Gimmick changes are a huge part of the wrestling business and will lead to mixed results. The best instances can see wrestlers having huge success, but that doesn’t always work out. Impact Wrestling learned that the hard way by having talents fall off and lose most of their relevance after the character pivot. Each wrestler to fall under that category showed that the risk may not warrant the reward for a gimmick change.
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TNA talents couldn’t overcome the loss from the negatives piling up to harm the talent. Certain names had huge potential and witnessed the worst-case. Others just had bad luck playing out to cause the failure. The following wrestlers all shared the same result of falling off the map after a noteworthy gimmick change.
10 Aron Rex
Damien Sandow was viewed as an underutilized wrestler in WWE for many years. Both the heel character of Sandow and his comedic face work as Miz’s stunt double showed potential for fans to wonder how he would perform elsewhere.
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Aron Rex was the name and persona chosen by Sandow in TNA. The gimmick was inspired by Liberace with his unique gear, but it came off as another generic heel character. TNA didn’t get much from Rex and his career has never taken off after WWE.
9 Scott Hall
Scott Hall flopping in WWE during the New World Order reunion in 2002 led to him joining TNA in the early stages. TNA used Hall at different points, but his biggest push came when forming a new trio with Kevin Nash and Jeff Jarrett.
Nash and Hall helped Jarrett defeat Jeff Hardy in a ladder match to form the Kings of Wrestling faction. Jarrett and Nash did their part, but Hall was still dealing with his personal demons. The trio flopping led to Hall being removed and falling off the map for many years in wrestling.
8 Brittany
Santana Garrett’s TNA time is rarely remembered since they did little with her. Brittany was the generic name provided in an equally generic face role to start off. A heel turn uniting with Samuel Shaw was the biggest storyline and gimmick change for her in TNA.
Shaw tormenting Christy Hemme made him a hated figure to most in TNA, but Brittany found him attractive for it. The couple didn’t have much success, and both performers ended up struggling with this angle flopping.
7 Sonjay Dutt
TNA spent time trying to come up with new gimmicks for most of the X-Division when their character work wasn’t matching the outstanding matches. Sonjay Dutt received The Guru gimmick to slowly set up a heel turn and his falling out with Jay Lethal.
The gimmick change saw Dutt providing advice and collecting money from the audience before his matches. TNA even had SoCal Val turn on Lethal to form a romance with Sonjay. The short-term results saw him getting more TV time, but it hurt Dutt in the long run as he lost relevance and was eventually released.
6 The Naturals
TNA viewed The Naturals right behind America’s Most Wanted as the first teams they wanted to build their tag division around. Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens spent a few years in the company trying to find the right act.
Shane Douglas managing The Naturals felt like their biggest angle, but the chemistry wasn’t there. TNA changed their gimmicks when Douglas left them by having them declare they didn’t need a leader, but they were removed from television shortly after.
5 Tomko
One smart move of TNA copying WWE featured them signing Tyson Tomko to play the enforcer of Christian Cage again. The duo worked well together, and Tomko even formed a few new tag team with AJ Styles.
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Christian leaving and TNA wanting to bring Tomko back to work with AJ turned into a disaster. Tomko was revealed as a mystery man stalking Styles for months. One lackluster performance losing against Styles was all TNA needed to pivot away from him.
4 Rob Terry
TNA always wanted Rob Terry to mature into a better all-around performer since his look impressed them. Terry had the largest physique most associated with past eras of wrestling that TNA felt could still draw money for them.
Nothing worked to elevate Terry above the lower mid-card picture. Terry’s final gimmick change in TNA saw him playing The Freak character as part of The Menagerie faction. The masked identity didn’t change anything as the group struggled to get over in Terry’s final push.
3 Lance Hoyt
TNA never finding any noteworthy success with Lance Hoyt was one of their signs of failure with elevating new talent. Hoyt got over in the early years of Fox Sports and even had fans bringing Hoytmania signs to shows.
A gimmick change aligning with Christy Hemme and eventually Jimmy Rave doomed his TNA career. Hoyt playing a comedic character playing intentionally bad music wasn’t the act that was going to make him a bigger star. TNA’s creative saw Hoyt falling off the map until resurrecting his career in NJPW years later.
2 Rellik
Johnny the Bull showed potential in WCW and WWE in the Mamalukes and Full-Blooded Italians factions in the respective promotions. TNA signing Johnny saw him wanting to play a completely new character with no reference to his past.
The masked Rellik was meant to be wrestling’s version of a horror character with his terrifying look. Rellik unfortunately missed the boat and couldn’t connect with the audience. Most TNA viewers mocked Rellik as a running joke that spelled the end of his career’s relevance.
1 Orlando Jordan
TNA signed Orlando Jordan in the Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff era when they wanted to change up the roster. Many former WWE talents joined, but Jordan may have had the worst stint of any of them to completely take him off the map.
Jordan’s bisexual orientation was part of his personal life, but TNA felt like it should be part of his character. The offensive gimmick change saw Orlando essentially playing a sexual deviant making advances towards wrestlers in a heel manner. TNA witnessed Jordan flopping in what became his final push in wrestling.
