1. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin
How You Remember Him: The Texas Rattlesnake, a beer swilling, middle finger waving anti-hero who kicked everyone's ass and didn't give a damn what you thought. Perhaps the biggest part of the Attitude Era, Austin was a phenomenal worker and perhaps even more popular than Hulk Hogan. Austin was so popular, a very famous segment has him squaring off with Iron Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson!!!
Austin became famous the world over for sticking it to the man, not afraid to go to extreme lengths to let everyone know how little of a damn he cared about their thoughts on him. Some famous segments of his include filling the bosses car with wet cement, forklifting the car of another man on this list (that's for you to guess!!), driving numerous vehicles to the ring, and beating the hell out of fellow wrestler Booker T inside a freaking grocery store. The ultimate badass.
Who He Was Before: The damn Ring Master. Austin had a somewhat successful career in the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling, his run having lasted from 1991-1995. After suffering a tricep injury, he was fired over the phone, and by late 1995 he debuted in the WWF as a character known as the "Ring Master".
Ted DiBiase promoted him as a man "who no one had ever seen wrestle"...which was the most unbelievably stupid gimmick ever, because if you were a fan who even remotely paid attention, you JUST saw the guy wrestle in WCW earlier that same year. Thankfully, by 1996, he adopted his "Stone Cold" Persona, and in the following years he would be the driving force behind the companies biggest boom.
2. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
How You Remember Him: The Great One, a man who set the world on fire with his electrifying personality and memorable catchphrases, Rock is undoubtedly a legend, delivering amazing one liners and very entertaining segments, followed up by a successful career in acting.
His ring work was just as entertaining as his promos, with a good ability to adapt to his opponents style. For those into acting, the Rock was able to come up with hilarious segments on the fly, spouting legitimately hilarious jokes seemingly from nowhere. He was also a man who has shared many a fantastic match with the likes of Austin and Hulk Hogan. Do you smell what the Rock is cooking?
Who He Was Before: Rocky Maivia. Taking the ring names of both his father and grandfather, Dwayne entered the WWF in 1996 at the behest of veteran wrestler Pat Patterson. He was heavily pushed by WWF to become a big star, getting his first big win at Survivor Series. However, fans were very adamantly opposed to Johnson's character due to his cheesiness, leading him to adopt the Rock persona starting in 1997.
Things were very bad for Maivia early on, as his character was so disliked by fans that often times you could see signs in the crowd harboring extremely hateful and cruel messages such as "Die, Rocky, Die". Thankfully, Mr. Johnson was not one to take criticism while lying down, and pushed himself further to mold a character that took the business by storm.
Hints of his "Rock" character started to seep through during his late run as Rocky Maivia, where he would start to come into his own and use snippets of his phrases, such as saying "If you know what I'm cooking.". One outfit change and a boost in confidence later, and suddenly the most electrifying wrestler in the world is born.
3. Paul "Triple H" Levesque
How You Remember Him: The King of Kings, Triple H was a dominating force of the WWF during the Attitude Era as a leading member of the stable "DX", wreaking havoc alongside his partner and real life friend, Shawn Michaels. With the likes of other DX members X-Pac and Chyna, Triple H would play a magnificent heel, posing a major problem for other major players like Rock and Austin by imposing domination with his posse and an even bigger threat in his solo career.
Who He Was Before: Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Upon entering the WWF in the mid-90's, it was clear that Hunter would rise to prominence. He carried a "Regal" gimmick, portraying an arrogant, snobby wrestler....a gimmick that's dull and been 1,000,000 times over. This didn't matter however, as Hunter immediately got in into the "know" backstage when he got into the boss' ear.
Alongside wrestlers Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and numerous others, Hunter was a big part of the infamous backstage group known as "The Kliq". With complete creative control, the Kliq would promote friends of theirs, and completely crush the careers of anyone who dared oppose them.
They remained unparalleled until an infamous event in 1996 called "The Curtain Call", in which the Kliq members broke character after an event, hugging one another in the middle of the ring. This supremely pissed off Vince McMahon, the man in charge, and the punishment was severe.
Two of the guilty members of Curtain Call, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, were already out the door in favor of World Championship Wrestling, and Shawn Michaels was champion, preventing serious repercussion, so the blame fell solely on Hunter's shoulders, turning him from a star into a mid card guy for a long time before he finally came back on top with his Triple H character.
4. Mark "The Undertaker" Callaway
How You Remember Him: The Phenom....the mystical dead man of the wrestling world, all who know the Undertaker fear and respect him. He's such a powerful presence in the ring, you tend to feel sorry for whoever is fighting him, because it's likely they'll end up in a body bag (not really dead) or a casket. Or, if you're Mick Foley, he'll drop you from the top of a steel cage from 40 feet above and send you crashing through an announce table. Absolutely. Terrifying.
Who He Was Before: Well....he was still technically the Undertaker. The only wrestler on this list to have been established in the WWF years before the others, he first made his official debut at a 1990 taping of the television show "WWF Super Stars" as "Kane the Undertaker", billed as a literal dead man completely impervious to pain.
As you can see above, he sported that greyish white mask for a very short time before dropping it and simply going by Undertaker, managed by Paul Bearer (Eh? Eeeh? Get it?). Undertaker would go through several transitional phases during his career before settling on "The Lord of Darkness", where he dropped a fair bit of the "literally dead" thing. This new Undertaker was mostly used to introduce the last man on our list....
5. Glenn "Kane" Jacobs
How You Remember Him: A legitimate monster. A wrestler forever tied to the Undertaker, Kane was hinted at when Undertaker turned into his "Lord of Darkness" persona, with Paul Bearer threatening that he knew his darkest secret. This secret ended up being that he allowed his family to burn in a house fire...including his little brother, Kane. RIDICULOUSLY silly, but upon his introduction, Kane was no joke.
Billed as the Big Red Machine, Kane never spoke (at first), and began to tear his way through other wrestlers with his sights set on Undertaker. His size, outfit and demeanor were truly very intimidating, and he didn't have a problem with picking anyone and everyone up by the neck and slamming them into any object nearby, and the only man who's really meant to stand toe to toe with his "brother", Undertaker.
Who He Was Before: Glenn Jacobs carried many gimmicks before he settled on the one he's famous for...the most infamous of which is when he became "The Christmas Creature". Let me repeat that just in case your ears refused to hear it: He was the goddamned Christmas Creature. Very early in Jacobs career, he wrestled under several normal names, until he wrestled for the Southern promotion Smoky Mountain Wrestling as the Christmas Creature....who is...well...that. A creature that is somehow born from the mass marketing of the holiday season. Eventually, he would drop terrible gimmicks when he came into the WWF in 1995, where he would slowly evolve into the Kane character.
So there you have it! Those are some of the gimmicks taken by famous wrestlers when they were just younglings and trying to find their footing in the cut throat world of fake punching and kicking. Grab a bottle of Vodka, forget any of these ever happened, and rewatch old Attitude Era tapes and hope these gimmicks NEVER stick in your memory.
"Aloysius, the writer of this article has left his plodding foot in the internet world by writing stuff no one reads, but it doesn't matter to him because he's also known for a degree in Underwater Basket Weaving and one half of the legendary tag team, The Herk n' Jerk Connection."
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