8 Wrestling Gimmicks That Totally Ripped-Off Musicians
1. Honky Tonk Man (Elvis Presley)
He's cool! He's cocky! He's a bad Elvis impersonator!
The greatest Intercontinental Champion of all-time rose to fame as a member of the WWF roster during the aptly named 'Rock 'n' Wrestling' era in the mid-1980s. Initially pushed as a fan-favourite, Honky's grating ways would soon necessitate a heel turn.
It may come as a surprise, considering how well he portrayed the character, that the idea of being an Elvis impersonator was not Honky Tonk's own. Speaking with chinlock.com in 2014, he said that it did not come from him and that it was actually a result of the fans;
"Some wrestling fans mentioned to me about doing this Elvis thing and I said, ‘Of course not, I like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.' I grew up in Memphis and we were force fed these movies of Elvis, so it was not something I wanted to do.
The next thing I know, they brought me a jumpsuit to the matches and gave it to me for a Christmas present. One of the promoters, his name was Robert Fuller - he was Col. Parker in WCW days - he said, ‘Heck man, why don’t you take a guitar out there and hit these guys over the head with it man, we’ll see what happens?’ Next thing you know we got a guitar and we’re hitting people with it and that’s how it all started."
He fine-tuned the gimmick in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling for a couple of years before moving to the WWF, where he'd enjoy a lot of success with the gimmick. A lot of wrestling gimmicks cribbed from the music world are utter dross, but this one was pretty damn good.
It worked, there's no disputing that.