We often talk about the wrestlers and promoters who have made a tremendous impact on the business as we know it. If I asked you to throw out some names of people who completely changed the industry, men like Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock, Ric Flair, Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman would all receive recognition for their contributions to the industry. But what about the men and women who never made a career out of steeping inside a ring or sitting in on booking meetings? People who approached wrestling as an outsider yet brought something to the table that made a huge impact on the business? We're not talking wrestlers, promoters or writers, but those whose contributions were brief yet substantially impactful. The list would obviously be much smaller, but nevertheless it's an important list. Without the men and women we're about to discuss, the landscape of sports entertainment would probably look quite different.
10. Cyndi Lauper
For anyone who wasn't a fan back in the 1980s, Cyndi Lauper's stardom nor her important to the business of wrestling is probably understated. Her album She's So Unusual was a colossal hit, spawning the hits Time After Time and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - the latter of which featured wrestling manager Captain Lou Albano in the video. She won the Grammy for Best New Artist along with being nominated for several other awards. Her boyfriend and manager at the time was a man named David Wolfe and he was a huge wrestling fan. Wolfe took it upon himself to engineer what became known as The Rock n' Wrestling Connection with Lauper's involvement garnering the WWE a ton of publicity. Cyndi was involved in several events for the promotion, including appearing at the inaugural WrestleMania as Wendi Richter's manager. For fans who are used to WWE bringing in lower-tier musicians like Machine Gun Kelly and Florida-Georgia Line it may be hard to fathom that they once had the biggest musical act in the world appearing for them multiple times. But it happened, and Cyndi Lauper helped stir up interest in WWE during the genesis of Hulkamania.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
