To be fair, outside of Taker and Kane (and they had a certain something to them), "darker" characters have never really worked in the WWE (the likes of Mankind, Edge, and Christian got much more popular when they started acting more like themselves and less like horror movie characters), but that's no reason to fire them, just give them different characters or even better, let them just act like themselves.
EDIT: Also, if this is true, then explain Danhausen.