally hilarious!
All those extra names you called Brutus. I loved it! Very clever! 🤣🤣🤣
coked-up kodiak was my favorite lol
Man of a thousands gimmicks
@@rtyuik7not false, either. He definitely had a coke problem when I waited on him at the bank I used to work at. Nice guy, but seemed overly introverted and/or anxious when he would come in. Wouldn’t have been shocked if he was high at least half those times.
Al Green vs. "If You're Some Karate" Billy Graham would make for one hell of a booking sim feud.
So what you're saying is that Billy Grahama WAS, in fact, "some karate"!
The body of the wrestler, Al Greene (aka Not Quite Tazz), is rolling in his grave.
Man, it’s astounding to see LA’s trajectory during the past year alone. I don’t even think he had good pops in the first quarter of this year when he feuded with Wyatt.
Because he was a jobber for that entire time.
Not as big of pop as bray Wyatt has had with his recent feud with Owen hart
THE FACTOR GAG IS BACK! I was not expecting the sponsor, and I definitely wasn’t expecting the gag to return. Made my day.
It's the most long overdue sequel on the Wrestling With Wregret channel, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you, Brian Zane. 😊
Simon Miller would’ve loved 5 more minutes on Barry Darsow gimmicks 😂
simon would give that a golden up
@@mezykinwarm feeling in his tum tum
One of them, at least.
He’d probably challenge Brian to a death match for implying that the Repo man was a bad gimmick
Can't hold a candle to Red Rooster, but some mention is needed for when he went back to WCW and became Terrence Taylor, The Computerized Man of the 90s.
What the hell did that gimmick even meant he didn't look like from the 90s at all
I was actually tuning in live when Brodus Clay debuted the Funkasaurus gimmick. I genuinely laughed so hard I fell off my chair and continued to laugh throughout his entire match and for the entire rest of the show. Not the reaction I think creative were hoping for but I really struggled to take him seriously after that.
He could've easily become the next Big Van Vader, but no, he got saddled with a dancing gimmick.
When I saw it I was like wtf is this crap.
@@justinhillenburg9286 I wonder if he annoyed someone backstage between his first vignette and the debut of the gimmick. Or just vince was just being vince and going, you know what would be funny
@mattportman3038 Odds are Vince being out-of-touch with the fans.
Vince would love to hear that lmao
The "yo you dealing with factor" absolutely got me i can't even lie.
Your Dr. Suess explosion at Brutus absolutely killed me!!
For the longest time (up until a few years ago) I had no idea Golga was actually Earthquake.
Genuine question: Was Billy Graham's 'Karate Master' gimmick meant to be an intentionally bad thing where Graham was just going out of his way to make it as bad as possible or did he earnestly think that it was a replacement for his legendary 'Superstar' shtick that made him such an influential figure?
Edit: Also I agree with Brian in that a Stardust faction with ;The Cosmic King' Wade Barrett and The Ascension as the underlings could've honestly been pretty fun.
Stardust could've been a frieza like character
You missed one of the worst repackaging of the 90's! Taking Papa Shango and turning him into Kama! Then they made it even worse when they came up with the whole Godfather gimmick! Luckily they saved it with the Goodfather gimmick!
"Taylor's turkey of a transformation was truly terrible." Say that 10 times fast. 😂😂
Baron Corbin is basically the modern day Brutus Beefcake. He was doing fine as the Lone Wolf, but then he became a constable, a King, Sad and Broke, Happy and Rich, JBL's protégé, and now he's just himself on NXT. For now at least.
but even those more or less tell a 'life story'... with Brutus the respective face Turns of Dream Team to Barber and Zodiac reveal as Hogan's mole (I forget what name he used right after the "reveal") are near as I can tell the only gimmick switches with an in universe explanation... the rest usually saw him show up in the company (soon after Hogan) with a new name... or take a month off and come back under a new name
@@TJ52359 yeah that's true. Also I think you might be thinking of the Booty Man after the Zodiac thing.
@@martialartsNerd10 I was thinking he had a Vague/generic '"Hogan's Friend" bit/ return to 'Brother Bruti" right after the 'undercover' reveal... and Then he took a Month off and came back as Booty Man...
