Wrestlers based on real people or pop culture icons.

d_henderson1810

Mid-Card Championship Winner
What wrestlers have gimmicks which can be linked to a particular person?

For example, when I first heard that Johnny Nitro had changed his name to "John Morrison", I thought "What a generic, bland name". Then I saw him come out with his new gimmick and immediately got it. He was called "John Morrison" because he now looked a lot like Doors frontman, Jim Morrison.

What other examples, past and present, where wrestling characters have been based on either real people or pop culture (e.g. movie or TV) characters?

Here are some I can think of.

John Morrison- Jim Morrison
Bray Wyatt & The Wyatt Family- based off the cult The Manson Family, with Bray as a nod to Charles Manson.
Adam Rose- Russell Brand
Lana- Drago's manager in "Rocky IV"
Damien Sandow- numerous people.

Any others?
 
Rob Van Dam always put me in mind of Jean Claude Van Damme to some degree. While he used a different spelling of his name, he looked pretty similar to Van Damme, and still kind of does really. But when VD was younger, he & RVD had similar facial features, he's a long time proponent of fitness & bodybuilding, he's had extensive martial arts training in his younger days that's led to his ability to do splits becoming a trademark like the actor.
 
Probably because they are related

No they aren't. Jean-Claude Van Damme's real name is Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, RVD's real name is Robert Szatkowski. He initially used the name "Van Dam" in wrestling because of his similarity in looks to JCVD.

The first one that jumps to mind for me in this topic is Kid Kash. In ECW, Kash's entire gimmick was based on looking like the singer Kid Rock. The name "Kid" was added to his name for this reason (the "Kash" is from his real-life surname "Cash"). He even used Kid Rock's song "Bawitdaba" as his entrance music, and dressed in a similar way as Rock did during his "Devil Without A Cause" era.

[YOUTUBE]Dt_aYKPVCt8[/YOUTUBE]
 
Honky Tonk Man = Elvis
Disco Inferno = Tony Manero
Razor Ramon = Tony Montana
Million Dollar Man = Vince McMahon (haha)
 
Van Hammer seemed to be trying to be David Lee Roth. Shawn Michaels seemed to be a Bret Michaels tribute. Was Brother Love a takeoff on Jim Bakker? That's all I got for now. This topic feels spammy.
 
How has nobody said Sting

93ae2849ff2d3a9dceac007889c14462.jpg


It's a well known fact Sting was inspired (or ripped off depending on how you look at it) The Crow starring Brandon Lee

the-crow-400-80.jpg


I don't know that much about Surfer Sting but I know he was a colourful character who was relatively upbeat.

Fast forward to Crow Sting. He's dark, brooding and hangs around in the rafters. Similar to how in the movie The Crow would stalk his victims.

And let's not even get into Joker Sting
 
You guys remember Paul Burchill? He had this goofy pirate thing going on that was inspired by a very well-known movie and franchise? Possibly a Disney favorite among troubled teenage women the world over? Anyone know what I'm talking about? A particular famous pirate of the high seas perhaps?


Captain Hook. The answer you're looking for is Captain Hook.
 
Paul Heyman started out as Paul E. Dangerously, because of his resemblance to Michael Keaton's character in Johnny Dangerously. A young Heyman sort-of looked like a young Keaton, but the divergence since that is remarkable.

There are always the joke/parody characters, like Gillberg, but let's discount them.
 
I'm not sure if it counts because it was the same guy playing the role but they brought in the guy to play Zeus after he was in that movie with Hogan. Granted it didn't last long.

Didn't someone dress up as Braveheart for a night?
 
How has nobody said Sting

93ae2849ff2d3a9dceac007889c14462.jpg


It's a well known fact Sting was inspired (or ripped off depending on how you look at it) The Crow starring Brandon Lee

the-crow-400-80.jpg


I don't know that much about Surfer Sting but I know he was a colourful character who was relatively upbeat.

Fast forward to Crow Sting. He's dark, brooding and hangs around in the rafters. Similar to how in the movie The Crow would stalk his victims.

And let's not even get into Joker Sting

Thank goodness WCW never did an angle where Sting is shot. We all know how that ends up.
 
You guys remember Paul Burchill? He had this goofy pirate thing going on that was inspired by a very well-known movie and franchise? Possibly a Disney favorite among troubled teenage women the world over? Anyone know what I'm talking about? A particular famous pirate of the high seas perhaps?


Captain Hook. The answer you're looking for is Captain Hook.

