12 Most Annoyingly Effective Wrestling Musical Gimmicks
They could've just drifted away, but instead, they shake, rattled, and rolled us.
Since the days of 'The Wrestling Beatle" George Ringo, musical gimmicks have been a staple of pro wrestling. Whether they're obvious ripoffs of famous acts, or just jobbers who torture fans with their horrendous Yoko Ono-esque shrieking before staring at the lights, they're an integral part of any roster.
But they tend to get short shrift amongst wrestling fans. It's understandable why. Some of them are so transparently lame that they barely qualify as musical. DJ Gabriel never sang, he just danced awkwardly with Alicia Foxx in Finn Balor's gear and jacket. If you remove the makeup, there was nothing musical about The Kiss Demon in WCW.
And those misfires sit on the shelf alongside John Cena's rapper gimmick, the perplexing fan interaction that R-Truth's "What's Up?" somehow garnered years after it got stale, and even Johnny B. Badd, which was like Little Richard cosplay more than anything else.
So who made it work? Who managed to take this weird subculture of wrestling characterization and turn it into something that actually sparked a reaction?
Whether they were hoping for heel heat or babyface fire, the wrestlers in today's list all managed to do one thing: they used a musical gimmick in annoyingly effective fashion.
12. Michael Saxon
The comparisons to Michael Jackson have been infuriating for fans of Shinsuke Nakamura, but they pale in comparison to the actual impersonator gimmick foisted on the unfortunate Michael Saxon.
Living proof that Vince McMahon has never ever had his finger on the pulse of contemporary music fandom, this Michael Jackson ripoff jobbed his way through matches with King Kong Bundy, Big John Studd, and The Dream Team - all while making Eddie Murphy in Coming to America look like Sir Lawrence Olivier when it came to subtlety.
Why not just rename Billy Jack Haynes "Billie Jean" and team them up while you're at it?