8 Wrestling Gimmicks That Totally Ripped-Off Musicians

4. The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Iaukea (Prince)

Prince Iaukea, who was not the son of the legendary King Curtis Iaukea (his moniker was given to him by WCW booker Kevin Sullivan, who was a good friend of Curtis), was a solid but rather bland and unexceptional WCW midcarder for the majority of his career.

He was by no means actively terrible or anything, but he couldn't hold a candle to the rest of the cruiserweights and other talented folk shoring up the midcard. The former WCW US Champion floated around the lower midcard before turning heel and being given a makeover in 1999.

He was repackaged as 'The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea' after '80s icon Prince, who had grown disillusioned with the music industry and changed his name to a symbol. So Iaukea came out wearing purple and copying the mannerisms of the 'Purple Rain' man. They basically nicked his act, note for note - although, obviously, Iaukea's version of 'Alphabet Street' paled in comparison.

Oh yeah, and he had a valet named Paisley (Booker T's wife Sharmell Hauffman), in honour of Prince's Paisley Park recording studios. It was, naturally, the creation of one Mr. Vince Russo and didn't lead to much success for TAFKAPI besides a token Cruiserweight Title run.