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6. A Rated-R Makeover

Heath Slater certainly paid his dues down in WWE's developmental territories Deep South and then Florida Championship Wrestling, grafting away for four years before being given a chance on WWE's game show version of NXT and then as a member of rebellious rookies The Nexus. 

According to Slater, who now wrestles for Impact and on the independent scene as Heath, he almost didn't make it to WWE TV due to his ring name and what Vince McMahon thought was a strong resemblance to an established top star. 

Speaking with the Such Good Shoot podcast, Heath detailed how his moniker needed to be changed and a makeover was necessary for him to get a shot on WWE TV: 

"Johnny Ace [John Laurinatis] was like, 'Yeah, Vince don't like Sebastian'. I was like, 'Hell'. They were like, 'We want you to cut your hair and go to trunks too. You remind him too much of Edge'. And I'm just like, 'What the hell, man? Like, I don't want to go to damn trunks, you know? Sh*t'. 

And then, like, 'You're the one that told me to grow my hair out!'. I am confused, you know? So it's like, 'Hey, we want to bring you up here. We like you. And you're a good worker, but we want to change every damn thing about you'. 

I literally told Johnny, I said, 'Let me just use Heath. Let me be Heath Slater then'. And that's my real name, Heath, anyway, and he was like, 'Yeah, let me pitch it'. And I think they didn't even know my real name is Heath or something. I don't know. But they just was like, 'Yeah, let him use it. We like it'. So that's how I got the name, you know, with Slater".

Very strong Mr. Burns 'get rid of those sideburns' vibe from Vince, there.