7 Wrestlers Who Were Blatant Knock-Offs

Jack Pfefer was a highly successful promoter in the early days of wrestling, but he made himself into a pariah in the 1930s by giving journalists details about how matches were "fixed." He did this because he felt other promoters were trying to limit his influence, but as anybody but Pfefer himself could've predicted, it only made his life harder.

By the 1960s, Pfefer was still promoting wrestling events in Chicago but was finding it impossible to get major stars to appear. Pfefer figured if he couldn't book the big names, he'd book names that were like the big names. I mean that literally - he started promoting wrestlers with names just one or two letters different from those of major stars.

If you were a fan of Bobo Brazil or Buddy Rogers, for example, Pfefer hoped you'd pay to see Hobo Brazil or Bummy Rogers. He even promoted a guy named Bruno Sanmartino, a name so similar to the real thing that you probably had to read it twice just now to make sure. Unsurprisingly, Chicago fans grew tired of Pfefer's antics, and it was years before wrestling became profitable in the Second City again.