Way to bring a long time video back to the forefront. I'd bet you could make more of these repackaging videos maybe with twists to them but this was fun to see again. Well done Brian!
I remember when the first repackaging video came out I was in 7th grade math class, I watched the whole thing with no audio and just captions
Now I have my own house and I’m a sous chef in training, time has really passed me by
For those who have seen Eli Drake (LA Knight) in IMPACT Wrestling, he was treated like a big deal in 2017. He won the TNA King Of The Mountain Champion and held onto it for a while. In 2018, he was the IMPACT World Heavyweight Champion for seven months. Maybe we can see LA Knight become the next WWE Intercontinental Champion or WWE United States Champion by WrestleMania 40 before going after the World Heavyweight Champion or Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 41.
When you're being compared to The Rock, favourably, it boggles the mind how Vince could not take a chance with Eli Drake. He was so fucking good in Impact. I'm glad it worked out for him, unlike EC3.
The dummy button is legendary lol.
@@willielogan4811Fact Of Life
The Rising with Drew McIntyre and Camacho
i LOVED Eli Drake in TNA back in the day. It was one of the few characters, aside from EC3, that didn't get pushed to the moon for the simple reason being that the wrestler just came from up north (WWE). And yes, I know EC3 had just come from NXT, but i don't believe his push was because he was an ex-WWE guy.
I don't remember ordering any of these packages during Prime Day...
Ngl I also Loved the Stardust gimmick & Wish WWE gave the Stardust, King Barrett, Ascension Stable a better shot.
Cody played the Comic book Villian role sooo good.
What an exquisite and exhaustive list of Ed Leslie's gimmicks! Bravo Brian. 💯 😂
I was so hyped as they announced Brodus Clay with those intimidating promos only to make him a freaking dancer. His career could've been so much more. Greetings from germany
Whoever works for Factor that chose W^3 needs a raise, for creating the opportunity to use the X-Factor theme
I started laughing at Dizzy Gillespie and didn't stop through the entire list. Well played
What got me was the first pic of his...that look on his face 😂
Can't even be mad about LA. The MMM are brilliant, almost as much as their precursors Breezango (gone but not forgotten), and LA helped make them as beloved as they are.
Shame they got sacked, but I’m sure they’ll bounce back.
That Max Dupri and Ezekiel were interesting repackaging.
Early 2022 was weird 😂
Atleast they let Max Dupri die. Sucks that his underlings are hilarious, and they got pushed to the side after that.
@mikemiken1963 maybe their segments after LA Knight left should have been on tv instead of being dumped on TH-cam
@@mikemiken1963Mace and Mansoor are hilarious
“Sir, sir? Are you in danger right now” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The Doom Patrol reference during the Brutus rundown popped me
"Even if you're watching this video on mid-July."
GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!
I swear, from Great Khali to Viscera to Vladimir Kozlov, and so many others, Vince McMahon's go-to after a monster heel's domination had run its course/been stopped by a top babyface, was to make them either a dancer or a love machine.
To be fair, Viscera was already a changed gimmick from Mabel.
Vince knows how to book giants.
You could do an entire video on Charles Wright. Papa Shango, Kama, Kama Mustafa, Godfather, etc He was everything from a witch doctor to a weed smoking pimp, lol.
My favorite part of that is that they actually transitioned him from Kama Mustafa to The Godfather in a normal way. During the Brawl for All, while he was still in The Nation, they randomly started calling Kama "the godfather of The Nation" and he'd have a more muted version of his future attire, but it was only for entrances. Some often they try to pretend that repackaged are different people, it was refreshing that Godfather wasn't one of them.
@@almightycinderHonestly, after Shango, they did a very natural job transitioning his gimmicks. Even The Goodfather and the ‘02 run where he was “running an escort service” had a natural progression to them.
When Cody Rhodes was on Arrow as Derek Sampson he was a drug dealer who dealt a drug called Stardust
I haven't watched WWE in some years now, but was pretty invested during that 2012-2019 time or so. Some that comes to mind right away are Curtis Axel and Damien Sandow into AxelMania and Macho Mandow, Bray to Funhouse Bray, and Broken Matt Hardy. All of those were so strange but I was really into them, even the Meta Powers.
Stardust is a repackaging that lead to formation of a new wrestling company.
