In wrestling, fans are used to getting backstories for so many characters. Some backstories are weirder than others. If you look back at certain eras, these weird backstories happened more frequently (looking at you, 80s WWF!). Even today, fans are still sometimes subjected to a really weird backstory. Weird backstories and professional wrestling go hand in hand it would seem. With that in mind, it's time to look at the ten weirdest backstories fans have ever been subjected to. Rest assured, there are some really off-the-wall backstories on this list!
10 The Gobbledy Gooker
Honestly, it may not be legally possible to have a list of weird backstories without having this oddball on it. In fairness, The Gobbledy Gooker was not a wrestler. It was just someone in a turkey suit who happened to show up at one fateful Survivor Series-way back when it was still a Thanksgiving Eve tradition.
For weeks ahead of the event, and for no apparent reason, the then-WWF rolled out a massive egg, with the idea that we'd find out who or what was inside, at the November PPV. There might have been a lot of anticipation for the reveal, but when the egg hatched, it was a complete and utter flop.
9 The Boogeyman
This Superstar has at least aged well-kind of the "the gimmick is so bad it's good" category. Seriously, he's been on the reunion shows lately, and seems to be a hit, doesn't he? That being said, what made this bizarre character even weirder?
He debuted in the early 2000's, which was a period of time when professional wrestling was definitely starting to be more real, with fewer goofy characters. Like, he wasn't a leftover from the 80's and 90's...he was a newly conceived, truly weird, worm-eating Superstar who debuted in the 2000's.
8 Skinner
Here's one of those really, really corny Superstars that WWE gave us in the 80's and, in this case, the early 90's. One theme with so many of these terrible backstories? The person portraying the Superstar was usually a pretty competent wrestler. The man behind Skinner, Steve Keirn, had quite the resume in the ring before he arrived in WWE, holding numerous tag team championships in his early career. So, as good as he was, he was turned into a tobacco chewing (and spitting) gator hunter who was from The Everglades. It was bad at the time, but it wouldn't even fly nowadays.
7 The Repo Man
Want weird? How about a WWE Superstar, dressed in gray, who has tire tracks on his ring attire. He slinks to the ring, holding a rope with what's supposed to be a tow hook (which naturally was used plenty of times as a foreign object). His shtick? He was, well...a repo man.
In terms of professions that would be used as a backstory for a professional wrestler, this one is just about as weird as one could get. What made this all that much more weird? The man behind it was the former Smash. As in one half of one of WWE's best-ever tag teams. See...told you it was weird!
6 The Goon
Now, as weird ones go, this is both weird...and not all that big of a stretch. See, The Goon was a hockey player who just decided one day to take up professional wrestling. Of course, back during The Goon's day, pro hockey was filled with a lot more fighting then than it is now, so it wasn't entirely a weird idea. However, WWE had to make sure it was a weird character, complete with over the top look and ring attire. As in, The Goon came to the ring dressed as if he were playing in a hockey game, minus the skates (though, his boots did look like skates, with a really thick sole to mimic blades). This Superstar was created in what could be dubbed a golden age of WWE weirdness.
5 Droz
Droz isn't here for Droz. Droz makes this list because Vince McMahon once dubbed him Puke. And the reason for that? Because Darren Drozdov was blessed (or would that be cursed) with the ability to essentially throw up on demand. Like, whenever he needed to do it, he could apparently do it.
In fairness, if you were trying to make it as a WWE Superstar, and it was a dream of yours..well, who can blame him for embracing something that was getting him attention from the big boss? Regardless, having that ability morph into your name and gimmick? Definitely weird. Unfortunately, Droz was injured in the ring, and due to the paralysis, had his career cut short.
4 Irwin R. Schyster
Another weird backstory for another really talented wrestler. While the pairing of a tax man with The Million Dollar Man did make sense, and Mike Rotunda was an absolutely talented wrestler...there's still that massive gap of how in the world a tax collector decides to get into a WWE ring, isn't there?
Of course there is, and there always will be. The character was a success in no small part to Rotunda's abilities, but when you consider just how accomplished Iron Mike was before he became IRS, fans have to think WWE would have been better off just keeping him as he was.
3 Mantaur
There was a time in WWE history where we saw Headshrinkers, and a Viking, and a man wearing the head of a mythical creature to the ring. While the Headshrinkers were a great tag team, and The Berzerker was just weird (but not so weird he made this list), Mantaur was a train wreck of inexcusable weirdness.
It is hard to understand who or what thought that would be a good idea, and even more remarkable that the man who was given the gimmick was so happy to have the gig, he never thought to tell anyone how stupid or weird the idea was. For obvious reasons, Mantaur quickly became extinct.
2 Isaac Yankem
Over the years, professional wrestlers have used numerous real-world professions as gimmicks. Some of them were based in the wrestler's real lives. Some took on a teacher or genius persona, for example, and that's who they were in real life. Isaac Yankem, however, was not a dentist in real life. No one could ever imagine a dentist doubling as a wrestler (though there may be some on the indy scene?). Yankem came to WWE by way of Jerry Lawler's feud with Bret Hart, but it was about as crazy and flimsy a backstory as wrestling fans ever had to stomach.
1 Fake Diesel And Fake Razor Ramon
These two will forever be linked, and by now anyone should know why. The backstory here? Vince McMahon was not able to get Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to re-sign with WWE, but McMahon owned the names Diesel and Razor Ramon (as WWE does with many other Superstars). So, in what has to be one of McMahon's most stubborn moves ever, he proved his point by having two wrestlers work as Diesel and Razor Ramon, even while the real ones were showing up for WCW. The only upside in this one? The man behind fake Diesel (and the aforementioned Yankem, too) did go on to become Kane...so his career wasn't all that bad.