10 Wrestlers Who Piggybacked Their Way To Success
Getting over under the rug.
In WWE storylines currently, Alexa Bliss is using Nikki Cross to get ahead.
As part of her quest to capture the Money In The Bank briefcase, Alexa cosied up to the now remarkably sane Cross, and seemed to indicate that she would provide friendship in exchange for the chance to cash in on her cash in. At least, this was the idea; as many ideas are, the events of this week's RAW all but confirmed that this development has now been dropped, joining the Viking Experience, Alicia Fox, Ember Moon, the Kabuki Warriors, Lio Rush, Buddy Murphy, Eric Young, Harper, Matt Hardy, Rusev, Shinsuke Nakamura, Mickie James, Liv Morgan, Sarah Logan, Shelton Benjamin, EC3 and the entire RAW Tag Team division on the cutting room floor.
Throughout wrestling history, several opportunistic vultures have used Alexa's strategy to get over or otherwise appear on TV despite lacking any and all credentials. Some were talented and popular on their own terms before pathetically chasing the times that had passed them by. Others used familial connections to exploit the industry, proving conclusively that talent is not hereditary, only total nonstop gumption.
Others told an entire locker room to Suck It...
10. Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake
'Bruti', as he was affectionately known to Gorilla Monsoon, was pro wrestling's preeminent winnet - a performer who followed Hulk Hogan around like an actual suitcase.
That accurately describes his later years, but Beefcake was massively over throughout the Federation's Golden Era, during which time he connected with crowds on his own goofy, hammy - yet endearing - terms. The wild-eyed Beefcake created unforgettable memories of classic bad guy comeuppance by lopping the hair off his fallen opponents with an oversized pair of scissors - a prop with massive appeal to the younger audience - but he was a gimmick performer who suffered badly without the gimmick.
As the years dragged on, what was once earnest resonated as cornball, and Brutus, legally prohibited from bringing the Barber gimmick to WCW, instead opted to bring all of the other f*cking gimmicks to WCW.
All of which failed miserably. The former Beefcake played deeply unconvincing straight-laced heel characters, a totally bizarre, monosyllabic contrarian, and a man obsessed with his own ass cheeks as the Booty Man - a gimmick, somehow, that WWE deemed worthy of plagiarising.