15 MORE Wrestling Gimmicks That Got Weird Rip-Offs
2. Kane (Imposter Kane)
2000s/2010s WWE is not without passing moments of brilliance, but there are good reasons why so much from the decades is paint-brushed as the worst mainstream wrestling ever promoted, and Kane feuding with a weird doppelgänger of himself in 2006 goes on the long list.
'The Big Red Machine' had lost his mind again, this time resulting in him splitting with former and future partner Big Show. The cause? The constant repetition of "May 19th", the date of WWE Films' See No Evil's release and, in kayfabe, the date of the fire that killed his parents. After week of scarcely believable acting from big Glenn, he was greeted with the sight of his old self - the Kane that first arrived in WWE in 1997.
In the weeks that follows, the mystery man in the old mask got the better of the original in a series of brawls that very loosely scanned as the "mind games" the company typically pitched when they didn't really know what they were getting at. The future Luke Gallows did a passable job in the old attire too, though a ridiculous wig undermined the look. The eventual match was, conveniently, exactly as good as a Kane Vs Luke Gallows match sounds, but WWE seemed just as bored as everybody else with it. Despite the phoney getting the win in their pay-per-view bout, Kane destroyed and unmasked him 24 hours later and the never-once-hot story was dropped cold.
A tribute within a tribute, it was in itself a weaker knock-off of a similar angle on the same family tree...