Released WWE Star Reveals Gimmick The Company Gave Him That He Was Against

In the world of professional wrestling the importance of a good gimmick can’t be overstated as the right gimmick can help to completely transform a wrestler’s career and take them to the next level.

Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley tried to work their way through the tag team division as the Hype Bros. but after the team was finished it was time for Mojo to switch things up. Rawley pursued a singles career and he debuted a new gimmick where he wore face paint and talked to mirrors.

The gimmick never really went anywhere, and during an interview with Chris Van Vliet the former WWE 24/7 Champion explained that he was completely against the idea.

“I was so against that. I really didn’t want to do that. But truthfully the sketches didn’t look half bad. I remember thinking ‘I hope when I wear this it looks this cool.’ It couldn’t be furthest from. I pitched this idea of ‘everyone looks at themselves in the mirror and everyone hypes themselves up. Everyone has that degree of vanity, let me run with it. Let me cut promos where I am berating them for their shortcoming, and you don’t know who I am talking to. You find out later it’s me, and we can take this whole new attitude and run with it.’ Somehow that lead to me losing my mind and drawing on my face, I don’t know what it became.

“We literally did one match with that character. Me and Apollo Crews were paired together on a Europe tour. I remember it was like 2 and half weeks of everyday working together, we put on some great matches. There was so much that we pitched together. We put on matches that nobody was really expecting out of us and the fans gravitated towards. It’s hard though. You got 2 guys with no TV time going after these guys with established rivalries. But it was in the reports every night. ‘These two are onto something, lets give them a run.’ So they booked Apollo for my debut match in this new run. We were stoked, we were like lets go out and kill it, show them what we got. Then we found out it was a 60 second match that was written out entirely for us. Two and a half weeks, then it’s that, then it’s over. I just painted my face like an idiot for nothing.”

H/T Wrestling Inc.