Top 25 Music-Inspired Wrestling Gimmicks
Photo Credit: WWE
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It is no secret that for many years, wrestling has touched upon the use of pop culture, especially music, to expand their presence. From Cyndi Lauper’s appearance during the Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Era to the 2017 PPV name Great Balls of Fire, many promotions have used this technique and to varying degrees of success.
Throughout wrestling history also, whole gimmicks and careers have been forged from musical trends, imagery and artists – so with this, we count down the top 25 music-inspired gimmicks.
25. The Kiss Demon
WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff was notably a huge fan of glam metal rock band Kiss. With this, Bischoff pitched an idea for a latter-day WCW stable called The Warriors of Kiss. The first member introduced was The Kiss Demon, WCW powerplant trainee Dale Torborg who has the likeness of Gene Simmons. Bischoff ran far with the idea, paying Kiss $250,000 for a single performance on Nitro and promising a Kiss Demon main event. The only issue? Nobody liked or cared for it at all.
Torborg’s debut was one of the lowest rating moments in Nitro history, before he lost his debut match to Terry Funk. Bischoff left so the character fell out of favor, with his guaranteed main event being the 4th match at SuperBrawl 1999 in a losing effort to The Wall. He soon simply became ‘The Demon’, dropping the Kiss part before floundering in the lower-card before WCW ceased in 2001 with the gimmick believed to be one of WCW’s biggest blunders – up there with Sub-Zero and The Renegade.
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