The Undertaker (2020)

The 2020 program with AJ Styles, ended up being The Undertaker’s final ever WWE feud. The feud itself was tremendous, as for the first time in years, The Undertaker deviated away from his established Deadman persona. The Deadman would introduce fans to the Holy Trinity, which in essence was his new character which was a mix between The Deadman, The American Badass and the man behind the character, that being Mark Calaway.

To represent this character change, The Deadman would begin to wear bandanas again on TV, and his appearance was much more in-line with an attire that The Undertaker would wear 20-years prior.

On commentary, it was explained that AJ had pushed The Deadman too far, and as a result, The Undertaker had to unleash something that had been buried inside, and AJ was going to face the wrath of the ultimate version of The Undertaker.

It was excellent storytelling, and the appearance change was logically explained in total canon and lore of The Undertaker character.

Cesaro (2014)

When Cesaro randomly surfaced on WWE TV with an eye patch, fans were baffled. It looked like at first that the former US Champion had adopted a pirate style gimmick, yet it was ultimately explained that Cesaro had an eye injury, and he would temporarily be changing his look.

This was addressed to fans on commentary, as well as an official statement on WWE’s website which read:

"WWE.com has confirmed that Cesaro suffered an eye injury during his match with Kofi Kingston on Raw thanks to what WWE physician Dr. Chris Amann described as a poke from Kingston’s finger that rendered the eye red and swollen:

“We did some specialised testing and staining of the eye which showed he did have a scratch on the right side of the eye, which is called the sclera and not on the cornea, which is the clear part of the eye,” said Amann. “We’re going to keep his eye patched for the next 24-48 hours, use some artificial tears and re-evaluate him tomorrow prior to his match…”

Although the new appearance was brief, and it only served the purpose of protecting Cesaro’s eye, it did give him an incredibly unique look, and it made The Swiss Superman stand out.

Chris Jericho (2008)

Upon returning to WWE in 2007, something was missing from Chris Jericho’s presentation. Whilst Jericho was still over, and he was still performing at a high level, his catchphrases and his gimmick just wasn’t landing fully with a 2007 audience.

Therefore, following WrestleMania 24, WWE and Jericho put plans in motion that would see him turn into a heel, and completely evolve his persona.

Jericho was inspired by the Anton Chigurh character in the 2007 hit movie, No Country for Old Men, and also former NWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel.

When Jericho turned heel on Shawn Michaels and embarked in a feud of the year contender with HBK, Jericho shed the skin of his former character, and he started to wear stylish suits. It was explained that Jericho was distancing himself from everything that came before, and Jericho wearing a suit was his signal to the audience that this was a new version of Jericho.

This version of Jericho led to arguably his greatest WWE run, as he would win the World Title on numerous occasions, and everything he did seemed to click into place. Jericho was also incredibly committed to making the heel persona work, and he would never break character outside of WWE, for instance one time, he ignored a young fan and his dad in a lift, and the dad cursed at Jericho for being rude.

Mankind (1998)

Mick Foley was the king of character work during the Attitude Era, as every character that Foley portrayed was insanely over, and each of his three main central characters offered something unique to the audience.

Following Foley’s run in the main event scene as Dude Love following WrestleMania 14, WWE decided to have Foley revert to his Mankind persona. This would be a slightly altered version of the Mankind persona fans knew, as the Mankind character still wanted to impress Vince McMahon, so he decided to wear a shirt and tie for his matches. This would arguably be Mankind’s most well-known look, as he kept this look until the early 2000s. The character change would be expertly delivered by Foley, and WWE did a fantastic job explaining why Foley was wearing a shirt and tie as opposed to his prior Mankind attire.

Kane (2003)

When it leaked online that WWE were implementing plans to unmask Kane in 2003, there was immediate concern. Kane was an established character in a mask, and now WWE were going to strip that all away for a new storyline.

Kane believed that the character had grown stale in a mask, and whether this is true is up for debate, yet the concern was that Kane was supposedly severely disfigured, and WWE would have a difficult task in presenting Kane as some kind of monster without his trademark mask.

When Kane eventually unmasked on RAW, it was revealed that Kane was basically a normal guy with a messy haircut. It would be explained to the audience directly by Kane that his appearance didn’t alter in the so-called fire all those years ago, however, it did impact his mental state, as all of the damage was inflicted psychologically. This was an ingenious way of covering up the plot hole, and it was a smart way for WWE to explain why Kane looked normal to the audience.

Kane would begin to wear the mask again years later, and WWE never attempted to outright state or even imply that Kane had magically been burnt again, the burns and damage was very much presented as being a part of Kane’s psychosis, as opposed to anything physical.

John Cena (2018)

It came as a huge surprise when John Cena re-surfaced on WWE TV in 2018 with longer hair. Cena looked completely different, and he looked considerably older. Some fans would even state that Cena was delivering his best JBL cosplay, as he looked almost identical to his former WWE rival.

Cena had to grow his hair out to film a new movie, and this was explained directly to the audience, and Cena also discussed it in depth during numerous media interviews.

Paul Bearer (1997)

Paul Bearer is one of the most legendary managers of all time, and his work, particularly during the late 1990s was superb, as Bearer was given more rein to deliver character and promo work, and Bearer knocked this out of the park.

During his early years in the company, Bearer had a notorious look. He would dye his hair black, and he would use white make-up on his face to give a spooky and intimidating look.

This would all change in 1997, when The Undertaker set Bearer’s face ablaze with a fireball. Due to this fireball, it was explained on screen that Bearer needed to have facial reconstruction surgery, and once the wounds had healed, Bearer completely changed his looks.

Bearer now looked like his ordinary self, and this was clearly done to modernise the Bearer persona, as it was possible that some within WWE believed that the prior Bearer character was too cartoonish for an Attitude Era audience.

Bearer did end up bringing the iconic look back a few times over the years, and this was likely to cash-in on the nostalgia of the Bearer and Undertaker double act.

1: The Undertaker (2012)

In the lead up to The Undertaker vs. Triple H inside Hell in a Cell at WrestleMania 28, it was revealed that The Undertaker was completely broken following the WrestleMania 27 match the year prior. Despite The Deadman winning, The Game had taken him to his absolute limit, and he was a shell of his former self.

This was the time period in which The Undertaker cut off his long black locks and decided to sport an incredibly short mohawk. When The Undertaker revealed this new look inside Hell in a Cell it received an audible reaction from the crowd, as The Undertaker looked completely different, and viewers watching at the time were waiting to see if WWE offered a kayfabe explanation for the new look.

The legendary Jim Ross on commentary did a great job in selling The Deadman’s new look as he asked out loud: “what has happened to The Undertaker?”. However, in terms of the kayfabe explanation, this responsibility awkwardly fell to Jerry The King Lawler, who did an okay job with the lines fed to him. Lawler would say that he had just heard the reason for The Undertaker’s new look, which was an odd line, as it was never made clear who had given Lawler this top-secret information. Nevertheless, Lawler explained that The Undertaker had been cutting off his hair on a daily basis until The Game accepted the WrestleMania matchup. Whilst it was appreciated that WWE (attempted) to offer an explanation for the new appearance for The Deadman, this explanation was lacklustre at best. In the kayfabe world of WWE, why would The Undertaker cutting his hair off on a daily basis make Triple H accept a match? It was a bizarre explanation that didn’t enhance the story of the match, or the lore of The Undertaker. 

A smarter explanation would have been for WWE to state that The Deadman went through a physical and mental transformation heading into the match, and The Undertaker wanted to switch things up, and the new haircut was one of the changes The Deadman made. 

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