10 WWE Gimmicks That Seriously Took The Piss

5. Akeem

Daniel Bryan Michael Cole
WWE.com

Vince McMahon just loved taking the piss out of Dusty Rhodes, and he wasn't afraid to get racist and take the piss out of one of his wrestlers to do it.

Not content with calling Ted Dibiase's manservant Virgil as a knock at 'The American Dream's real first name, McMahon took the One Man Gang and turned him - via Slick and a f*cking weird transformation ceremony - into 'The African Dream' Akeem.

There was marginally more to the gimmick beyond the joke at the expense of two separate performers, but Gang had been a fairly proven commodity in his old role before he was given this very of-the-time Sports Entertainment makeover.

A partnership with the Big Boss Man made him a warm body for Hulk Hogan to hammer on the odd occasion, but it was hard to take the rugged giant as seriously the second he donned the dashiki and...danced about a bit.

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett