10 Ridiculous Wrestling Gimmicks That Shouldn't Have Worked (But Did)
7. I.R.S.
Father to Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas, Mike Rotunda enjoyed a long, successful wrestling career with WWE, the NWA, and a host of others. Though it’s best not to mention his spell as WCW’s Michael Wallstreet, his 1991 WWE re-debuted brought the most memorable character of his career: I.R.S.
Another of the “secondary occupation” gimmicks that WWE loved to employ at the time, Irwin R. Schyster was a former IRS tax collector from Washington D.C. His act largely involved framing fans and wrestlers as tax cheats, then attempting to bully them into paying their fair share. The idea that a previously office-bound finance professional would suddenly abandon his 9-5 to take his frustrations out on professional wrestlers sounds laughable even today, but I.R.S. was a big success.
Comprising one half of Money Inc. with Ted DiBiase, I.R.S. became a WWE Tag Team Champion on three separate occasions. Aside from this, Schyster can lay claim to being the only wrestler to ever defeat the Legion of Doom for the gold more than once, though his fortune started fading after DiBiase’s 1993 retirement.
He was never going to be a world title-level threat, but I.R.S. was always taken seriously in WWE’s midcard, and left fans with a host of memorable rivalries against the likes of Bret Hart and Razor Ramon.