10 Wrestlers That Only Seemed Cool When You Were A Kid

9. The Boogeyman

Where to start with the Boogeyman... Presumably, if you were a kid at the time of the Boogeyman's inexplicably long run, he must have come off as a pretty freaky character. Prior to his debut in October of 2004, the WWE would run teasers and vignettes telling of The Boogeyman's imminent arrival. These promos were pretty well made and succeeded in establishing a creepy atmosphere that left the audience curious about what they would get from this new wrestler.

What they got was a guy who ate worms and raw liver, had seemingly supernatural powers and who would, on occasion, smash clocks with his face. Why did he do this? What do clocks have to do with the Boogeyman mythos? These questions remain unanswered. What we do know about the Boogeyman is that he was portrayed by Martin Wright, who was 40 years old at the time of his WWE debut. The story goes that Wright lied about his age when applying to be on WWE's Tough Enough, which got him booted from the show. The higher ups, however, were apparently fond of Wright's overall look and thus gave him a bit of training and bestowed upon him the Boogeyman gimmick.

Given the strange path that Wright took to get onto the main roster, it should perhaps come as no surprise that he was not the most skilled ring technician. To compensate for his lack of skill, his matches were kept short and most of his onscreen time was devoted to crazy antics.

To a certain extent, you've got to admire his commitment to the character. He really did eat worms and raw organ meat, both of which apparently made him physically sick. €But just like kids eventually grow out being afraid of the mythical Boogey Man, wrestling fans eventually grew tired of this gimmick and seemed to collectively decide that the Boogeyman just plain sucked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QDhe_qdUgk

Contributor

I am a writer and stand-up comedian living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I didn't witness the Bret Hart screw job in person, but I did watch the Breaking Point PPV live and that was terrible it its own way. I am dangerously obsessed with professional wrestling and its surrounding culture. I am the current ring announcer for a local fed called the IWS. I got to introduce Tommy Dreamer a while back. My head almost exploded. I am a mark, and proud of it. I also co-host a podcast called Go Plug Yourself, which has featured quite a few local wrestlers and even Mick Foley. Speaking of the Mickster, I once got to be his warmup act when he was in town for comiccon. My head actually exploded that time. I've recovered... sort of.