10 WWE Gimmicks Saved By The People Playing Them

8. The Honky Tonk Man

He's got long sideburns and his hair's slicked back, he's coming to your town in a pink Cadillac. He's just The Honky Tonk Man, an overblown Elvis Presley impersonator who could realistically have tanked had the man playing the role not understood how to get under people's skin. Take a bow, Roy Farris.

The template for every cowardly heel who followed in WWE, Honky recognised that he could get mileage out of talking a good game then scraping through matches by the skin of his teeth. This is why he's considered one of the best Intercontinental Champs of all time, not because his matches were good (for the most part, they were nothing to write home about).

Had someone else been thrust into the phoney Elvis role, things may have been very different. It's hard to see anyone taking the same approach as Farris, or launching themselves head first into a gimmick that would irk those outside the WWF's carnival.