Characters

Scott,
Who do you think are some of the best/worst ‘casting’ decisions in wrestling history?  I mean in terms of look and personality matching the character role, nothing to do with strength of booking or push.
Example: Rick Martel as an arrogant ‘Model’ seemed a natural fit for him; Ric Flair as Joe Namath-type; Ted Dibiase or JBL as the elitist rich guy seemed like the perfect roles to get them over; Steve Austin as defiant redneck troublemaker; or Glenn Jacobs without the mask just LOOKS like a menacing killer.  Marcus Bagwell might have initially seemed like a guy who could be the all-American pretty boy, but he didn’t find his niche until he became full of himself while running from fights.
Conversely, I look at Jim Duggan’s face and see a guy who should have played a Charles Manson-type sadist, not the affable fan-favorite patriot.  Alex Wright being used as a babyface early in his WCW run never made sense to me–everything about a disco-dancing euro-trash pretty boy screams ‘heel’ to me.  Do any examples jump out at you of guys whose look/personality were either perfect or seemed better suited for another character?

Interesting you would bring up Steve Austin, because anyone watching from his debut until 1996 would not have pegged him as a hell-raising redneck in any form.  In fact, his run as Stunning Steve Austin was just as perfect a bit of casting, as the smart-ass troublemaker.  I’d almost say Goldberg would have been better “casting” in Austin’s role in a lot of ways.  So it’s a very subjective question. I would say that one of the cases of the WORST casting was the New Blood during the Russo era of WCW, where Chuck Palumbo was made into the Lex Luger mold and Shawn Stasiak was turned into Mr. Perfect, and clearly they would have been perfect in the reversed roles.  Like you’re looking for a narcissistic douchebag and you DON’T make Stasiak into that character?  No wonder they went out of business.