Wrestlers who legitimately scared you as a kid.

[DCLXVI]

Thread is pretty self explanatory,

what wrestlers either scared you as a kid or made you think "Oh my God, this is a real life dangerous bad motherfucker".

Cartoon or "monster" gimmicks never bothered be because I was a big horror fan... but one dude comes to my mind - Big Van Vader. More so from his WCW days, I think he was kind of misused in WWE. But Vader was the scariest wrestler I can remember from childhood.

Who is yours?

 

[gravedigger]

Kane. 97-98 Kane mind, but I was captivated by this character. He instantly became my favourite wrestler from the moment he debuted at Badd Blood in 97, but I legitimately believed he could dismantle anyone that was put in front of him.

 

[Ric 'The Nature Boy' Flair]

Undertaker. No question. Whenever I saw him I had chills. I heard his gong and I ran everytime and im not lying. He was one of the scariest people ever. Shoutout to the boogeyman too.

 

[samus500]

Definitely Papa Shango. I was like 4 when I saw him for the 1st time with the smoking skull and the face paint and the chanting...I thought he was the scariest guy ever. That and shooting sparks from his stick thing. Ill also say Kane when I was older, mainly his mask and how well Paul Bearer put him over as this monster that couldn't be hurt. Those 2 would be my picks. Honorable mention to the Ministry/Undertaker storyline

 

[conici]

It has to be heel Doink The Clown. When I was a child his facial expressions and theme song scared the living shit out of me, the way his theme drops into a dark and scary tone just completely scared me, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever been as scared of a wrestler as much as I was when heel Doink was around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE0CAFySImQ&spfreload=10 this was so fucking freaky for me.

 

[OldSchoolWrestlingFan]

There are many that I could name but most of them aren't the "cartoonish" scary gimmicks - but my top three that scared me as a kid were 1) Ox Baker 2) Abdullah the Butcher 3) Kevin Sullivan - what made them so scary to me as a child was I believed that wrestling was 100% real & these guys didn't look like something out a horror movie they all came across like psycho serial killer guys that would stalk you and skin you alive. They didn't need crazy makeup or anything to make then genuinely scary & make me tremble in my boots. Honorable mention: Jake Roberts & Heel Doink.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Martin 'Giant Haystacks' Ruane - 6'11" and 685lbs (at his heaviest) all dolled up like a monster sheepherder... one scary looking dude who regularly squashed blue eye tag teams in handicap matches. Enough to give wee tyke FF4L nightmares.

 

[Soulblazed]

I was never scared of wrestlers as a kid...I always was a huge Jake Roberts fan..I loved seeing Damien scare the shit outta plenty of wrestlers..Funnily enough, seeing how Roberts interacted with the snake made me want to get a pet snake(I never did because I never went the extra mile to get a huge terrarium, etc for a snake that size). I remember seeing Macho Man get bit by the cobra..I couldn't stop laughing, at both the crowdshots of crying kids and just seeing Savage's reaction in general..I just thought it was great TV, nothing to get scared over.

I've been an Undertaker fan since he debuted at the 1990 Survivor Series..When DiBiase announced Taker as the mystery partner, I had to have been THE only 6 year old who CHEERED Taker..Everything about Taker that made other kids cry, such as when he made his entrance made me get into his character that much more...When he locked Warrior in the casket, I wished that Warrior would've never gotten outta the casket..When Taker stuffed jobbers and The Ultimate Warrior into bodybags, I loved that as well..When Taker wrestled Kamala and Yokozuna in the Casket Matches, I loved watching those matches..

Papa Shango never scared me..I liked his "voodoo tricks" he'd use on Warrior, Mean Gene, etc I wished he had a better finisher than a Shoulderbreaker, but other than that, I liked Shango a lot..

Kane never scared me either..I thought the storyline was great and that him destroying wrestlers, using fire special effects, etc was spectacular...

 

[L@RISANO]

As a kid, probably Mankind with that hideous mask he had on and the fact that he was a fat and weird guy who did some pretty dangerous stuff. Couple that with some segments he had in the dark during his feud with taker... Creeepy....

