12 Gimmicks WWE Ripped Off From Horror Movies

It's that time of year again - time when the ghosts and ghouls, freaks and weirdos hit the streets. It's Halloween, in other words. Of course, in the WWE, freaks and weirdos are always present, in the form of various gimmicks. While some professional wrestling gimmicks are extensions of the performers who portray them, others look to Hollywood for inspiration. And that's putting it nicely. Some are pretty blatant rip offs. Case in point: the WWE's Paul Burchill doing a very obvious (and very poor) Jack Sparrow impression after the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise took off. That wasn't so much an homage as cashing-in on something trendy (pirates) at the time. Savvy or shameless? Yet there's one genre that seems to be a frequent favorite, revisited more than any other by professional wrestlers seeking inspiration: that treasure trove of miscreants and maladjusts, the horror genre. Literally dozens of wrestlers over the years have taken inspiration from horror films, many of which can be found in the rank and file of the WWE past and present. Several are still active at the top of the business today, in fact. From psychotics to masked maniacs and everything in between, here are twelve WWE gimmicks that were clearly ripped-off from horror movies.