Godfather was always one of the more popular wrestlers in the Attitude Era. What makes him so unique is that he worked in WWE for several years before discovering the gimmick that made him a massive star. When Godfather entered the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016, he said the reason his last gimmick worked was because it was who he really was.
In the previous gimmicks, he was nothing like the freewheeling and happy-go-lucky Godfather. He was a horror-centric voodoo priest, an MMA fighter, and a militant. He never could make any of those gimmicks work right, mostly because he was playing a character instead of just being himself, which was what happened when he took on the role of The Godfather.
8 The Soultaker
Godfather was really raw when he got his start, but so were most wrestlers in the business. This includes Undertaker, and both Godfather and Undertaker got their start around the same time in the USWA.
For Godfather, he was known as Soultaker, a gimmick based on one of his tattoos. He won the USWA World Championship and held it for two weeks, but he was in no way ready for that kind of title yet. This gimmick was perhaps just a sign of better things to come.
7 Kama, The Supreme Fighting Machine
When talking about his past gimmicks, Godfather said none of them felt like the real him. When it came to Kama, The Supreme Fighting Machine, it was a little like him because Godfather was a legit shoot fighter who could hold his own.
However, when it came to WWE, he was asked to be a mean and tough brawler, and was paired with Ted DiBiase as a manager. He even fought in the Brawl for All. He lasted one year with the gimmick and left the promotion in 1996.
6 WWE Hall of Fame Legend
WWE loves to have fun with several of its legendary wrestlers. When it comes to Godfather, there have been numerous moments where he has come back, and he gets a huge pop every time. Sometimes he comes in with his Ho Train, which is not as widely accepted as it used to be, but fans still seem to love it.
He also got to work with Matt Hardy on one of his cinematic specials on the WWE Network, and pulled out a bunch of old gimmicks for fun. In 2016, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame under his Godfather gimmick.
5 Papa Shango
The very first gimmick that Godfather had in WWE was his most ridiculous and over-the-top. He showed up as Papa Shango, a voodoo practitioner who used magical powers against his opponents.
WWE had regular wrestlers scared of his powers, and this worked perfectly, since he was put into a feud with the Ultimate Warrior, another fantastical character. Sadly, most of his feuds ended up canceled, and he was gone in one year. This gimmick got an inadvertent shoutout recently, when Alexa Bliss had Randy Orton coughing up black vomit on Raw.
4 The Godfather (2002)
The Godfather had a great run in WWE with his gimmick. However, he dropped in popularity thanks to the Right to Censor gimmick, and when he returned to the Godfather gimmick in 2002, it just wasn't the same.
He showed up at the Royal Rumble with the Ho Train, much to the excitement of fans, but then he only wrestled sporadically for the next six months, before he finally accepted his release from WWE and quietly retired from wrestling altogether.
3 The Goodfather
Godfather has often said he hated his time in Right to Censor, but it was honestly a great gimmick, and he was a perfect addition. Stevie Richards became Steven Richards and created a faction intent on getting the sex and profanity out of WWE, by any means necessary.
When he took former porn star Val Venis and the Ho-Train loving Godfather and added them to the group, renaming Godfather "The Goodfather", fans hated it so much. The group was a heat magnet, and Goodfather ended up in a successful tag team with Bull Buchanon, winning the titles.
2 Kama Mustafa
It wasn't necessarily Kama Mustafa that was a great gimmick. It was the Nation of Domination that was one of the best factions in professional wrestling history. The group was based on the civil unrest in the '90s, and they were a wrestling angle that had meaning far beyond just the wrestling ring.
Kama Mustafa became Godfather at the end of this, but as a part of the Nation, he was able to tell one of the best stories in wrestling during the Attitude Era.
1 The Godfather
The Godfather left the Nation of Domination and became the best he ever was. In the Nation, Farooq was the original leader and brought the group together to fight injustice from inside WWE. When The Rock took over as leader, it was about making sure he was ready to win the world championship. In 1998, they broke up, and Godfather was freed.
The Godfather dressed in colorful clothing with loud gold jewelry and took the gimmick of a pimp. He would always yell, "pimpin' ain't easy," and lead his Ho-Train to the ring, which was usually four to five scantily clad women. He was the most successful at this time, too, as he won the Intercontinental Championship from Goldust in 1999, his only singles title. This was also when he achieved his biggest win ever, a victory over Triple H in 2000.
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