AEW's Lance Archer Discusses Difficulty Of Changing Gimmicks

AEW star Lance Archer is currently known as "The Murderhawk Monster," but across his career, he had several other billed names, all with either slightly changed gimmicks or extreme deviations, which has given the veteran quite an insight into character work. 

In a recent episode of his "Hawk's Nest" podcast, Archer explained why gimmick changes are hard, especially in today's wrestling landscape. "As soon as you do one thing it's almost impossible to escape that," Archer claimed. 

He explained that because everything is documented, filmed, and produced, it's hard not to be an established character anymore, as opposed to how things were years ago. Archer used Elijah — known as Elias in WWE — as an example, when he switched to his on-screen "brother," Ezekiel, after shaving his beard and trimming his hair. 

"He tremendously did well at, in essence, being a different person, but nobody really bought it because they knew what he was," the veteran explained.

The former IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion recalled the previous gimmicks some legends had, noting how each star was able to seamlessly move past their previous personas and even eclipsed their previous characters.

"You think of some of the biggest names in the business, we were talking about Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kane, Kevin Nash, all these guys, they went through numerous gimmicks that you can find," Archer stated. "I think because of the era, even though most of that stuff was on TV, it wasn't just so easily accessible as it is now, all the time, and so I think it's harder to move past, kind of, a gimmick."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Hawk's Nest" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.