10 Disturbing Backstories Behind WWE Gimmicks

Vince McMahon and the WWE have been creating content and characters for nearly 40 years now, so every gimmick you can imagine will have been contemplated by Vince and a bevvy of writers at one point or another. WWE’s conceived some complex, complicated and creepy backstories for certain talent since the ‘80s professional wrestling boom.

There have been those gimmicks that have been inspired and influenced by real-life events/personality traits of the wrestlers who portray them (amateur wrestlers, second/third generation talent, luchadors etc.) and then there have been those spawned from the depths of creative not-of-this-world fantasies from WWE writers (zombies, prisoners, minotaurs, monks, evil Santas etc.). Vince McMahon seemingly doesn’t have a preference for which style of gimmick makes it to TV, only caring if they resonate with an audience or not. He famously said regarding WWE’s outlook on the Beyond The Mat documentary: “We make movies.”

Supernatural horrors or real-life fears in society have ran rampant in the most disturbing gimmicks to ever emerge in WWE. Here, we’ll look at the 10 gimmicks with the most unpleasant and distressing backstories. Some of these roles are so twisted you’d think Vince conceived them with the same sinister bloody smile he exhibited at WrestleMania XIX.