8 Wrestling Gimmicks That Were Much Darker Outside WWE

If Dusty Rhodes hadn't been just as entrenched in the industry as his son Dustin, he'd have witheringly lamented his first-born having "gone off the rails" come 1999. The younger Rhodes had spent the previous four years dragging the family name through the mud in a bid to escape its shadow as the increasingly bizarre Goldust, a gimmick which began life as an anthropomorphised Oscar statuette and gradually malformed into one of implied sexual depravity. Still, as embarrassing as that was to the American Dream over awkward Christmas dinners, it was nothing compared to Dustin's WCW stint.

Goldust was a deviant, but at least he wasn't a possible sex offender, as the Atlanta version of the gimmick, Seven, suggested. Vignettes aired on WCW TV showing Rhodes - who now resembled the Strangers from 1998 neo-noir flick Dark City - lurking outside a child's bedroom window, imploring him to get in his van. The implication was supremely icky, even if not necessarily intended.

Turner Standards and Practices agreed, and they forced WCW to drop the character pronto. The next time polka dots were mentioned at a Rhodes' family gathering, Dusty had the perfect riposte: "Well at least I was never... "