10 Wrestling Parodies That Became Real

"I only make Saudi Arabia, brother! Brother!"

Parody Real HBK
WWE

Pro wrestling is ripe for parody.

Your writer loves Kenny Omega. Your writer loves the insane amount of nuance and detail he threads between television matches that too often goes ignored - and is, in fact, buried for not being the sort of 45 minute New Japan epic that cannot work on television. Your writer loves that Omega, in 2018, in such a moving and audacious storyline, shrugged at the traditions of the macho wrestling world, in which relationships are mostly only formed for the money break-up, and told a long-term story of reconciled friendship. It was a wonderful subversion of stable dissolution that generated a new strain of emotion unexplored in professional wrestling. It was lovely, where wrestling operates as the antithesis of lovely.

But then, Omega's work and his mentality is next-level.

But Kenny Omega looked a bit silly at Wrestle Kingdom 12, holding that big massive daft gun. It was a good bloody job that Chris Jericho attacked him so viciously at the immediate sound of the opening bell, because Omega's ostentatious grasp of wrestling theatre had threatened to undermine the grudge tone of Alpha Vs. Omega.

Wrestling is so daft and such a massive paradox that the, deep breath, parodies of unreal events sometimes become real...

10. The New World Order Mock The Four Horsemen

Parody Real HBK
WWE

It is as lowbrow as all hell, but you will never not pop at the sheer f*cking size of Syxx's prosthetic nose in his guise as Ric Flair.

He didn't yellow his teeth - this was phenomenally cruel, but insidiously so - but he certainly sunk them into Flair's reputation as an incoherent promo.

"You know, I'm out here screaming at the top of my lungs, and I don't even know why!"

"Flair" then summoned "Arn Anderson", played by Kevin Nash, as part of this legendary, influential Four Horsemen parody, and the detail that went into his prosthetics was just spectacular. He put more effort into this one segment than he did everything in his WCW career post-January 4, 1999.

It was like watching a power dynamic shift before your eyes; the nWo literally aged the Horsemen into retirement, the long, drawn-out, cutting, but very funny punchline of which was that the legendary stable were much too old to appear on national television and embarrass themselves with their romantic nostalgia.

Flash cut to: the mid-to-late 2010s, as the nWo did the exact same bloody thing in segments that were exponentially less funny; the barely group buried both the Ascension and the Revival, comfortably and odiously part of the boy's club establishment they once raged against.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!