I thought he was based on Jack Sparrow from "Pirates Of The Carribean".
 
Mad Max is probably the movie that's had the most influence on the wrestling business. The Road Warriors, Demolition, Chris Jericho's "Ayatollah Of Rock N' Rolla" nickname, Sid Vicious' "Lord Humungous" character, I think WCW once booked a Thunderdome match, and a lot more.

As for others:-

Nation Of Domination - Black Panthers
Waylon Mercy - Max Cady
Glacier - Sub Zero
Mortis - Shao Khan?
Samuel Shaw - Dexter/Patrick Bateman
Zack Ryder/Robbie E - The Situation
Super Leather - Leatherface
Jason The Terrible - Jason Voorhees
New Jack's name after New Jack City
 
I've always thought John Cena was supposed to be Mark Wahlberg.
Both are from Boston.
Both started out as rappers.
Marky Mark modeled underwear and had the Funky Bunch. John Cena wore short trunks in his early career and had B-Squared.
Mark Wahlberg became a legitimate A-list actor. John Cena is a 15 time Heavyweight Champion.
Mark Wahlberg has a Youth Foundation charity. John Cena is huge with the Make a Wish Foundation.

I also think Ben the soldier from It's Always Sunny in Philly is supposed to be a John Cena spoof.
Ben was introduced in the wrestling episode.
Ben was believed to have been a soldier fighting Iraq... but it turns out he's a techie for military.
Ben ALWAYS wears the jean shorts Danny DeVito gave him.
Every episode of Always Sunny that Hot Rod has appeared in has also included Ben.
Ben is a really nice guy.
 
Mad Max is probably the movie that's had the most influence on the wrestling business. The Road Warriors, Demolition, Chris Jericho's "Ayatollah Of Rock N' Rolla" nickname, Sid Vicious' "Lord Humungous" character, I think WCW once booked a Thunderdome match, and a lot more.

As for others:-

Nation Of Domination - Black Panthers
Waylon Mercy - Max Cady
Glacier - Sub Zero
Mortis - Shao Khan?
Samuel Shaw - Dexter/Patrick Bateman
Zack Ryder/Robbie E - The Situation
Super Leather - Leatherface
Jason The Terrible - Jason Voorhees
New Jack's name after New Jack City

I actually think that Nation Of Domination is based on the Nation Of Islam, a black supremist group.

Faarooq dressed like the leader of the Nation Of Domination, Louis Farrakkhan.
 
I've always thought John Cena was supposed to be Mark Wahlberg.
Both are from Boston.
Both started out as rappers.
Marky Mark modeled underwear and had the Funky Bunch. John Cena wore short trunks in his early career and had B-Squared.
Mark Wahlberg became a legitimate A-list actor. John Cena is a 15 time Heavyweight Champion.
Mark Wahlberg has a Youth Foundation charity. John Cena is huge with the Make a Wish Foundation.

I also think Ben the soldier from It's Always Sunny in Philly is supposed to be a John Cena spoof.
Ben was introduced in the wrestling episode.
Ben was believed to have been a soldier fighting Iraq... but it turns out he's a techie for military.
Ben ALWAYS wears the jean shorts Danny DeVito gave him.
Every episode of Always Sunny that Hot Rod has appeared in has also included Ben.
Ben is a really nice guy.

I actually saw a music clip of "Good Vibrations" by Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch, and I am 100% convinced that John Cena modelled his "Dr Of Thuganomics" gimmick off Marky Mark, not Vanilla Ice, like some thought.
 
Steven Richards of RTC = L. Brent Bozell of the PTC comes to mind.

I agree that John Cena is based on Marky Mark.

I would also argue that both Waylon Mercy and Bray Wyatt are based on Max Cady.
 
If you're Christian, John Cena = Jesus.

You'd be surprised by how much in common they have.
 
John Cena is like Superman, or a modern day version of Hulk Hogan.

1) Cena & Hogan both have less than five moves.
2) Both cut crappy, nonsensical promos
3) Both cater to children and are goody-two shoe characters.
4) Both wear loud, gaudy clothing
5) Both overcome their opponent, again and again, main event all the time.
6) The belt gets put on them all the time, even when it is someone else's time
(e.g. Hogan stealing Bret's spotlight at WM9, Cena numerous times).
7) In both cases, Vince was reluctant to turn them heel.
(Hogan had to go to WCW to go heel, and then came back to WWE as a heel, but turned face again soon after).
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
174,846
Messages
3,300,825
Members
21,726
Latest member
chrisxenforo
Back
Top