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After three months of inactivity and real life getting in the way, I’m back with a new 10 Count! and what better way to celebrate the Halloween season than with a look at wrestlers masquerading as other wrestlers, be it for revenge or… yeah, it’s usually for revenge. These aren’t alter ego gimmicks, like The Yellow Dog or Mr. America, but one-time performances that resulted in a surprise unmasking post match. So read on, take your fill and let the spectacle astound you.
After having heard Buddy Landel on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast recently, and getting to know more about him other than my limited knowledge of his cup of coffee that was his WWF run, I realized he was an entertaining story teller and another tragic “what could’ve been” wrestling tale, and not just some poor man’s Ric Flair. So in honor of Buddy Landel, I figured I’d post this brief cameo of his in the movie Box of Moonlight. RIP “Nature Boy”.
Despite Dusty having more charisma in his belly-welly’s birthmark than most wrestlers, he never really hit the mainstream like his fellow 80’s cohorts, Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan, and Jesse Ventura. Although that’s not to say attempts weren’t made to have “The American Dream” use his gift to gab to sell a few goods and services via commercials.
With wrestling and cinema going head-to-head this Sunday, when WWE’s Fastlane goes up against the 87th annual Academy Awards, I figured it’d be best to provide you with the definitive ranking of the best fictional wrestlers in movie history. I tried to hold back on this list until Luis Guzman’s Aztec Warrior was finally released, as I’m sure he would’ve provided with a memorable interpretation of a luchador, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen any time soon. First, a few honorable mentions.
Having never had much of an interest in actual sports, most of my exposure to “real” sports usually came from being forced to watch with a group of friends, or by way of pro wrestling. Yes, as much as Vince McMahon hates the NFL for continually losing to them in a certain Monday Night War that occurs every football season, the WWE and other promotions have never shied away from the publicity that comes with piggybacking on the NFL’s popularity. So, I figured I’d share just how much the NFL has influenced professional wrestling over the years. Which would’ve made more sense if I had posted this the day of Super Bowl XLIX, but oh well.
While the Cold War had been a thing since the late 1940’s, it was still a pretty intense situation in the 1980’s and, most importantly, a major part of the fabric that made up a lot of 1980’s popular culture. You had Sylvester Stallone defending America’s honor against the Soviets in the best Rocky movie since the first one, Rocky IV. Even “teenage” movie heartthrobs answered the call to arms in the war against Soviet Russia in the original Red Dawn. And wrestling was no different. Always trying to remain relevant with the times, every territory had its own Red Menace, sometimes even two.
What’s wrestling without its larger than life characters? It’s the only medium outside of a comic book where clowns, space travelers, battling cats, and mythical man-beasts can all do battle in the name of good vs. evil. Sometimes those characters are so much more larger than life that they exist outside the parameters that govern the real world, and extend to the great beyond. Or somewhere great beyond adjacent. These paranormal grapplers may call upon the spirit of the dead, live off of human blood for sustenance, worship the devil himself, or just like Bray Wyatt showed us at Hell in a Cell, produce hologram images via possessed lanterns. And as cool or absurd as it might seem at first if it’s at least moderately successful, like all other wrestling gimmicks, it’ll certainly be done to death (Thank you, thank you).
Playing dress up is part of the fun of being a professional wrestler. Hell, it’s part of the fun of being a professional wrestling fan. But it’s even more fun watching other wrestlers as their rivals mocking the way they dress and/or talk. In reality, it’s not that hard to impersonate a wrestler. Pro wrestlers are relatively one-dimensional cartoon characters. They oftentimes wear the same clothes and spout out memorable catchphrases. So, in the spirit of it being October and with Halloween and all, let’s look at some of the best moments in wrestlers dressing up as other wrestlers history.
Hopefully, the recently released WWE DVD The Best of Sting gives Steve Borden the career retrospective he deserves because this movie certainly didn’t. At least they didn’t accidentally use footage of nWo Sting thinking it was the real Sting. C’mon WWE, get your shit together. Although I’m sure the new DVD doesn’t beat you over the head with strong Christian overtones like you were Mankind at the 1999 Royal Rumble. Surprisingly, under the list of producers Pat Robertson isn’t mentioned at all. Makes sense though. If this film had some of that sweet 700 Club money it wouldn’t have looked like some film school kid’s thesis project.
With the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards airing tonight, it’s only fitting that I take a look at the ten best wrestling-themed sitcom episodes in TV history. As in situational comedy. No one-hour dramas or animated shows. None of which feature Hulk Hogan surprisingly enough.
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