5 AEW wrestlers who successfully returned to old gimmicks

#2. "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes

Dustin Rhodes' journey has been a long one. Originally, he was billed as a promising young star in WCW known as "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes, frequently teaming with his father, the legendary Dusty Rhodes. When he signed with WWE in 1995, that's when things took a turn for the strange. Given the character of Goldust--a gimmick he embodied on and off for over 20 years--Rhodes tried his best to get the persona and its many eccentricities over. However, a gimmick as strange as Goldust's was bound to hit the ceiling at some point.

Since signing with All Elite Wrestling, Rhodes has successfully wound the clock back to his former WCW persona as "The Natural." Under his old name, Rhodes also seems to be performing at the top of his game. Though older, he's been shown to deliver great matches against everyone from his brother Cody to Sammy Guevara. Hopefully Dustin will end up winning a title within the company at some point--something he only occasionally managed to do in WWE.

#1. Jon Moxley

Looking at his past career, it's kind of amazing to see the contrast between Jon Moxley and his WWE character, Dean Ambrose. Both may have been billed as crazed lunatics known for taking extreme risks, but the sheer violence Moxley demonstrated in his early matches made Ambrose look like a lighthearted childrens' cartoon character in comparison.

When Moxley opted to leave WWE in 2019, he cited the changes to his character as the primary reason for his departure. In his view, the alterations made to Ambrose by Vince McMahon during his 2019 feud with Seth Rollins irreparably damaged the character and its value. Looking for a fresh start, Moxley returned to his old persona as the extremely violent, hardcore talent he'd become known as when he first started wrestling.