It's called the seven-year rule. The idea is that in seven years, there's been enough audience churn that most people won't remember old gimmicks or plots and you can freely recycle them.

Memphis Wrestling was a hotbed for this…

"Saturday was the ultimate wasted day if you were into wrestling in the
late 80's. WWF in the morning, and then a mix of AWA and NWA until the
mid afternoon."

The "screamin' Norman" era was fantastic. Showing up for hardcore matches in football pads and a catcher's mask.

One of my favorite "This is how inept WCW is" stories has to do with Lanny Poffo. See, Leapin' Lanny was a package deal with Randy. You book Randy Savage, you gotta book Lanny, too.

Rasslin, as a business, is INTENSELY clannish, and pretty much anyone trying to break into the big time is mercilessly hazed. If you can't handle that, then you don't get to stay.

That's a great goddamn heel gimmick, but it's not really a surprise why it hasn't happened yet.

Rick Rude is on my shortlist of dudes who deserved a major title run and never got one. (See also: DiBiase, Piper, Tully Blanchard, Regal)

In the hands of someone more competent than the WWE writing staff, it's an amazing possibility.

Adrian Street is apparently legitimately one of the toughest motherfuckers in the business. Not Meng tough, but tough.

That's awesome. I met Regal briefly a few years back now and he was incredibly chill about me fanboying him. (I was particularly complimentary on how he does some of the best facial expressions in the business.)

For a very brief period, Ron Simmons was packaged as "Farooq Asad", a "gladiator". He wore a blue helmet and ugly tights.

He actually started with a version of it under his real name in WCW (except he was "French", of course).

Firebreaker Chip, from WCW Special Forces (!!!)

Both of those gimmicks work entire on how much the wrestlers believed it. Barry Darsow was clearly having the time of his life doing the Repo Man gimmick.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Gimme Three Steps"

Dead Milkmen - "Punk Rock Girl"

Any Danzig-era Misfits.

The Book of Mormon - "I Believe"

I am going through and upvoting every R&B song I see. If I could upvote the 90s R&B twice, I would.