8 Wrestling Gimmicks Based On Serial Killers
4. The Stalker (Richard Ramirez)
Barry Windham's main run in the WWF was a short-lived experiment in 1996. Wearing camouflage gear and face paint, the former NWA United States Champion revealed his new gimmick through a series of introductory vignettes in the summer of 1996.
The WWF's mindset must have changed between the filming of those segments and Windham's debut as The Stalker; coming across like an opportunistic heel who would prey on his opponents in the vignettes, The Stalker was more of a fan-friendly character by the time he started working matches on television.
In those initial pre-taped segments, The Stalker was more like a cartoonish WWF take on the infamous Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as 'The Night Stalker'.
Between 1984-85, the psychotic Ramirez stalked numerous people, invading their homes late at night to rape and murder. Naturally, those subjects weren't fitting for mid-90s wrestling television, but Windham's original character did seem to suggest that The Stalker would hunt his rivals and terrify wrestlers in the company once he got his hands on them.
Thankfully, the promotion abandoned any other ties to Ramirez, and The Stalker character itself was abandoned just a few months later.