11 WWE Wrestlers Who Lived The Gimmick In Real Life

The gimmick:

Ultimate Warrior’s gimmick is somewhat difficult to pin down exactly, in part because it was such a bizarre one.

One thing’s for sure in that very few guys, past or present, could match the intensity of this face-painted, tassel-clad mountain of muscle. From the sprinting to the ring to the trademark shaking of the top rope, everything Warrior did was electricity personified.

At times he almost sounded like a motivational speaker, though admittedly a rather rambling one, as the content of his musings often touched upon spaceships, stars, the heavens and the moon. Which aren’t exactly what you’d call staples of pro wrestling…

In real life:

The Ultimate Warrior is another who could be said to have lived the gimmick in that he legally changed his real name to his ring name. In 1993, Jim Hellwig became plain old Warrior so that he’d be free to use the name for marketing purposes outside of WWE.

And then later in life, Warrior once again channeled his inner orator when he became a conservative speaker and commentator after retiring from the wrestling business. In this case though, the less said about the content of his comments, the better.