6 WWE Superstars who had gimmicks inspired by famous movies

Wrestlers often get the inspiration behind their characters from a number of sources. These include films and Hollywood blockbusters.

Here's a look at 6 WWE Superstars who had gimmicks inspired by famous movies:

#6 Paul Burchill - Pirates of the Caribbean

Paul Burchill's pirate gimmick was clearly inspired by Pirates of the Carribean

Paul Burchill cut his teeth in the English professional wrestling scene before being snapped up by WWE in 2004. After a brief period in OVW, he made his main roster debut on SmackDown in August 2005.

In February 2006, Burchill was given a new gimmick as a pirate, clearly inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In storyline, “network representative” Palmer Canon informed Burchill that his bloodline traces back to the famous pirate Blackbeard. Burchill’s whacky gimmick got him over with fans and he quickly became a popular act on SmackDown.

However, WWE didn’t seem to have any faith in the gimmick and it was quickly nixed a few months later. Burchill continued to wrestle for WWE until he was released in February 2010, although nothing else he did was nearly as memorable as the Pirate.

#5 Tyler Breeze – Zoolander

Tyler Breeze adapted his character to be more like Derek Zoolander

We move on to ‘Prince Pretty’, Tyler Breeze. Breeze wrestled under his real name Mike Dalton for a long time in developmental but it didn’t really click for him until he adopted the gimmick of Tyler Breeze. Tyler Breeze was inspired by the character Derek Zoolander from the 2001 comedy “Zoolander”.

In a later interview, Breeze said that when he first thought of the character it didn’t have anything to do with the film although soon after watching it, he tweaked his gimmick, taking inspiration from the film.

Breeze spoke out it in an interview with Afterbuzz TV, revealing how his character slowly became more like Derek Zoolander:

“As I started doing more interviews it kind of turned into more of Ben Stiller from Dodgeball than it actually was Zoolander. I was this loose cannon that would get angry at anything and everything you asked me was the stupidest question I’ve ever heard in my life.”

#4 Waylon Mercy and Bray Wyatt - Cape Fear

Waylon Mercy and Bray Wyatt were both inspired by the film Cape Fear

The next film on our list inspired two WWE Superstars, one from the 90s and another who is still very much around. The film we’re talking about is Martin Scorsese’s 1991 psychological thriller – Cape Fear.

The first wrestler inspired by Cape Fear was Dan Spivey who used it to create the Waylon Mercy character. Mercy started wearing the same kind of Hawaiian t-shirts as Max Cady (played by Robert De Niro) did in Cape Fear along with a series of strange tattoos.

Mercy was also quiet and brooding, until the bell rang at least, after which he became a violent individual. Despite showing a ton of promise, Mercy a.k.a Spivey was forced to retire from injuries soon after.

Another Superstar who was inspired by Cape Fear years later was Bray Wyatt. Early on, the Bray Wyatt character displayed a lot of similar characteristics to Waylon Mercy and even adapted the Hawaiian shirts from Cape Fear, amongst other things.

Check out this early Cape Fear inspired promo video for Bray Wyatt below:

#3 Sting – The Crow

Sting changed his character to one inspired by The Crow

Sting is one of the greatest wrestlers to have ever set foot inside the squared circle. Starting off as the babyface with colorful face-paint, the man behind it knew that the gimmick was getting a little stale by the time the mid-90s came around.

With the NWO and anti-heroes, in general, all the rage thanks to the social zeitgeist of the time, Sting took inspiration from the 1994 film The Crow, altering his colorful character and adopting the black and white of The Crow. The idea originally came from Scott Hall who approached Sting backstage at a WCW show in Wyoming and pitched it to him.

Being intrigued by the idea and a new direction for his character, Sting watched the film and then read the graphic novel before deciding to go with it. He went with Scott Hall’s suggestion to wear a dark trench coat and grow out his hair. The colorful hero of the late ’80s and early ’90s was replaced by a decidedly darker character who watched over WCW from the rafters. taking his storied career to new heights.

#2 Kane – Halloween

Kane was inspired from the Halloween films

The mastermind behind the Kane character is none other than Jim Cornette. Cornette got the idea for Kane from the character of Michael Myers from the Halloween franchise of films. He also added that one of the initial cornerstone’s for the character was an evident lack of empathy and a sense of evil.

Cornette was a guest on Inside The Ropes in 2014 and gave more insight into his thought behind the Kane character:

“The thing that put Kane over the top is that he didn’t just appeal to the wrestling fan, he appealed to a mass audience because my original vision was….my favourite horror movie was Halloween, Michael Myers and that was my original vision for Kane when I was told that Kane would be the Undertaker’s evil brother who’s existed all this time.

"I thought what if he was like Michael Myers, the main character in Halloween, what if he was like the embodiment of evil. That’s the flavour that not just wrestling fans but everyone watching the show, they got. This guy is the embodiment of evil, he’s somewhat inhuman,he doesn’t feel pain, he doesn’t feel remorse.” [sic]

#1 Razor Ramon – Scarface

Razor Ramon drew inspiration from Scarface

Scott Hall got his idea for Razor Ramon from the legendary Tony Montana character from the 1983 classic Scarface. Hall pitched the idea to Vince McMahon who, having never seen Scarface, loved the idea and ran with it. Razor Ramon quickly became one of the most popular Superstars of the New Generation Era.

In an interview with Total Wrestling Magazine, Hall revealed that Vince loved the character so much that he personally directed the vignettes:

”I felt really flattered because Vince [McMahon] left TV personally to direct my vignettes, he flew with me to south beach Miami to do it. I knew things were cool and my DVD came out last July where they showed footage of Vince into the character. He’d never seen Scarface, so when I came out doing the Scarface gimmick, he thought I was a genius, I never told him. I don’t know why they don’t introduce new characters with vignettes like that anymore.”

Hall found great success as Razor Ramon, winning the WWE Intercontinental Championship 4 times. He stayed in WWE until 1996, when he signed for WCW along with Kevin Nash before debuting in the latter company as The Outsiders.

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