14 Wrestling Gimmicks Blatantly Stolen From Hollywood

2. Sting - The Crow & The Dark Knight

Alexa Bliss Harley Quinn
WWE.com & Miramax Films

Sting is by far the most prominent, prolifclic and successful gimmick thief in all of wrestling, having built basically two decades of his history based on two extremely popular movies.

In 1996, Sting ditched his blonde-haired surfer gimmick for black-and-white facepaint, a black trenchcoat and long, black hair. He patently resembled Brandon Lee's protagonist from 1994's popular action movie The Crow, but Sting's crusade against the nWo was so over with fans that they didn't seem to mind much.

Sting struck again during his more recent TNA run, with his 2011 "Insane Icon" gimmick riffing on Heath Ledger's The Joker from The Dark Knight, touting simiar messy makeup and manic behaviour.

Sting just about gets away with it because he's awesome, but honestly, should fans cut him so much slack over it?

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.