The professional world of wrestling has a lot to offer. Throghout so many years of the sport, with so many fedarations that made history, and with how popular pro-wrestling still is today, there certainly have been both many amazing, and awful characters. This list takes a look on some of the world’s strangest ideas for wrestling gimmicks. Some of them too over-the-top and some just plain and random. Here are some of world’s worst ides for wrestlers.
The Boogeyman
Content Summary
Extremely strange and badass at the same time. WWE’s Boogeyman truly looks like an old-school Yu-Gi-Oh card. He wore black and red make-up that made him look a bit like Darth Maul from the Star Wars franchise. The Boogeyman would appear out of nowhere and breed fear in his opponents at his sight. He carried a huge clock that he would occasionaly smash against his head, but his strangest gimmick was his diet. The Boogeyman’s food of choice? Live worms. Now that’s both scary, cool and very odd.
Bastion Booger
Can’t get much weirder than Mike Shaw’s WWF character – Bastion Booger. His gimmick? Being as gross as humanly possible. Bastion Booger was an absolute glutton on the ring. He would often stuff his mouth with greasy foods like pizza before engaging in a fight. His clothing only added to the strange gimmick. The whole character just felt like a non-scottish version of Fat Bastard from Austin Powers 2. This makes Bastion Booger one of the weirdest wrestlers of all time.
The Dog
Al Green had a lot of gimmicks in WCW. His weirdest of them all being The Dog. A simple name and a simple gimmick. This wrestler acted like a dog. During his entrances some guy would walk him down to the ring on a chain-leash and he even got caught drinking water from the toilet during a promo. Now that’s quite odd.
Donald Trump
Was Trump’s appearance on the WWE really something you can count as a wrestling performance? Not exactly, but he did deliver a nasty clothesline to Mr. McMahon, as well as pushed him over a table during contract signing. Seeing Donald Trump’s cameo wasn’t as odd back then, when he was regarded as a showbusiness personality rather than a political one. Watching Trump smack Vince McMahon down to the ground next to the ring after his presidency ran a full course, is much stranger sight than it used to be when Wrestlemania 23 first aired on American television.
Watch the contract signing between Trump and McMahon here.
The Moondogs
WWF’s wrestling stable, the Moondogs was something truly from another planet. Or a moon? Over 30 wrestlers throughout 40 plus years borrowed the moniker of a Moondog. The most recognizable ones probably being Moondog Rex and Moondog Spot (depicted above). The Moondogs would wrestled in torn-up jeans and no shirt. They sported their signature beards and longer hair as well as would carry animal bones. The bones were used both as a weapon and a snack during the fight. As odd as this gimmick sounds, you can’t take away from the fact that it was also quite badass.
The Repo Man
A wrestler whose gimmick is that he his also conman. Dressed like a mix between a stereotypical french burglar and a sexual offender. His signature attribute? A metal hook on a rope, probably for “reposessioning” cars. The Repo Man would say that “he is no thief”, but he was literally that, a thief. That’s about as far as this gimmick went. One of his most memorable moments was when he nicked a hat off of Macho Man. What a “smooth” job that was, huh?
The Shockmaster
The Shockmaster has got to be the WCW’s most memorable, awful character. A stout, barely clothed guy who had a shiny, glittery stormtrooper helmet on. He would also put on a growly voice, kind of like Darth Vader’s. But his appearance wasn’t the worst part of the character. It was in fact his debut in the world of wrestling. He was supposed to go through a thin wall to surprise his new rivals, but managed to fall flat on the floor and lost his helmet for a moment. Everything becomes even better after he tries to ignore what happened and starts threatening his opponents in his low, guttural voice. It is hard to believe that this goof, was supposed to be a serious, character that was supposed to induce fear in his enemies.
Behind the mask of the Shockmaster is Fred Ottoman, who is actually a very postive person and is just happy that he got to make many fans laugh at is first entrance. Even though, at that time, it must have been very embarrasing for Ottoman, he doesn’t seem to regret completely botching his debut.
Glacier
Yet another WCW star. Glacier was a character inspired by the video-game Mortal Kombat. Glacier’s look was styled after the Sub-Zero character from this classic arcade combat game. His look was supposed to give off a feeling of coldness. The WCW crew would even bring out cool-blue lights to create a chilling atmosphere in the ring. And thanks to this much thought and preparation, the character almost worked. Unfortunately, the entire look and style of Glacier screamed “bootleg”. It was quite hard to watch a wrestler copy the moves and act like a video-game character.
Joey Ryan
Joey Ryan’s gimmick was strange to say the least. Definetely not the worst idea for a wrestler, like the Shockmaster, but more than odd. Ryan’s career was full of success. He appeared in the WWE, Impact Wrestling, Independent Circuit and RoH among others. While in the ring, he played quite a perv. His signature move, was his DONG style manourve. It consisted of his opponent groping Joey Ryan’s crotch, just to be flipped and sent back down to the floor of the ring. Weird? Yeah, but oddly enough, quite entertaining to watch. All of this however, gets even stranger when you take into account his rather recent sexual misconduct allegations. Makes you wonder if Joey even played a character while performing?
Aron Wake
You’d be surprised how many goofy and weird characters you could find in the niche world of European wrestling. Polish PTW offers an interesting mix of their own wrestlers and other European and American stars. Among others, they have featured Marty Scrull, Matt Sydal and Nick Aldis. But trust me when I say that there are some hidden gems amidst their original characters. The one that struck me as the wrestler with the weirdest gimmick idea, is Aron Wake – the pokemon trainer. That’s right, this pro-wrestler sports a hawlucha on his pants (a luchador pokemon), and his opponents fear of being caught in a pokeball. You have some catching up to do when it comes to European wrestling, don’t you agree?