15 MORE Wrestling Gimmicks That Got Weird Rip-Offs

15. The Rock & Roll Express (The Rockers)

Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty were both so athletic, so good looking, and so vital to WWE's mid/late-1980s expansion that there was never a chance they'd be confused for lesser-thans even when positioned right next to the originals.

Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson were era-defining babyfaces in the 1980s, but with WWE's promotional machine and a day-glo update, The Rockers were able to use the template to find a global audience beyond the originals.

Ricky and Robert won countless titles and engaged in fantastic blood feuds - things Shawn and Marty never managed during their 1987-1991 stint with the market leader. But suddenly, those things had never mattered less to a brand new audience. In WWE's land of the giants, The Rockers were something entirely different, and lit up shows with matches so far beyond the quality of most of their contemporaries that they looked as though they'd descended from an alien planet rather than very same territories the Rock & Roll Express had previously owned.

Superbly produced and executed, their Barber Shop split is fondly remembered by wrestling fans of all stripes as one of the greatest in the history of the industry. Just six months earlier, Ricky had turned on Robert in WCW in a story that mostly passed without mention and was undone a year later. Was this evidence that one were always more solid as a unit than the other, or a reality check that the imitators has ultimately out-stripped the originals?