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Everyone had a favourite wrestler in their childhood days. For young fans in the 1980s, it was probably Hulk Hogan or Randy Savage. In the 1990s, maybe it was Bret Hart or Steve Austin. Nowadays, it might be John Cena or Roman Reigns.
For most fans, the wrestlers they looked up to as children will always remain larger-than-life characters, that they only ever saw through a television screen or a few times at a nearby arena.
However, other fans become so engrossed and captivated by the wrestling business that they don’t just stay fans forever – they go on to emulate their heroes by stepping inside the squared circle for themselves.
In this article, we look at 10 current WWE Superstars and reveal which wrestlers they grew up idolising as kids.
#1 Roman Reigns & Bret Hart
With so many famous wrestlers in his family, you might have thought Roman Reigns’ favourite Superstar growing up would be Yokozuna or the Wild Samoans.
However, the three-time WrestleMania main-eventer actually idolised Bret “The Hitman” Hart when he used to watch WWE as a child.
He told Yahoo! Sports in March 2015: “Every time he’d come out with that leather jacket and give his sunglasses away to a kid in the crowd, I used to dream about being that kid. That hair, all that gear. To this day I still think he has kickass gear. He seemed like a standup guy. A really nice dude. He is a very cool dude.”
#2 Alexa Bliss & The Great Kabuki
Known as “the greatest martial arts expert the world has ever seen”, the Japanese-born Great Kabuki wrestled all over the world between 1964 and 1998 and was famous for blowing Asian Mist/Green Mist in opponents’ faces.
Alexa Bliss was a fan of the unique performer – her grandmother’s favourite wrestler – and wanted to add part of his character to her babyface persona during her time in NXT.
Explaining how she pitched the idea to Triple H, Alexa told Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory podcast in September 2017: “I was like, 'I want to be like The Great Kabuki, but with the Green Mist I want to blow glitter - I want to spit glitter out!'."
#3 Mark Henry & Andre The Giant
Mark Henry credits Andre The Giant with being the person who not only made him a fan of WWE but also made him want to become a performer for the company.
“The World’s Strongest Man” told Talk Is Jericho in 2015 that while rushing to the front row at a WWE event when he was a child, he toppled over the barricade and ended up with his hands on the floor and his legs caught up on the top of the railings.
Henry said: “Andre’s walking and he sees me with my hands like that and he picks me up and puts me back on the other side. That’s why I’m a wrestler today. I told Vince [McMahon] and Vince just breaks out in tears, like ‘I miss him’.”
#4 Sami Zayn & Hulk Hogan
Sami Zayn says he idolised Bret Hart, Mick Foley and Matt & Jeff Hardy as he became more and more interested in wrestling and decided he wanted to be a performer himself, but his love for the product began when he was a five-year-old Hulkamaniac.
He told Gulf News in February 2015: “From a very young age it was Hulk Hogan. That’s what kind of introduced me to wrestling… Hogan and the spectacle that he embodied, the grand spectacle and theatrics of Hulk Hogan, I think first drew me to wrestling, and that’s when I knew ‘I’m in love with this and I want to do this’.”
#5 Daniel Bryan & Dean Malenko
Given the kind of performer he would go on to become, it’s no surprise that Daniel Bryan’s idol growing up was one of the most technically gifted wrestlers of his generation, Dean Malenko.
Bryan first knew he wanted to become a wrestler when he watched a WCW match between Malenko and Rey Mysterio in 1996. He said he admired Mysterio’s high-flying abilities but, feeling he would never be able to replicate them, he began to base his style on Malenko, who now works as an agent in WWE.
#6 Sheamus & Randy Savage
You might expect Sheamus’ favourite wrestler of all time to be another hard-hitting, tough-talking brawler. However, when asked by Mid Day in October 2016 who his idol growing up was, the Irishman immediately replied: “‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage.”
Savage is one of the most eccentric and popular Superstars in history.
He won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship twice, main-evented WrestleMania twice and had one of the greatest-ever matches at “The Show of Shows” with Ricky Steamboat in 1987.
In 2015, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
#7 Becky Lynch & Mick Foley
Becky Lynch enjoyed watching high-profile Superstars like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage when she was young, but it wasn’t until Mick Foley began making waves in WWE in the late 90s that she became a die-hard wrestling fan.
She told NewsTalk.com in September 2016: “When I got into wrestling again in the Attitude Era, the reason I started watching again was Mick Foley. I just loved him. I always wanted him to win. He was the hook that got me.”
#8 Sasha Banks & Eddie Guerrero
Sasha Banks’ love for Eddie Guerrero has been mentioned numerous times on WWE programming.
She has even paid homage to her idol by replicating some of his moves in the ring, most notably the Five-Star Frog Splash, and her WrestleMania 32 ring attire was inspired by “Latino Heat”.
She told Sports Illustrated in December 2016: “There wouldn't be Sasha Banks if there wasn't Eddie Guerrero, he was truly my idol. I still look up to him to this day. Everything I do in the ring, I think 'would Eddie do that? Would Eddie be proud of me?'.”
#9 Dolph Ziggler & Shawn Michaels
You only have to watch a Dolph Ziggler match to see that he’s a big fan of Shawn Michaels. The two-time World Heavyweight champion regularly uses similar moves to HBK, including his trademark Sweet Chin Music finisher, and is often criticised by fans for mimicking his in-ring style a little too much.
Ziggler was also a fan of Ric Flair and Mr Perfect growing up, telling RWD in 2013: “Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Mr Perfect…there are so many. Whoever stood out as the meanest people, they just stood out and made you remember what they had done. Ring generals like Flair and Michaels were the best ever at that, so they were easy to look up to.”
#10 The Miz & The Rock
Watchers of MTV reality show The Real World will remember that Mike Mizanin based his ‘The Miz’ alter ego on Dwayne Johnson’s ‘The Rock’ character in WWE. A few years later, Miz would go on to share a WWE ring – and even the WrestleMania XXVII spotlight – with his idol.
Miz revealed to Inverse in April 2017 that before shooting his first movie, Marine 3, he sent a text to The Rock asking for advice. Within a minute, he got a call back from the Hollywood star and they spent half an hour talking about acting.
