10 Wrestling Gimmicks Handed Down To Other Wrestlers

6. The Nature Boy

It's actually wild to think that Ric Flair lifted his timeless, iconic character from somebody else.

'Nature Boy' Buddy Rogers got in there first. He'd been calling himself 'Nature Boy' since the 1950s when Flair copied the guise in the mid-'70s and began patterning himself after Rogers. It seems ridiculous to think now, but Ric borrowed Buddy's flash look, mannerisms and finishing move (the Figure Four) to create his own legacy.

The fun didn't stop there. In the '80s, Buddy Landel followed Ric's lead and started using the 'Nature Boy' moniker himself. This has often been considered less forgivable than Flair's encroachment of Rogers' original character, if only 'cause Ric was such a household name worldwide when Landy bleached his hair and effectively became Flair 2.0.

As a result, Landel became known as a cheap knock-off. Meanwhile, real duplicate Ric Flair went on to make the 'Nature Boy' handle his own. When pro wrestling fans hear that name today, they think of Flair, not Buddy Rogers or Buddy Landel.