10 Wrestlers Whose Weight Problems Became Gimmicks

8. Spike Dudley

Not every wrestler who doesn't fit the traditional mold is overweight. Spike Dudley - who at 5'5", 150 pounds was one of the smallest WWE superstars of all time - broke into a business traditionally known as dominated by big men and carved out a path for himself using his unique stature. Under the guidance of Paul Heyman, Spike Dudley - known as the runt of the Dudley Boys litter - became ECW's ultimate underdog. While he wasn't as scientifically talented or as agile as most grapplers his size, he was capable of taking a beating like nobody else, and that made the tiny Spike ultra-popular with ECW's hardcore audience. In one particularly memorable scene, Bam Bam Bigelow threw Spike into the crowd, and the ECW faithful caught the diminutive brawler and bodysurfed him around the arena. That became a staple of Spike's matches, and probably wouldn't have been possible with, say, Rhino. Soon, Spike became a "Giant Killer" - he would start wrestling huge men (some as large as the 600-pound Sal E. Graziano) and defeat them in seconds with his Acid Drop finishing move. When ECW closed, Spike's grit and popularity earned him a job with WWE, where the undersized everyman became a star in front of a wider audience.