As the wrestling world started to transition to the Sports Entertainment world we fans have come to all know and love - it was a bit of a trial and error process to see which gimmicks might work. Similar to now too, but with the eighties, plenty of gimmick ideas seemed pretty silly.
For those of us who grew up during WWE's Golden Era, we know full well how ridiculous some of these gimmicks are because we had to deal with some truly ridiculous characters that never should have been signed off on in the first place. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be looked at with some rose-colored nostalgia.
10 The Missing Link
It didn’t take much throughout the sixties all the way through the eighties to convince the fans that you were some kind of monster. Dewey Robertson was able to do it with just some face paint and an oddly shaved head. He was just one of several out of control wild men who needed a manager like Bobby Heenan to lead him around.
He didn’t have the biggest impression and spent most of his time in WWE merking journeymen, but he did also get the chance to face the likes of Bruno, Tito Santana, and fellow wild man, George The Animal Steele.
9 Outback Jack
There was a movie series in the eighties called Crocodile Dundee. Starring Paul Hogan, the films tell the story of an Australian hunter. Australian wrestler Peter Stilsbury decided it would be a great idea to mime that character into a unique character - Outback Jack.
Similar to a lot of mid-card guys of the day, he worked hard to make his gimmick memorable - especially since his matches and opponents weren’t. But he did have some funny vignettes and his own LJN action figure.
8 The Glamour Girls
Not only have fans forgotten Lelanai Kai (no relation to Dakota) and Judy Martin - the WWE seems to have forgotten its own lineage as well. The two ladies were rough and rugged lady team known as The Glamour Girls, and they were managed by Jimmy Hart.
The duo captured the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship back in 1985.
7 Corporal Kirchner
If the WWE couldn’t have Sgt. Slaughter due to his commitments to GI Joe and the AWA, then they could at least have a real United States Paratrooper on the roster.
Corporal Kirchner was used mainly as a mid-card talent as well. But unlike the legacy of Sgt. Slaughter, Kirchner’s wound up being a little mired - some of his coworkers have called him unsafe and really stiff over the years.
6 The Hillbilly Family
If you thought The Wyatt Family was the only backwoods big country family in WWE history, then you haven’t met “The Jims.” Hillbilly Jim had amassed a few family members during his run in the eighties. The most well known one was Uncle Elmer.
Elmer actually had the one of the few wrestling weddings that went off without a hitch. Probably because it was also his real wedding! It was broadcast on live TV as part of Saturday Night's Main Event.
5 The Shadows
Until the cows come home, Randy Colley has told the world that Demolition was his idea for himself and Bill Eadie. But since all the fans knew that it was Moondog Rex, Vince ousted him from the team.
For his part in creating the Demos, he got a big consolation prize. He and Jose Rivera became the masked tag team The Shadows and were jobbed out to practically every babyface tag team on the roster.
4 Babyface Honky Tonk Man
Speaking of babyfaces, when WWE Hall of Famer, The Honky Tonk Man debuted, that’s what he was supposed to be too - a big country crooning babyface. He promised to tap dance all over the heads of a lot of the heels of the WWE at the time and even got endorsed by his good friend Hulk Hogan.
But the fans just hated him so much that started draw money as a heel. Soon the babyface act was dropped and Honky went on to become one of the greatest Intercontinental Champions of all time.
3 Sir Oliver Humperdinck
In the fall of 1987, a new superstar was heading to the WWE, and everyone with their manager’s license wanted the opportunity to manage the incoming Bam Bam Bigelow. But the flame headed behemoth opted for the similarly flame-headed Sir Oliver Humperdinck.
Similar in that Dink had a huge head of red hair. Their partnership wasn’t long in WWE, but when both left the company in 1988, they stayed as a pair on the Indy scene for several years before popping up in WCW to hang out with the Freebirds as Big Daddy Dink.
2 Kim Chee
From Deepest, Darkest Africa came the Ugandan Giant, Kamala. Sometimes managed by Harvey Wippleman in the nineties, but during his run in the eighties he was managed by a variety of managers like Freddie Blassie and The Wizard.
But he was always coupled with a “handler” named Kim Chee - a black and white masked star wearing a safari hat as well. Way more often than not, Kim Chee was portrayed by Steve “Brooklyn Brawler” Lombardi under the hood.
1 The Red Rooster
Make no mistake about it - Terry Taylor was once a great wrestler and nowadays is a pretty decent teacher in NXT. But as far as wrestling characters go, there are some in WWE who felt he didn’t have the charisma needed to be a WWE superstar.
He was given the gimmick of The Red Rooster - because he felt he was the “cock of the walk.” But he took the idea a little to the side of ridiculous and started roaming around the ring like a giant piece of poultry.
