13 Times The Joker & Harley Quinn Inspired Wrestlers
From ring gear to promos, many wrestlers have taken inspiration from DC's Joker and Harley Quinn.
In the world of pro wrestling, larger-than-life characters are the norm. So how does someone stand out when everyone has a gimmick? Perhaps, you take inspiration from two of the most iconic and over-the-top characters out there: The Joker and Harley Quinn.
The Joker is arguably the best villain not just in DC Comics, but perhaps the entirety of fiction. To many, he is the epitome of merging colorful, bright and fun, with sinister, dark and scary chaos.
That popularity has extended to his primary love interest, sidekick, and adversary, Harley Quinn, who has also exploded in notoriety over the years as a beloved female equivalent of The Clown Prince of Crime.
It should be no surprise that many wrestlers pay homage to these two classic characters when searching for new characters to explore, mannerisms to pull from other sources, and even ring gear ideas.
Whether they're ripping off their classic looks, doing their best impersonations of their legendary voices, or replicating their trademark quirks, there's a lot of material to pull from.
With the upcoming release of Joker: Folie à Deux bringing the toxic couple back to the silver screen, let's look at some times when these mirthful menaces bled over into the world of pro wrestling.
13. Sting
The first and most blatantly obvious example of this would be Sting's run in TNA Wrestling where he quite literally has been dubbed "Joker Sting."
Originally, Steve Borden's Sting was a colorful babyface with short bleached blonde hair. This "Surfer Sting" era of neon tights would carry him into the 90s, until his character went on a darker path.
Inspired by the film The Crow, Sting switched up his look to a white and black vigilante in 1996. This "Crow Sting" persona was immensely popular and carried him into the next phase of his career, until it was time to switch it up again in TNA Wrestling.
After a stint as part of the Main Event Mafia, Sting began exhibiting more erratic behavior, evolving into an appearance and persona that was a heavy homage to Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight from three years prior.
Now "The Insane Icon", Joker Sting straddled the line between clowning around and a serious mission to turn the evil Hulk Hogan back to the side of good. In a way, this was similar to how The Joker's mission is perpetually to influence Batman toward insanity, but in reverse, and once Joker Sting accomplished that goal, he reverted back to his Crow Sting appearance for the bulk of his remaining career.