10 WWE Gimmicks Which Ripped Off Real People

2. Jackyl - Dave Koresh

RVD Jean Claude Van Damme
WWE/By McLennan County Sheriff's Office. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Current Impact pen Don Callis is gracefully maturing into a dead ringer for the revivified Michael Keaton, but once over he was a double for cult leader David Koresh.

After actual South African The Commandment stepped down from helming the Truth Commission, the pretend South Africans dropped the outdated apartheid schtick as they were brought under the thumb of The Jackyl. Perennial WWE voice Jim Ross was keen to remind viewers that Jackyl was WWE's answer to Koresh - the leader of the Branch Davidians sect who believed himself to be the final prophet. The pair spoke in similarly messianic tones - and their ambitions were just as oblique.

The avant-garde Callis wanted to do more with the persona than simply cosplay Koresh. He pitched an elaborate angle outside the Branch compound in Waco, TX, where the cult leader and almost 80 of his paramilitary adherents had perished in a police siege. The plan was to whip up a furore with his cultist rhetoric, to the point where police would become involved. Unsurprisingly, creative said no.

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Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know). He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.