10 BEST Wrestling Rip-Offs
2. Hulk Hogan (Superstar Billy Graham)
Realistically, there are few performers as influential to the landscape of North American wrestling as Superstar Billy Graham, not least because of the man most tied to his traits.
Several wrestlers very obviously aped Graham's words, look, physique and even limited in-ring style - Scott Steiner, Jesse Ventura, Don Muraco, Dusty Rhodes and even the Ultimate Warrior all owe much to the package the 'Superstar' put forth - but Hulk Hogan took something that could have perceived as a tribute act and turned it into a cultural movement.
From the biceps to the brothers and the pythons to the relentless and chaotic patter, Hogan's whole presentation turned Graham's effort up to 11 at a time when America was more than ready for the amount Vince McMahon Jr was about to smush into their faces. Hulkamania was an impeccably-branded movement orchestrated by promoter and performer in perfect harmony, but the template for the persona was laid out by a former WWE Champion almost a decade earlier.