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Gimmicks based on someone else's gimmick


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Not really a gimmick, as such, but the name "The Rock" started as a play on "Stone Cold", at least on-screen. Something along the lines of "You're a stone. I'm The Rock". I remember laughing when he first said it, and thinking that it would never get over.

The Mountie was surely created solely to oppose Boss Man as well.

In WCW both Shawn Stasiak and Chuck Palumbo had gimmicks based on Curt Hennig and Lex Luger respectively, with the idea that they were the modern day versions who were going to replace the veterans.

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The original Pentagon was created as a heel version of the existing Octagon. The guy under the mask had previously done a similar gimmick as Santa Negra (heel version of El Hijo Del Santo) but that was dropped after Santo's family complained.

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9 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Would Demolition have been a thing if the Road Warriors had gone to WWE sooner?

That's a good call. The arrival of the LOD in the WWF certainly indicated that Demolition was a placeholder.

They weren't as clear a rip-off as the Powers of Pain were, though:

powers_of_pain_1.jpg

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8 hours ago, Danny Franchetti’s Jazzbox said:

Would Hornswoggle count for this subject? Bought in as a sidekick for Finlay initially, I doubt wwe had all that subsequently followed for that character in mind at the very beginning.

Another good shout. By his own acknowledgment he owes his entire WWE run to one man. Hornswoggle wasn’t for me, but you can’t say that he didn’t make the most of his opportunity.

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Slightly derailing the topic, but I’m always fascinated by how blatantly wrestling rips off popular culture and gets away with it.  A lot of the time we don’t even notice.


- Hulk Hogan - The Incredible Hulk

- Big Van Vader - Star Wars ripoff

- Sting - Sting

- Steve Austin - 6 million dollar man

- Road Warriors- Mad Max

- JBL - Dallas

- Sting - The Crow

- Mankind - Texas Chainsaw Massacre

- Sting - The Joker

 Cactus Jack was a Texan politician from the early 20th century.  Nature Boy was a Nat King Cole Song.  
 

From outside the wrestling bubble it must look odd.

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1 hour ago, Loki said:

Slightly derailing the topic, but I’m always fascinated by how blatantly wrestling rips off popular culture and gets away with it.  A lot of the time we don’t even notice.

I don’t think it’s derailing the thread at all. Sting in his best known incarnation, for example, wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for a movie.

Even in the modern era wrestling names owe a lot to pop culture. We have Dolph Lundgren and Dirk Diggler to blame for Dolph Ziggler, John Morrison/Jim Morrison, and it’s pretty clear where Apollo Crews came from. 

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15 hours ago, Loki said:

Big Van Vader - Star Wars ripoff

This one I'd dispute - the Vader gimmick, and presumably name, were concocted by Inoki, and apparently taken from a Japanese story of a samurai warrior. Given that Darth Vader was also modelled on a samurai aesthetic, it may be that they have a shared point of reference, but Vader was never intended to be a Star Wars rip off.

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