15 MORE Wrestling Gimmicks That Got Weird Rip-Offs
7. The Blue Meanie (Blue Tillie)
Perhaps best known for his runs in Total Nonstop Action as one half of undercard tag team Phi Delta Slam and later Rocco (one of the Main Event Mafia's heavy-set security guards/goons-for-hire during the last days of Kurt Angle's group) James 'Big Tilly' Tilquist got to play the role of somebody else's lifetime when TNA embraced ECW's history at Hardcore Justice 2010.
The poor guy was one of the few to get booed all night thanks to the unique (and very TNA) situation where the talent were presented with copyright-proof ring names while encouraging the audience to chant the original ones. This match was a case-in-point; Tilly flanked Stevie Richards as part of a revived Blue World Order, but the bWo name and logo was for the crowd only alongside the "Justin Credible" chants that greeted Richards' opponent PJ Polaco. Tilly was billed as 'The Blue Tillie' for the night in nod to the Meanie, but also as "personal security" as a little nudge towards his more familiar role.
Like everything on the card, it was a bit of mishmash of ideas, broadly affectionate even when it was ineffective, and provided one extra payday to those that weren't otherwise guaranteed to get one. In opposition to wrestling's typically more cynical nature, this was a relatively inoffensive swing.
As was the original...