Welcome back to Reading Wrestling, your encyclopedia on the art of pro wrestling. Today’s entry is a complicated topic related to identity. And identity theft is not a joke, listener. Much like actors play disparate and dissimilar roles, a wrestler’s character or gimmick can change. Today, on Reading Wrestling, we’ll talk about the many faces of a single performer.

We start off talking about abrupt changes of character, the first time we saw a wrestler we knew adopt an altogether different gimmick. These character changes have a degree of amnesia, in that the performer does not acknowledge that they were once someone else.  Dave talks about the history of Scott Hall's character changes from Starship Coyote through the Diamond Stud, Razor Ramon, and finally his use of his real name. Noell talks about the evolution of Jonathan Huber from Luke Harper to Brodie Lee.  Chris raises the many faces of Fred Ottman, particularly his character change from gregariousTugboat to the pernicious Typhoon. This takes us down a rabbit hole discussing John Tenta, from Earthquake to...Golga?..and the Shark.

We move on to talking about types of character changes, including changes of character (in the sense of changing outlooks and values). Noell takes us to Miss Elizabeth (a favorite of hers) and her change from a kind of demure power in the WWF to her heel manager persona in WCW. Chris takes us to the evolution from Surfer Sting to Crow Sting. Dave tells us about the history of Barry Windham. We talk about how, as the world and dominant aesthetics changed, characters were forced to update their gimmicks accordingly.

Some wrestlers have had more character changes than others. We go around and talk about wrestlers we associate with extensive character changes. Dave gives us an extensive sketch of the career of Ed Leslie, best known for his time as Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake.  Noell brings us to Bray Wyatt's "characters within a character." Chris raises the classic example of Mick Foley's many faces, including Dude Love, Mankind, Cactus Jack, and finally the character Mick Foley, who is distinct from the man Mick Foley.

To clearly summarize, we try to clear up the question of how that guy used to be this guy but he's no longer that guy and is instead this guy. We hope you enjoy the episode, and if you don't, we can change. We can play new characters next week. You'll like those better, we promise!