15 MORE Wrestling Gimmicks That Got Weird Rip-Offs
6. New World Order (Blue World Order)
By 1996, Extreme Championship Wrestling had lost a little bit of the creative magic that had drawn almost universal critical acclaim in the years prior, but with the very real chance of the long-mooted pay-per-view on the horizon (and the doors that could theoretically open), the juices were still flowing in Philadelphia for the talent that wanted it enough.
Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie were textbook examples of those exact talents. As Raven's goons, they were on permanent interference duty for his feuds with The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer, but it was while they were locked in parody mode for half of the show that they stumbled on the idea that would serve them long beyond the very existence of ECW.
After riffing on KISS, The Fabulous Ones and others, the New World Order were next to get skewered. 'Da Blue Guy' and 'Big Stevie Cool' were joined by 'Hollywood' Nova and other hangers-on, getting over to such a degree that the homage mirrored WCW's own as something of phenomenon - albeit more localised to the south side of Philadelphia. It propelled Richards especially to a headline spot, babyfacing him and and the group to such an extent that he was part an ECW Title double main event at Barely Legal when the company finally made it to the 'The Dance'.