Over the years, wrestling has had its fair share of scary characters meant to terrify a crowd so that they’ll cheer for the big babyface to overcome this fearsome heel. If the babyface can stare fear in the face and knock it down for the three-count, so could we. Really old-school wrestlers that existed when our grandfathers were fans include characters like the French Angel, Maurice Tillet, or the Swedish Angel, Tor Johnson. In the early days, being a little creepy, a little terrifying was looking a little different. Looking different still worked, but it became cool to become a scary character. Guys like The Road Warriors and Demolition started out scaring the bejesus out of fans and then became beloved by them.
Creepy and scary became even more sinister as wrestling moved forward - Dangerous Dan Spivey worked a Southern Gentlemen gimmick as Waylon Mercy, that turned more and more sinister on his way to the ring. Managers like the Sinister Minister cultivated the minds of both Mikey Whipreck and Tajiri to form an Unholy Alliance in ECW. Before they became goofballs, Edge and Christian, along with Gangrel mesmerized fans as part of the Brood. But all of these aforementioned stars pale in comparison to The Top 10 Creepiest Characters In WWE History.
10 Jake The Snake Roberts
Jake was one of the original edgy heels that the fans turned. His promos had always been the stuff of legend. Then he started teaching the Ultimate Warrior how to face his own fears. It’s too bad the Warrior forgot rule number one - never trust a snake. Jake became a vicious and sadistic heel once more. His feud with the Macho Man is still one of the craziest moments from the Expansion Era or any other one for that matter. Watching his king cobra tear the flesh off Savage’s arm is still haunting.
9 The Undertaker
The greatest character to ever grace the sport up until this point is undoubtedly the Undertaker. Since the moment he stalked his way to the ring, he has entranced an entire generation of fans. But he’s also one of the creepiest and scariest characters of all time. He’s a dead guy who stuffs his opponents into body bags and coffins.
He had his brother committed and tried to sacrifice the owner’s daughter to gain full control of the company, not to mention he damn near killed Mick Foley in life television and once tried to embalm Stone Cold alive. You read all of that and it’s crazy to think, that you’ve just read about the most beloved superstar in WWE history.
8 Doink The Clown
Caulrophobia is a real thing for a lot of people who think clowns are creepy and scary. Just ask the kids who grew up in Derry or Gotham. Or anyone who caught Matt Borne’s take on the evil clown character - Doink. The WWE had an amazing character on their hands. But the character was also becoming wildly popular turned the momentum from creepy and evil to fun and silly. One thing Doink brought to the ring was a submission move that had seldom been seen before or since, where he would sit on your shoulders and pull up on your leg - the Stump Puller.
7 Papa Shango
Anyone that can make the deranged Ultimate Warrior into a scared little man covering in fear deserves a spot on this list. Before working his magic as The Godfather, the WWE Hall Of Famer was a Voodoo practitioner, Papa Shango.
The guy came to the ring chanting in tongues and convulsing. Then he made black goo pour at the Warrior’s head. There are plenty of us who don’t understand Voodoo at all, and Papa Shango didn’t help that understanding one bit.
6 The Boogeyman
Despite fibbing about his age during Tough Enough try outs, the Boogeyman still found his way into the WWE to creep the heck out his opponents and the audience. The guy would devastate his opponents in the ring and make them feel uneasy out of it by eating worms and dumping worms on his opponent. On one such occasion, he licked Jillian Hall’s face and then devoured her birthmark!
5 The Fiend
Bray Wyatt actually started using a similar gimmick to that of Waylon Mercy. The Wyatt family was over huge until for whatever reason, the powers that be didn’t seem to want to push him to the next level. Then The Firefly Fun House started. In some ways, the anticipation for what Bray was planning was even creepier than the Fiend itself.
The fans have always been into Wyatt, and the Fiend is the scariest parts of Wyatt, evil clowns, and other scary people. Hopefully, the powers that be finally realize that their next big supernatural character has been under their nose for a long time.
4 Kamala
In the territories and the early days of the Expansion Era WWE, a lot of fans didn’t necessarily know about the world. When Kamala was announced as hailing from “Deepest, Darkest Africa,” stomping to the ring with a spear in one hand, shield in the other, and a crazy looking tribal mask was pretty scary for the time. Not to mention the war drum theme music and not caring what directions his opponents were facing when he beat on them certainly helped build the mystique of the Ugandan Giant.
3 Kane
Nowadays he’s Mayor Kane, and the facade of the Big Red Machine has come down in recent memory thanks to angles like Team Hell No.
But in the early days of Kane’s run as the silent monstrous brother of the Undertaker, he was enjoying violent feats of strength like setting people on fire. Things got even creepier when he fought Matt Hardy in a “Til’ Death Do Us Part” Match, where Lita had to marry the winner.
2 Kevin Sullivan
Never mind all of the cartoonish tomfoolery of The Dungeon Of Doom and the Alliance To End Hulkamania - Kevin Sullivan was the fricking Devil! He had a whole Satanic cult style stable in the Florida territories.
The guy was so convincing that when a certain real-life tragedy happened, there were plenty of marks who believed that the Taskmaster was actually behind it.
1 Luna Vachon
From her walk to her voice to the weird tattoo on her head, Luna Vachon is still the strangest female to ever grace the squared circle. Then when she did grace the ring, she was vicious, a sort of female fighter that hadn’t been seen before. Think Nikki Cross, but long before the PG Era.