20 Wrestling Gimmicks That Got WEIRD Rip-Offs

If you're being charitable, you might refer to these as "tributes".

That's what various promoters and independent wrestlers would claim anyway. They'd say they were only paying homage to top WWE stars by mimicking their acts on shows up and down the country. There is something harmless about the humble tribute cards that still take place across the globe, but lawyers might not see it that way if the money starts rolling in and someone's making a killing by playing "CM Knight" (the world's first blend of CM Punk and LA Knight).

Wrestling has had its fair share of seriously weird rip offs and (ahem) "tributes" over the years. Some have been more blatant than others, and a few were even rubber stamped by WWE itself. They quickly realised what anybody with two brain cells could've told them during creative meetings: Nobody wants to see a crummy knock off version of your famous characters/own angles for very long, especially on episodes of Raw and on pay-per-views they're being charged cash to see.

Stars as big as Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Sting, Dusty Rhodes, The Undertaker, Kane and many, many more are all here. A few of those guys probably found parodies on the indy circuit kinda funny...if they even knew they existed in the first place.

This is a lighthearted mix of copycat gimmicks that'd get people into trouble and whimsical cosplay acts that were either independent curiosities or an accepted part of the product in the big leagues.

How's this for a whopper of a starter?

Today's indy circuit would be massive if a wrestler plodded along called 'Tribal Nightmare' Roman Cena, just saying. Seriously though, there was once a freelancer called 'Macho Warrior' Ric Hogan. Of course, he used 'Macho Man' Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan in the one name. Man, got enough main eventers in that bad boy?!

Ric showed up during the darkest days of the USWA, and it's a wonder nobody backstage pulled him aside and said: 'Yeah, you might want to rethink cosplaying four of the most famous WWF and WCW wrestlers ever lest we get sued'. Undeterred, Hogan (ahem) ploughed ahead with his plans to be the first amalgamation of 'Macho', 'Warrior', 'Nature Boy' and 'Hulkster'.

It's bloody weird to see old footage of the dude cutting promos next to a smiling Jerry Lawler down in Memphis. Apparently, nobody in that particular territory was too worried about legal action. Dig it! Little Warriors! Woo! Let me tell you something, brother! That would've been this wrestler's defensive stance in courts. Probably.

The word "seriously" was used earlier, but let's be real. There's no way to be serious about any of this. It's so blatantly rip off that all you can do as a punter is sit back and smile at the sheer cheek of it. Ric Hogan kinda looked like Mick Foley in his Dude Love guise too, so we can add that to the list of gimmicks he was cosplaying.

That one was an accident, to be fair to him. Savage, Warrior, Flair and Hogan though? Nah, he knew what he was up to.