 

[OldSchoolWrestlingFan]

I was never scared of wrestlers as a kid...I always was a huge Jake Roberts fan..I loved seeing Damien scare the shit outta plenty of wrestlers..Funnily enough, seeing how Roberts interacted with the snake made me want to get a pet snake(I never did because I never went the extra mile to get a huge terrarium, etc for a snake that size). I remember seeing Macho Man get bit by the cobra..I couldn't stop laughing, at both the crowdshots of crying kids and just seeing Savage's reaction in general..I just thought it was great TV, nothing to get scared over.

I've been an Undertaker fan since he debuted at the 1990 Survivor Series..When DiBiase announced Taker as the mystery partner, I had to have been THE only 6 year old who CHEERED Taker..Everything about Taker that made other kids cry, such as when he made his entrance made me get into his character that much more...When he locked Warrior in the casket, I wished that Warrior would've never gotten outta the casket..When Taker stuffed jobbers and The Ultimate Warrior into bodybags, I loved that as well..When Taker wrestled Kamala and Yokozuna in the Casket Matches, I loved watching those matches..

Papa Shango never scared me..I liked his "voodoo tricks" he'd use on Warrior, Mean Gene, etc I wished he had a better finisher than a Shoulderbreaker, but other than that, I liked Shango a lot..

Kane never scared me either..I thought the storyline was great and that him destroying wrestlers, using fire special effects, etc was spectacular...

Looks like somebody just had to be a part of a thread even if it meant typing the exact opposite of what the thread is about! WOW, not scared of anybody, wasn't even scared of Taker at 6 yrs old?! You always got one of them in every crowd - got to bang their chest & pretended to have nerves of steel!! Whatever makes you feel important

 

[BigBombB]

Vader, Undertaker, Psycho Sid, Scott Steiner...basically, anyone who looked crazy and who I genuinely believed WAS crazy lol

 

[Heartbreak_Kid_707]

Three come to mind as creepy...Kevin Sullivan, cause the dude litterally was psyco. He pulled his character to the limiters and pushed them beyond.

To this day, and I'm 36 now, but to this day the undertaker seriously sends chills up my arm. When you hear that gong in pitch black you can feel a chill come over the arena. Even this past Monday I got that chill..and I've met him, dudes a pretty nice guy..

Boogyman was scary in the creepy way...

 

[Navi]

I'm terrified of clowns so it has to be Doink. Everytime he showed up I turned the TV off. Don't think I've seen one of his matches yet.

Nowadays it's Stardust. Just the way he jumps on things and gets in front of people and the camera. Oh it gives me the wig.

 

[SmattyG]

For me it has to be Ox Baker. In Australia in the mid 1970s they really talked up the heart punch being banned, and how he had killed people in the ring. Downright scary to a 6yo kid. And still in my all time top 10

 

[Soulblazed]

Looks like somebody just had to be a part of a thread even if it meant typing the exact opposite of what the thread is about! WOW, not scared of anybody, wasn't even scared of Taker at 6 yrs old?! You always got one of them in every crowd - got to bang their chest & pretended to have nerves of steel!! Whatever makes you feel important

Why are you pissed at me? As a kid, I always liked morbid, demented types of things/people, etc. I'm just stating what I thought of wrestlers who mostly everyone else found creepy. I have no reason to make myself feel important..You've got no reason to bitch at me, simply because as a kid I didn't have the same reactions to Taker/Roberts etc as most other kids did.

 

[tommo1898]

For me it's Kane. I was 11 when he debuted and although I enjoyed watching him I had dreams where he would be chasing me. I had that dream at least 5 or 6 times. Kind of sad to think he used to be that fearsome when you look at him now

 

[FromGlasgow]

I have to say Abdullah the Butcher I thought this guy was a legit blood thirsty sadist, I find it difficult to watch his matches back now as they seem so bad and his wrestling skill seemed like 0 but as a young kid the scaryness level of a heel he would win, Even other better heels at the time like Dibiase, Andre, Heenan, Flair I was never scared by them or anything and part of me even still liked them even when they were against my favourites at the time.

 

[yourdamnluck]

Nobody scared me actually but kane during his initial days and taker with his ministry of darkness were real badasses. They looked like real monsters.

