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On WWE's Monday Night RAW Nikki Cross debuted a new gimmick that was a far cry from the crazy, unhinged Nikki Cross who was part of the Sanity stable when she appeared as a blue and yellow cheery superhero.
The WWE Universe wasn't sure how to take Nikki Cross' new superhero persona, but after seeing her perform in the ring in a tag team with Alexa Bliss to take on Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax, they were slightly more onboard.
However, superhero characters are certainly nothing new in wrestling and some of them have, in fact, gotten over with the crowd. Let's take a look at some of the previous superhero gimmicks there have been in WWE, with five names that became superheroes before Nikki Cross.
#5. Former WWE Superstar Neville wasn't Mighty Mouse, but he was still a superhero
The high-flying PAC currently finds himself in AEW but before that he was flying high in WWE becoming the first man to win the NXT title and NXT tag-team titles as well as the first man to win the NXT titles and the Cruiserweight Title.
Neville's gravity-defying ability set him apart completely in WWE and Vince McMahon wanted to capitalize on that and present him as a true superhero, allegedly inspired by Mighty Mouse.
Thankfully WWE didn't go for this look, but they did have Neville debut on the main roster as a slightly toned down superhero wearing purple and black boots, purple and black shorts and a cape.
Neville would eventually drop the cape, but for a while he really was the closest thing to a superhero that WWE had on their roster, even if they never fully committed to making him one.
#4. Gregory 'Hurricane' Helms was WWE's most iconic superhero
When you think of a superhero gimmick in wrestling and WWE, you'd be hard-pressed to think of a more iconic name than Gregory 'Hurricane' Helms, with the Superstar likely topping the list of wrestling superheroes for just about everybody.
Helms was one of the wrestlers that WWE inherited when it bought WCW as WWF and he was the reigning WCW Cruiserweight Champion. However, he would lose the title to Billy Kidman very quickly. But this would be a blessing in disguise because soon a legend would be born.
Helms began wrestling as The Hurricane in August 27th, 2001 and he'd pick up a number of titles while wrestling as the caped hero, including the European Championship, the Hardcore Championship, the WWE Cruiserweight Champion, the WWE Tag Team Championship and the World Tag Team Championship.
Like every good superhero, Hurricane even had his own superhero side-kicks. The first was Mighty Molly (Molly Holly) who would eventually betray him. The second was a set of side-kicks made up of the late Matthew Anoa'i as Rosey and Stacy Keibler as Super Stacy.
Helms would eventually retire Hurricane, only to bring him back again and so-on. But it's definitely a given that he probably has had the most successful superhero gimmick in all of wrestling.
#3. Owen Hart began and ended his WWF/WWE career as The Blue Blazer
When WWE (then WWF) signed Owen Hart in 1988 they didn't want to bill him as Bret Hart's younger brother, so they created a superhero gimmick for him to debut with - The Blue Blazer (originally called The Blue Angel.)
Hart would go on to lose the Blue Blazer mask in a Mask vs Mask match against Mexican wrestler El Canek in 1991, before returning to WWE/WWF in 1991 and wrestling as himself all the way through to 1998.
Then WWF had Owen Hart bring back the Blue Blazer gimmick, this time as an overbearing self-righteous heel, which is the character Hart played until his untimely death during the now infamous accident at Over The Edge 1999.
Hart was only 34 when he died, but his legacy as a wrestler has endured even despite his relatively young age. He has gone down as one of the best wrestlers to set foot inside a ring, and a true superhero.
#2. Battman was a WWWF/WWE wrestler before he was in the Justice League
WWE (then WWWF) had an actual superhero wrestling for them for a while in 1966. This was spurred on by the success of DC Comics' Batman character, with the arrival of a Hollywood movie based on him, and, of course, the Adam West helmed television show.
How did they gain inspiration from Batman, you ask? Well, they just flat out copied him. Wrestler Tony Marino partook in a spot of massive copyright infringement when he developed a gimmick that stole the look of Adam West's Batman, but to avoid any legal nastiness, he added an extra 't' to the name, making it Battman.
Marino wrestled as Battman for four years and during that time he became so popular that he even won the WWWF Intercontinental Tag-Team Championships with WWE legend Bruno Sammartino. But he eventually had to discontinue the gimmick, presumably because copyright laws were getting a little more stringent.
Marino's Battman may be the closest WWE ever get to having a fully fledged real superhero wrestle for them. Unfortunately it's also probably the closest we'll ever get to having an MCU or DC character wrestling in a WWE ring.
Marino would retire from wrestling in 1987 and would go on to live until he was 90 years old. Sadly he passed away on May 28th this year.
#1. Hulk Hogan becomes Mr. America in WWE
Whilst we're on the subject of WWE stealing from comic books, the last entry on the list is Hulk Hogan's brief time as Mr. America. This was a gimmick that was, shall we say, loosely inspired by Marvel's Captain America.
Mr. America may be the first instance in WWE where a wrestler everyone recognizes, wears a mask to pretend to be someone else, even though everyone knows who it is. He entered to Hogan's music and even used Hogan's finishing move.
Hogan brought the gimmick to life in 2003 because he was forced to sit-out his contract in storyline. To get around it he debuted as Mr. America and even passed a lie detector test to prove he wasn't Hulk Hogan. Eventually, Hogan revealed it was him behind the Mr. America mask, and quit WWE.
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