5 characters we never saw but helped WWE ratings crazily
Sometimes not seeing is believing...
At the end of the day, regardless of how many people wag an accusatory finger at the WWE for misusing talent, Vince McMahon would tell you it’s all about the ratings.
If having John Cena indiscriminately bury every challenger puts more bottoms on couches in front of the TV screens than letting other Superstars have a bite of the cherry, then that is exactly what Vince – unabashedly – will do.
John Cena is one thing, but Vince’s unending hunger for ratings has seen him experiment quite vividly with other characters too. Sometimes that involves having a Superstar enact a ridiculous gimmick that he is ill-suited for but sometimes, it may also be something quite... out there, to say the least.
Characters that aren’t there, and yet, have somehow managed to entrench themselves into folklore having impacted WWE programming in indelible ways. Characters that are little more than figments of imagination, and yet, a very realistic part of story arcs. Characters that were voices in someone’s head, but ended up puppeteering them all the same.
This listicle is about those characters. Without further ado, join us as we plunge into WWE’s world of the weird, bizarre and – in a manner of speaking – downright genius.
Here then are 5 characters that we never saw, but helped boost WWE ratings crazily.
#5 Little Johnny
Heidenreich will go down as a notable character in WWE history – but for all the wrong reasons.
He couldn’t wrestle to save his life, he worked a distasteful homosexual storyline in which he pinned Michael Cole up against the wall and practically violated him and if that wasn’t bad enough, he was also involved in a creepy angle where he took orders from a voice in his head known as Little Johnny.
According to an interview that he did later on, he even went on to reveal the origins of this mysterious character.
Having been bullied by other kids for being fat, Heidenreich developed an inner voice to go with his rough exterior as he grew up. Physically he may have matured into quite a specimen, but mentally, Little Johnny still clung on to the scarred and disturbed kid inside of him.
Even in the realm of psychology, that’s just straight up messy.
Needless to say, Heidenreich and Little Johnny were soon written off WWE television for good and many were glad to see their backs. Overall, not one of the WWE’s finer creative moments.
#4 Little Jimmy
The name “Little Jimmy” may have been a spin-off from the “Little Johnny” character, but that’s where the similarities between R-Truth’s imaginary friend and Heidenreich’s sinister puppet master ended.
Where Heidenreich’s tormentor was sinister and angst-driven, Little Jimmy was a comedic shtick for the most part. Even till date, it’s easily been the highlight from an audience standpoint of R-Truth’s WWE career.
Often accompanying his friend to the ring, Little Jimmy’s exploits were so well enacted by Truth that people started looking forward to his segments each week. In a career that has spanned two decades, the unlikely (but imaginary) pairing of R-Truth with Little Jimmy remains one of his most convincing tandem acts.
And considering that he’s been in all sorts of oddball teams with likes of the Miz and of late, Goldust, that’s saying something!
#3 The Anonymous Raw GM
Yes, we do realise that Hornswoggle was eventually revealed as the Anonymous Raw GM... except for the glaring fact that the diminutive wrestler was on the Blue brand for large durations of the angle.
And as such, no one in their right mind actually believed that it was him anyway.
Hand in glove with the holier-than-thou heel persona of Michael Cole, the Anonymous Raw GM was directly responsible for many of the cringe-worthy and unpopular on-screen decisions from 2010 to 2011.
More likely a result of the lack of creative ideas for an Authority figure on Raw, the whole Anonymous Raw GM concept took a life of its own as it wore on, what with the laptop set up on a pedestal and the annoying text message alarm sounding whenever a babyface needed screwing over.
Going beyond the heelish feel of the angle, however, it was quite a smart move by Vince to let it play out.
It's one of those that people will remember years on, purely for the originality of thought behind it, in an era of programming that was otherwise earmarked by repetitive staleness.
#4 God
Expect Vince McMahon to book himself against God and have a good laugh at the looks of incredulity on the faces of the audience. Of course, for all the positive slants to Vince McMahon’s storied tenure as the WWE supremo, his humility has never really bothered the history books.
Perhaps it was a deep-rooted desire of his to pit himself against God, or just a distasteful mockery of Shawn Michaels who had returned to WWE having found faith, but there were more than a few eyebrows raised when it was announced that Shawn Michaels would team up with God and take on Vince and Shane at Backlash 2006.
The ludicrous storyline came about when Vince blamed an ‘act of God’ for his loss to Michaels at WrestleMania 22, not the fact that he was a 60-year old man who was up against a much more dexterous opponent.
And that’s not even the best part.
When it came down to the actual match, not even God could help Shawn Michaels win.
#5 Sister Abigail
Although Randy Orton burning down the Wyatt compound on Sister Abigail’s remains made for riveting television, not a whole lot of time elapsed before Erick Rowan posted a cryptic picture on social media, of a girl in a sheep’s mask.
Normalcy, and the hunt for Sister Abigail it would seem, continue.
Unlike any of the aforementioned imaginary characters though, Sister Abigail is enmeshed with the Bray Wyatt character – as the source of his necromancy, the namesake of his finishing move and perhaps, even his Kryptonite.
It’s been given life through numerous references made by Bray, to the point where I wouldn’t at all be surprised if the WWE actually brings onboard someone to play the character when the time is right.
Until then, however, regardless of how many high profile matches Bray loses, his gimmick will still cling on to some measure of mystique as long as the foreboding aura of Sister Abigail permeates the WWE Universe.
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