And recurring villain role on Arrow
People make fun of the Brodus Clay gimmick
But I personally liked that it showed Tyrus’ more fun loving and charismatic side to his character
Yep, the bottom line is, he still kicked @$$. (At least early on)
Should have won the US title against Ziggler. Should have won the tag titles very shortly after with Santino. Would have had a slightly different trajectory imo.
And people can poke fun at his workrate but the recent NWA news shows that putting the belt on him ended up being a positive in the long run
I really love that Leo Kruger gimmick! One of the best that never had a chance to bloom.
Adam Rose/Leo Kruger would’ve thrived in NXT 2.0
That Factor intro was absolutely legendary
Zane you can't tell us you don't wanna see The Shark vs. Sharkboy in a dream match 😂
The next Rey vs Dominic 😂
Shell Yeah
I'm surprised he didn't mention probably the worst. Gimmick of all time, and that was the shock master. When he came crashing through the wall and tripped and fell and the helmet came off😂
Vince McMahon wanted to present Jay White as an evil Candyman "Willy Wonka" character who would me mean to kids similar to the original Doink
That would’ve been interesting
Ugh.
That sounds awesome
That’s sounds weird imagine hearing an evil Oompa Loompa song
Cody: Dashing, un-dashing then mustaching.
I love what you did with the Factor music. One of my favourite videos you've made is the 8 worst theme songs, so that was some nice continuity 😂
The list of Ed Leslie's gimmicks was seriously brilliant. XD
Hey Brian I just wanted to say I love the videos you provide for us wrestling fans. Thank you for doing this continuously, my favorite was when you did a parody of goldust. The paint was spot on and the best part I enjoyed most is when you said Zane Dust!
It’s kinda a interesting game of guess who is in a photo or in the entrance with Adam Rose as a Rosebud.
Simon Gotch
I pop every time you pull the “yo you dealin with factor!”
Sir you could have said "first he was Dashing, then he was un-dashing, the he was mustache-ing".
So with Factor you got everything you ever wanted, and now you’ll never give that back?
I loved the Brooklyn Brawler when I was a kid. My nostalgia will not allow me to think that was a bad gimmick.
Yeah I don't think the gimmick was bad. Not even that cheesy for the era.
I enjoyed him vs Ezekiel Jackson on Raw Old School
Abe Knuckleball Schwartz
KimChee
@perceivedvelocity9914
Speaking of weird repackagings, remember when he turned heel, and changed his name to 'The Boston Brawler'?
I liked CM Punk's angry failed MMA fighter gimmick he brought to AEW.
He did all his fighting backstage
This is a legit underrated and hilarious comment 🤣
It went along very well with the wrestling world’s “I hate good wrestlers” gimmick that they picked up after Brawl Out
This comment deserves more likes.
It's not as good as your angry, pathetic mark who is desperate for attention gimmick that you use.
Lets not forget LA Knights Impact days were a thing. Bringing about "Dummy, yeah!" kinda unfortunate that got shortened to just "Yeah!"
Brodus Clay's gimmick after those videos was one of the two times that WWE would do the bait and switch inside a year. Remember the Jericho "End of the World" videos only for him to come out as a smiling mute?
Fandango should’ve been a monster instead 😂
"yo you dealing with FACTOR" always gets a pop out of me
I am glad to see this. I always remember Adam Rose's creepy bunny (insert The Ice Cream Bunny's laugh by Bill Corbett from RiffTrax). I am amazed how LA Kight obviously as demonstrated broke out of a bad repackaging and doing well so far. :)
Did Billy Graham just say he wanted to physically transform into a belt!? That's as hilarious as John Madden saying after he dies he wants to be reincarnated as a Seagull... Or a blimp
What madden whats to be reincarnated as a duff blimp.
Always figured “Bearcat” was easier than explaining who Monty Brown was for the Pounce. Kind of like “Chaos Theory” & “Code Red” just sort of entered the lexicon despite Doug Williams and Amazing Red never being WWE built
There's only one repackaging I can think of dumber than the Red Rooster: shaving off a beard and pretending to be your own twin brother. Isn't that right, Ezekiel?
It sure is, right, Abyss?
Brian's face when he was trying (not) to say General Hugh G Rection....priceless! 😆 We shared your pain...
