10 WWE Gimmicks Which Ripped Off Real People

Once over, WWE's superstars were billed as comic book heroes made flesh, larger than life characters who simply shouldn't be able to exist in reality. New recruits were scoured based on Vince McMahon's 'airport test' - anyone who turned heads browsing the luggage carousel could be counted on to sell tickets. The more unbelievable, the better.

You'd imagine then, in a world where undead morticians and interstellar warriors in day-glo tassels were par for the course, that the company would have no reason whatsoever to draw influence from the outside. WWE was a world unto itself - anything outside its auspices surely couldn't fit.

Except the real world has a habit of throwing up unimaginable characters of its own - ones even the wrestling business couldn't possibly devise. It's never been shy about stealing them though - why strain your brain coming up with sell-able ideas when they're already there in the literal public domain?

The only explanation for WWE's persistence with trying to make the deathly-dull Charles Wright a "thing" was his friendship with The Undertaker. The one-time voodoo practitioner and Bone Street Krew boy was turned into an MMA supremo for attempt two, based not any legitimate fighting skills, but the vaguest of resemblances to UFC bruiser Kimo Leopoldo.

The latest scrape of the barrel did little for the newly rechristened Kama. The gimmick had no potential to shoot Wright into the stratosphere, and all the potential to undermine 'fake' wrestling. In the end, it did neither; thankfully, the 'Supreme Fighting Machine' didn't use his prowess to punch through his phony challengers, but instead stole an ornamental urn. He eventually struck gold with a feathered cap and a train of women of negotiable affection. It only took seven years.