Pro wrestling doesn't have a good history of introducing imposters. Even though they say that imitation is the best form of flattery, that doesn't work when it comes to pro wrestling. However, there have still been many occasions of wrestlers' imitating another wrestler that have led to matches and even feuds between the impostor and the real character. Given the cut throat competition during the Monday Night Wars, it isn't surprising that that time period led to some terrible impersonations of gimmicks.
Bookers often underestimate the intelligence of fans with imposter gimmicks. The storylines are usually bad followed by even worse impersonations. Did anyone really think that the fake Kane with its terrible curly wig could ever fool fans?
5: The Renegade Warrior
Mid 90's WCW was all about assembling a roster full of late 80's WWE talent. Following the arrival of Hulk Hogan in 1994 and the 'Macho Man' soon after, WCW looked the sign Ultimate Warrior to their roster but baulked at Warrior's $2.5 million asking fee. Their solution? They signed Warrior look-alike Rick Wilson to reprise the role of the Warrior.
In 1995, Hulk Hogan began cutting promos promising the 'Ultimate Surprise' in the lead up to his tag-team match with Macho Man against Arn Anderson, Vader and Ric Flair. As expected, WCW fans expected Jim Helwig to show up, but instead they got a knock-off called the Renegade Warrior, who had a similar physique but was 4 inches shorter. He wore a similar outfit as the original Warrior and had a red and yellow R painted on his face, but fans saw through the deception and didn't take kindly to it.
WCW continued his massive push nonetheless and the Renegade soon acquired Jimmy Hart as his manager who proclaimed that the Renegade Warrior would be the next big thing in wrestling. Unfortunately, the Renegade was terrible in the ring and even though he went unbeaten for a long period, fans were having none of it. They quickly turned on the Renegade, and WWE even sued WCW who were forced to drop 'Warrior' from the Renegade's name.
The death knell for Renegade's career was his run with the TV title. His matches now had to be longer than squash matches and he was so bad in the ring that the crowd often cheered for his opponents who were supposed to be the heel and he dropped the TV title to Diamond Dallas Page. Following this, Renegade's career spiralled. He was dropped by Jimmy Hart and was mostly used as enhancement talent for the rest of his run.
He was released from his contract in 1998 and tragically committed suicide a few months later.
4: Imposter Kane
Some fans may be flabbergasted to hear that the 'Big Red Machine' was seriously considering retirement in 2006 and was looking to pass on the Kane gimmick to a younger wrestler. The person chosen to take over the mantle was a young Drew Hankinson, who is better known as Luke Gallows.
Imposter Kane made his debut on WWE programming on the May 29th,2006 episode of Raw, interfering in Kane's match against Shelton Benjamin. Imposter Kane chokeslammed the real Kane which lead to a match between the two at Vengeance. The match between the two was awful and the gimmick was dropped the next night, even though the imposter Kane had prevailed at Vengeance. Kane unmasked the imposter, beat the holy hell out of him and kicked him out of the arena.
The original plan for the angle was more intriguing and verged on being ludicrous. The storyline was originally set to end with imposter Kane being declared as the real Kane who'd been on WWE television for years with Glenn Jacobs being revealed as the real imposter.
3: NWO Sting
One important thing to note about the fake NWO Sting is that he had everybody fooled for a while, from the fans to his fellow wrestlers in the back.
Fake Sting was an idea Eric Bischoff had to keep the character of Sting relevant in the mid 90's when the real Stinger decided to take a break from the business to battle his demons. Fake Sting was played by a wrestler by the name of Jeff Farmer who'd previously wrestled in WWE under the name of Cobra. In 1996, at the height of the NWO phenomenon, Farmer appeared in the ring dress as Sting in an order to make fans believe that the last bastion of WCW had decided to align with the NWO. The moment was significant in the history of pro wrestling because it acted as the catalyst for turning the surfer character of the Stinger into the dark, brooding 'Crow' form that caught fire in the late 90's.
The real Sting turned up at a WarGames match at Fall Brawl but walked out on team WCW when they thought he was an imposter. This was the official moment that began Sting's transformation to the 'Crow'. He watched from the rafters and didn't speak a word, and only occasionally interfered to battle the NWO. NWO Sting would later join New Japan Pro Wrestling to play a comedic character based on 'Crow' Sting.
2: Fake Diesel and Fake Razor Ramon
When Kevin Nash and Scott Hall signed for WCW in 1996, nobody had imagine what kind of impact 'The Outsiders' would have on the history of pro wrestling and particularly the Monday Night War. They teamed up with Hulk Hogan after Bash at the Beach 1996 and formed the NWO and brought the Monday Night War straight to WWE's doorstep.
WWE's reaction to this was in terrible judgement and is still remembered today as one of the most embarrassing episodes in WWE history. In September 1996, Jim Ross, as part of his heel run, teased that a major announcement would be made. He would follow this up by saying that Razor Ramon and Diesel were coming back to the WWE. It turned out to be a cheap publicity stunt and the men who came out as Razor and Diesel were in not Nash and Hall. WWE owned the trademarks to the Razor Ramon and Diesel characters and Vince thought he could use other wrestlers to portray the characters.
Fan reaction was extremely negative and WWE got killed in the ratings. Glen Jacobs, the man who'd go on to find fame as Kane, played fake Diesel and was still passable and was an up and coming talent. Rick Bognar on the other hand, did such a terrible impression Razor Ramon that it could only be called a parody.
1: Fake Undertaker
The Undertaker took a break from wrestling after losing a casket match to Yokozuna at the 1994 Royal Rumble in order to heal his recurring back injury. In his absence, WWE kept The Undertaker in the minds of fans with a series of vignettes of people claiming to have seen the 'Deadman'. Following Wrestlemania X, Ted DiBiasie brought back a Undertaker to WWE programming but Paul Bearer later appeared and claimed the DiBiasie's Undertaker was an imposter.
This led to the return of the real Undertaker at SummerSlam '94 where the two Undertaker's battled each other before the imposter was vanquished after three Tombstone Piledrivers. The imposter was put in a casket and thankfully dispatched from future storylines.
The fake Undertaker was played by a wrestler by the name of Brian Lee who had previously appeared in WWE as a wrestler called Chainz. He pulled off the mannerisms of 'Taker well but he wasn't very good in the ring. Originally, there was supposed to be a series of matches between the real Undertaker and the imposter but the storyline was thankfully shelved after SummerSlam '94.
