15 MORE Wrestling Gimmicks That Got Weird Rip-Offs
1. The Undertaker (The Undertaker)
A gimmick lift so famous it was used to try and sell a pay-per-view main event, WWE's replication of its own intellectual (?) property in 1994 wasn't as dumb and low quality as the actual match that paid it all off.
When Yokozuna and the rest of the heel roster hurled The Undertaker into a casket at the shocking conclusion of their WWE Championship match at the Royal Rumble, the real goal behind the kayfabe one was to give Mark Calaway time off to heal some physical and personal wounds after nearly four years working the company's Killer Kalendar. It was one last big push to get Yokozuna over the top before he lost the belt to either Lex Luger or Bret Hart at WrestleMania, and a major - albeit silly - moment in 'The Deadman's career to date.
As his SummerSlam return loomed, it was Ted Dibiase rather than Paul Bearer that promoted his return after Elvis-style sightings from members of the public, but the Undertaker Dibiase unearthed wasn't all he first semed; an imposter motivated not by the love of his "creatures of the night" but cold hard cash. For a couple of months, there really were two Undertakers!
Well, there was one, but the other one played by Brian Lee did as good a job as necessary of playing the phoney 'Demon Of Death Valley' until he was actually nose to nose with the original. The contest was brutally boring - a mirror match in which every reflection was slower than the last. It killed the concept to such an extent that any positivity around Lee's portrayal was completely flushed. Whispers of a continued run in the gimmick stayed just that, and the "Underfaker" never again materialised.