9 Wrestling Gimmicks Ripped Off From Video Games

7. Jimmy Jacobs (Contra)

Independent veteran Jimmy Jacobs has been through a number of aesthetic transformations down the years, from his ultraviolent take on The Berzerker and a post-Raven emo gloomster, to an unhinged rebel leader and dandy manager. He also briefly portrayed 'unwitting victim of You've Been Framed', candidly gurning alongside his Bullet Club pals. It shortened his WWE writing career considerably.

None of Jacob's wrestling gimmicks have been expressly based on one thing or the other, but many of his wrestling moves have drawn direct inspiration from video games. In the midst of his Lacey's Angels run in Ring Of Honor, the Zombie Princess introduced a new twist on Naomichi Marufuji's Shiranui to his arsenal, known as the 'Up-Up-Down-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Select-Start'. Anyone with even a slight interest in '80s gaming culture will immediately recognise that button sequence as the fabled 'Konami Code' - also known as the 'Contra Code'. The latter is what ROH's commentators' settled on.

(Coincidentally, both Shiranui and a variant of the move called the Shinobi share their names with video game characters, from Okami and, um, Shinobi respectively.)

There was one move Jacobs couldn't quite get across the line, which he deemed the '007-373-5963'. Another arcane NES reference? You betcha: that was the number frustrated Punch-Out! players could tap in to skip ahead to the final fight against Mike Tyson. They probably wished they hadn't once they tasted his gloves.