As heels from throughout the industry's history will tell you, being a 'bad guy' is fun! Playing a heel can give an otherwise mild-mannered performer an outlet for their dark side. Additionally, some wrestlers have said that since (especially in prior eras) it could be difficult to maintain a squeaky-clean public image as a babyface, being a heel brought with it less pressure - if a wrestler got in trouble with the law, for instance, it just added to their character.

RELATED: 10 Best WWE Heel Wrestlers Of The Golden Era

For every memorable WWE Golden Era heel, though - think Roddy Piper, Ted DiBiase or Bobby Heenan - there's been a handful of whose memories have faded with time. For some, it's because they weren't particularly good. Others were just maybe in the wrong era (or even ahead of their time). Here are ten who we believe many fans may have forgotten.

10 Big Bully Busick

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Aside from a brief alliance with 'B-level' manager Harvey Wippleman, Nick 'Big Bully' Busick barely made any impact during his three-month stay in late 1991.

With such a current, relevant gimmick - the derby hat, bushy mustache and cigar screamed "Welcome to the 1990s!" - it's nearly impossible to understand how Busick, who'd wrestled a handful of matches for the company in and around his hometown of Steubenville, Ohio a decade prior, didn't skyrocket up the card. Of course, this is sarcasm - he didn't even last long enough to take part in the Survivor Series match with his scheduled teammates (pictured) - but no cameo at the launch of WWE's 2011 Be a Star anti-bullying program felt like a missed opportunity!

9 'Dangerous' Danny Davis

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While the heel referee might seem like one of wrestling's more tired tropes in 2022, it was fairly uncommon in the late 1980s.

RELATED: 10 Best Referees Of All Time

Fans of WWE and the '80s wrestling boom weren't expecting the referee - usually an anonymous supporting character - to be a driving part of a match's story. However, Danny Davis - who'd spent much of the time since 1981 pulling double-duty as a ref and as masked jobber 'Mr. X' - broke the mold when he began blatantly favoring heel wrestlers in 1986. Eventually, he was 'stripped' of his refereeing authority and began wrestling, most notably teaming with the Hart Foundation at WrestleMania 3.

8 The 'Duke of Dorchester' Pete Doherty

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For somebody who wrestled exclusively for WWE - beginning when it was the WWWF - from 1971 through 1990, the 'Duke of Dorchester' Pete Doherty has never enjoyed the same notoriety that befell several loyal, veteran peers like Johnny Rodz.

Hailing from (surprise!) Dorchester, Massachusetts, the Duke was a vestige of a bygone era in many ways. Despite mostly serving as a wiry, toothless heel jobber in most of his appearances, when WWE was in and around Boston they treated Doherty like a local celebrity. He picked up unlikely wins against S.D. Jones, Lanny 'the Genius' Poffo and Haku, and was even included in the company's final show at the original Boston Garden in May 1995.

7 Power & Glory

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While Hercules and Paul Roma (with manager Slick) were much heavier on the power than the glory elements of their team name, the duo enjoyed a decent push in late 1990.

Fresh off separate heel turns, the youngster Roma and veteran Hercules weren't entirely thrown-together, and served a purpose as formidable opponents for the company's popular babyface teams like the Rockers, Legion of Doom and Hart Foundation. Unfortunately for the two, after they cycled through feuds with all three teams, there wasn't much left for them to do, and they parted ways when Roma left WWE in Fall 1991.

6 'Iron' Mike Sharpe

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This one's a little unfair because, if you were a WWE fan in the heart of the Golden Era and were watching shows like Superstars and Wrestling Challenge, you'd be hard-pressed to not remember 'Iron' Mike Sharpe.

The self-proclaimed 'Canada's Greatest Athlete' was the son (and nephew) of the successful tag team the Sharpe Brothers, and got his start in the family business in the mid-1970s. He joined WWE in 1983 to a decent push, managed by Captain Lou Albano and challenging for Bob Backlund's WWE Championship. After the loss, Sharpe fell far down the card but managed to sick around as a jobber through 1995. Perhaps most notably, Sharpe went on to open a short-lived wrestling school in New Jersey, with pupils including the Hass Brothers (Charlie and Russ), Mike 'Nova/Simon Dean' Bucci and Chris 'Devon Storm/Crowbar' Ford.

5 'Playboy' Buddy Rose

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Buddy Rose never stayed in one place for too long, but most of his career highlights came during his stays in his native Pacific Northwest Wrestling and the AWA.

Fans of WWE in 1982 got a taste of his 'Playboy' gimmick as it once was (and he even competed in - and lost - the first-ever Wrestlemania match under a mask as the Executioner to Tito Santana), but by the time Rose returned in 1990, he was quite different. Rose had gained a considerable amount of weight, but his most memorable moment during the run came in the form of some self-deprecating humor: his 'Blow-Away Diet,' in which he simply doused his body in powder and directed a fan at himself.

4 Damien Demento

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From the 'Outer Reaches of Your Mind,' Damien Demento - who spent some time in ECW predecessor the Tri-State Wrestling Association as 'Mondo Kleen' - had a unique look and gimmick, seemingly tailor-made for the tail-end of WWE's Golden era in late 1992.

Demento's most notable moment - and the reason many fans have heard of him, if at all - was ultimately the answer to a trivia question: he lost to The Undertaker in the first Monday Night Raw main event in January 1993. Despite this and an appearance in that month's Royal Rumble, Demento mostly competed (and lost) on house shows, making his final appearance in September.

3 Paul Christy

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By the time Paul Christy joined WWE in 1986, he was nearly 50 years old, meaning national fans didn't get a fair representation of his abilities during his prime in the midwest, especially Angelo Poffo's ICW.

His most memorable moment was an appearance on WWE's short-lived Tuesday Night Titans talk show, which often served the purpose of introducing or helping to explain gimmicks to fans. In Christy's case, he was something of a modern 'Renaissance Man' - performing minor magic tricks, bragging about owning apartment buildings (has there ever been a landlord gimmick in wrestling?) and even attempting hypnosis on the audience. Christy lasted in the company for a handful of months, and as far as we can tell, his peak came with a draw (!) against Scott McGhee at a Maryland house show.

2 The Bolsheviks

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It's not fair to Nikolai Volkoff that, to fans of WWE's Golden Era, his career prospects appeared to fall along with the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

RELATED: 10 "Foreign" WWE Wrestlers Who Were Actually American

Volkoff, who'd been a journeyman through the 1970s, joined WWE in 1984 and immediately formed a very successful team with the Iron Sheik. The two were classic heels, but upon the Sheik's infamous 1987 arrest alongside kayfabe enemy 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan, Volkoff needed a new partner. Enter Jim 'Boris Zhukov' Harrell, who'd developed the character in Mid-South and World Class. The new team, dubbed the Bolsheviks and accompanied by the 'Doctor of Style' Slick, was unsuccessful from the start. However, they managed to last until late 1990, when Volkoff - inspired by political upheaval in his 'native' land - turned on his former comrade.

1 Bad News Brown

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Allen Coage - who, aside from his two-year stint in WWE, was known as Bad News Allen - was one of wrestling's toughest men, and his gimmick reflected as such.

However, despite the native New Yorker's streetwise character, he was a highly-skilled judo champion, eventually earning a bronze medal in the 1976 Summer Olympics. He eventually transitioned to wrestling and landed in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling in 1982. He worked with many future WWE stars and eventually landed a spot in 1988. Despite a handful of memorable moments, Brown never lived up to his potential and he made a rather forgettable exit after SummerSlam 1990.