You only mentioned him in passing but the repackage of Albert to Lord Tensai is W I L D.
He was talked about in original strange repackaging video
Honestly, the worst thing about that was WWE refusing to acknowledge them being the same person. Tensai is a lot more digestible a gimmick when the premise is “Albert spent many years in Japan, refining his craft and adopting the presence and manners of royalty”. Without that context it was absolutely bonkers.
LA Knight will always be Eli Drake, to me. Another strange & interesting recent repackaging, that i've really been digging, is the former Fandango, repackaged as Dirty Dango. Who seems to be a brilliant parody/riff on people who hate current wrestling, lol.
I’d like to mention the transition of Reggie to Scrypts to Out The Mud
I like OTM
Brodus's splash on EC3:
"Let me take a quick fart to the outside, then I'll splash ya!"
Wasn't Make A Difference Fatu, came about because he survived a shooting, which is why he had the very visible"zipper" going down his stomach?
Terry Taylor: the only thing less flattering than that mohawk is what came out in the WCW lawsuit.
18:15 I love how Albert is doing the shovel motion.
I had to pause the video for a minute to recover from the beginning of the Factor ad read. If Uncle Kracker would’ve started playing, I would’ve fallen off the couch.
Uncle Kracker
@@claymathewselevator8121 Ah, you’re right. Thanks for the correction.
I love to the fact that Darsow and Leslie had more gimmick changes than anyone else on this list.🤣
I believe the Red Roster gimmick was pushed on Taylor by McMahon and Bruce Pritchard. Terry hated it and never tried to adapt to it so he was demoted.
The ever increasing cringe at watching Headbanger Mosh go from rocker tag teamer to incest-implying 50's sitcom character Beaver Cleavage thinking "well it can't get worse" only to see him rebranded again as the woman-abusing Chaz might be the peak (or valley) of wrestling rebrandings gone horribly horribly wrong.
Talking about Lacey Evans, she really confused me in the 2023 Royal Rumble cause I literally couldn't tell the difference between her and Michelle McCool. They're like the same people.
Speaking as someone who was a fan of The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Iukea, let me just say: it had nothing to do with the gimmick. Not that I hated it. But I was already a fan of his, before the gimmick change. Same with Corporal Cajun.
Special mention goes to Alex Wright becoming Berlyn.
I think that would have gotten over better in 99 if Columbine hadn't happened...
Berlyn will always be my bottom boy,so much a boy that his pun-named bodyguard got more of a push
@@Horcrux_maker _"That's the wall, brother!"_
Big bratwurst!
The Oddities had such a good theme song. Damn they were so cool.
I also loved Stardust (once I got over the shock).
I was very disappointed that The Cosmic Wasteland facton didn't become a dominant group. Oh well.
@24:47 that’s really more Lord Humungus from The Road Warrior, not Master Blaster. Especially considering that they’re two people
In Southwest Championship Wrestling there was a guy named Juan Reynosa, part time total jobber, part time referee. I remember one time at a House Show, they brought him out as Zarroq, a monster heel from Mongolia. He got big laughs because a lot of people recognized him, and I never saw Zarroq again. It wasn't until years later that I found out that Taras Bulba, a monster who had squashed Kerry Von Erich, of all people, in a match about 5 years later, was the same guy.
Timeless Toni Storm would work better if Toni didn't sound like she'd just walked off the set of Crocodile Dundee.
‘…in order to get in touch with his heritage’
The death knell of a career right there
Booker T also sorta brought back the GI Bro gimmick when he appeared in the Music Video for Bad Bunny's hit single Booker T
Tony Khan turning Shawn Spears into The Invisible Man was weird. Where'd he go?
He and his wife had their first kid earlier this year.
I Don't Like Chavo Guerrero But Kerwin White was so bloody dumb thank goodness Eddie's tragic passing but a end to the terrible gimmick
“It’s not unusual…”
*Picture of Elvis*
*Insulted in Tom Jones*
Max Dupri titilated the juices of my guilty pleasures.
I don’t know what was in the original list but some that come to mind not on third one are Akeem, Col Mustafa, Guardian Angel, Who?, The Stalker, DDP in WWF, Dean Douglas, Chainsaw Charlie, Bulldog in jeans.