 

[Mustang Sally]

In the early 80's, when I was about 6, George "the Animal" Steele scared the living hell out of me. I had never seen thatches of hair that thick on a man's body....along with a bald head.....and watching him chew on ring posts and tear them apart made me think he was really an animal. He charged around the ring in blind rushes and seemed legitimately out of control.

Plus, he didn't treat his opponents very nicely, either.

 

[Hem]

I guess I didn't come from the same generation as anyone else on this thread so far.. I didn't see the original Kane when I was young and never witnessed Vadar.

When I was young and had no idea that wrestling was fake and was a little pussy, ONE MAN scared me, the Boogeyman. The whole entrance, eating worms, smashing a clock on his head, the way he walked, the paint..it was quite a scary sight to see for me.

 

[BattleCat]

Looks like somebody just had to be a part of a thread even if it meant typing the exact opposite of what the thread is about! WOW, not scared of anybody, wasn't even scared of Taker at 6 yrs old?! You always got one of them in every crowd - got to bang their chest & pretended to have nerves of steel!! Whatever makes you feel important

HAHA! Exactly. If no one scared you and you see a post asking who scared you, move on. I see his point about not being scared of things that other kids were...but at least contribute. I will explain what I thought was scary/would have been scary at another age.

I was a little old for Doink to scare me, but I can absolutely see how his music would scare a kid. I probably would have been scared if I was younger. Good one!

Papa Shango was also very creepy. But I don't know if I was too old or just enjoyed his voodoo curse angle with Warrior too much to be scared. But again, if I was younger, he would have scared me for sure.

I also wasn't scared of the Undertaker as I watched him on TV. However, I had many dreams where I was in the ring and the lights went out, the gong hit and I had to get the hell out of there. So, I guess I was subconsciously scared. Haha! But again I can see how he would scare a kid...my sister used to make me flip my WWF Magazine over so she wouldn't see his face.

Boogeyman was way too late for me, but he had a Shango quality for sure.

I will say that I was scared of The Funeral Parlor. Not Taker himself, but the whole set. The dark lighting, the smoke, the music...and the anticipation! You know how in horror movies it is scarier before the monster is on the screen? Same with Taker. Wondering if he would come out or when he would attack made me scared for Paul Bearer's guest. Once Taker emerged, I was more interested in the fight. But the waiting...that really scared me as a kid.

Nailz promos, Jake/Warrior promos, they all scared me. Oh! Earthquake's music! That did scare me. I didn't like that at all as a kid. haha!

You know what killed a lot of the suspense/fear? The bell! Taker, Quake, Doink...all these eerie entrances that made you feel uneasy or scared and then DING-DING-DING. Haha! It just took the fear right out.

But pre-bell ringing, there were some creepy dudes!

 

[The Warlord]

Papa Shango when he made the ooze come out of Warriors hair.

Also when Undertaker put Warrior in an air tight coffin...

Damn, they had some good angles for Warrior back in the day.

 

[Elchicano15]

Kamala did it for me. Scariest wrestler and gimmick, bar none. I was like 6 at the time when I first saw him. Between the freaky looking mask, his cannibal like character, and it didn't help that my brother, who's 7 yrs older than me would freak me out saying, "He eats kids so you better watch it" He had a second run a few years later, I was a lil older (maybe 10 or 11 and he still scared the crap outta me. I think it was his music that was so eerie.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Why are you pissed at me? As a kid, I always liked morbid, demented types of things/people, etc. I'm just stating what I thought of wrestlers who mostly everyone else found creepy. I have no reason to make myself feel important..You've got no reason to bitch at me, simply because as a kid I didn't have the same reactions to Taker/Roberts etc as most other kids did.

There wasn't anything wrong with your post. The question was "Which wrestlers scared you as a child?" and your answer of "none" is fine. You gave reasons for not being scared of the usual suggestions of 'Taker, Shango, Kane. Perfectly fine.

My answer would be Undertaker- the eyes rolling into the back of his head did it for me- terrifying at the time, especially added to the scary entrance music and Paul Bearer's voice during the promos. The whole character was so well done, there's no doubt in my mind it's the greatest gimmick in WWE history, and the combination of 'Taker and Bearer was perfect.

 

[CKDaimen702]

I'm going to go with Kamala. He creeped me out. The face paint, the beard, and the facial expressions....and the noises as well. It all came together to one creepy package.