Line #30 Expy/ProWrestling


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7	%% Before adding examples, check the guidelines in the Expy cleanup thread (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13983140170A37263400) and make sure your example fits the criteria to qualify as an Expy. Don't just list minor or coincidental similarities. Also, explain why the character is an Expy - don't just say "X is an expy of Y" and leave it at that.
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11	* The Great Kabuki is an expy of Rey Urbano, using face paint to imitate Urbano's "scars" and using similar cheats. Kabuki himself spawned several expies, some of whom spawned expies of their own.
12	** The first was Kendo Nagasaki(the one in Stampede, not the ''World Of Sport'' wrestler), who was followed by [[Wrestling/KeijiMutoh The Great Muta]], Kwang the Ninja (Savio Vega in a mask), [[Wrestling/YoshihiroTajiri "The Japanese Buzzsaw" Yoshihiro Tajiri]] (who used the mist cheat but not the face paint) and "Tokyo Monster" Kahagas. TNA's Kiyoshi was an expy of Muta as well. Jun Hado was a Chinese expy of Muta who went so far as to claim to be from Muta's home town, until he teamed with Japanese wrestler "The Great Akuma" and embraced his Chinese roots instead to be his {{foil}}. Then there's "The Great Sanada", where James Storm tried to BrainWash Seiya Sanada into becoming a Mutah duplicate.
13	* Mil Máscaras and Huracán Ramirez were both fictional characters created to be stand ins for Wrestling/ElSanto when he was not available to film a movie. Both of these characters would be turned into real luchadores by [[Wrestling/{{CMLL}} EMLL]], though Ramirez was distinguished by not wearing a mask and the real luchador became even less like Santo by inventing a new wrestling move (the Huracánrana)
14	* Wrestling/BruiserBrody spawned several expies
15	** Particularly both Barbarians (Sionne Vailahi and Wrestling/JohnNord. Vailahi's biggest difference was as a [[WildSamoan Tongan]], his HardHead was attributed to his ethnicity. Nord went all out on the Brody imitation, particularly as The Berzerker in WWE, wearing the furry boots and doing the [[CatchPhrase "HUSS"]] chant. IWA M-S and [[Wrestling/RingofHonor ROH]]'s Wrestling/JimmyJacobs was an expy of Brody with aspects of Brody's expies Nord and Vailahi on top of it as "The Barbaric Berzerker." Though Jacobs eventually became more associated with a Wrestling/KevinSullivan like rail road spike. It helps that Jacobs is not a super heavyweight and closer to Sullivan in size.
16	** [[Wrestling/LukeHarper Brodie Lee]], who besides the name looked about as much like Brody as a man possibly could without surgery. Less so after he got that scar on his head and joined Jimmy Jacobs's campaign against the American healthcare system.
17	* Chief Jay Strongbow was one for Wrestling/ChiefWahooMcDaniel after [=McDaniel=] got into an altercation with a promoter and ended up not returning to the WWWF as planned. Strongbow was given the American Indian gimmick and [=McDaniel=]'s planned push.
18	* When Wrestling/JohnTenta first arrived in the WWF, he was known as Earthquake Evans, an expy of Wrestling/HaystacksCalhoun, down to the jeans, flannel shirt and rope belt. This only lasted for a couple dark matches, and by the time he was put on TV he was the Natural Disaster he's best remembered as.
19	* "Nature Boy" Wrestling/RicFlair was an expy of [[Wrestling/BuddyRogers "The Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers]].
20	** Flair would later get an expy of his own in "Nature Boy" Buddy Landel.
21	* [[Wrestling/SuperstarBillyGraham "Superstar" Billy Graham]] is the direct influence of Wrestling/HulkHogan, Wrestling/ScottSteiner, and Wrestling/JesseVentura in image and mannerisms, which all three have alluded to in the past (Hogan in shoot interviews, Steiner by briefly using the name "Superstar", and Ventura by claiming Graham copied him!).
22	* Wrestling/TheRockNRollExpress (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) perfected the underdog heartthrob pretty boy baby{{face}} team role in the 1980s and spawned several expies, most notably the Rockers[[note]]The Rockers were even originally called the Midnight Rockers, a combination of names of the Rock N Roll Express and their longstanding rivals, Wrestling/TheMidnightExpress.[[/note]] (Wrestling/ShawnMichaels and Wrestling/MartyJannetty) and, later, the Hardy Boyz ([[Wrestling/MattHardy Matt]] and [[Wrestling/JeffHardy Jeff]].)
23	* Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors were a ''huge'' smash hit in the 1980s, changing {{tag team}} wrestling forever. The various companies couldn't rip off their gimmick (that being "huge face-painted tough guys who smashed-up everyone and didn't care who they beat on") fast enough. Wrestling/ThePowersOfPain (The Warlord and Wrestling/TheBarbarian) were formed to feud with the Warriors, and the WWF threw a couple of solid midcard performers together creating Wrestling/{{Demolition}}. All of these teams ended up feuding with each other at various times.
24	** Road Warriors expies the Blade Runners didn't have much success as a tag team but both members broke out to become major singles superstars: Wrestling/{{Sting}} and the Wrestling/UltimateWarrior.
25	** The Road Warriors themselves made an expy of their own named Power Warrior (Wrestling/KensukeSasaki) in Japan, who formed the Hell Raisers with Hawk when Animal was injured and later formed the Hell Warriors with Animal when Hawk passed away.
26	** The Ascension is an expy team of Demolition, the Legion of Doom/Road Warriors, ''and'' the Powers of Pain -- an asskicking team of large dudes who wear facepaint and come to the ring with intimidating gear. Following their main roster debut they repeatedly almost-{{lampshaded}} this -- they would mention all of these teams, but only in the context of "well-known and dominant tag teams ''the Ascension is better than''", without directly noting that they share many similarities with those teams.
27	** Meanwhile, Wrestling/{{Chikara}} had the Devastation Corporation, who are closely analogous to Demolition - including a johnny-come-lately third member. Unlike the other teams, they even included the manager, with Sidney Bakabella doing his best imitation of "Precious" Paul Ellering. In fact, their CHIKARA debut was in a gauntlet match. They mowed through several teams Demolition style... before the ''real'' Demolition showed up and showed them how it was done.
28	* Paul Heyman created Wrestling/MikeyWhipwreck as an expy of "The Wrestling School" Dropout Jim Mulkey, a character from the late 1980s-1990s New England promotion ICW/IWCCW.
29	** Mikey gained an expy of his own in Colin Delaney of WWE's mediocre version of ECW.
30	* Wrestling/ChrisBenoit was an expy of Wrestling/DynamiteKid. Which is why the otherwise renowned technical wrestler did so many risky high flying moves, and why Benoit was so obsessed with his size, or lack thereof.
31	* Wrestling/BryanDanielson began his career as an expy of The Dynamite Kid, Chris Benoit, or possibly both before some DivergentCharacterEvolution. Although Danielson's problem was less size ([[Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter you're big, I'm not, you suck]]) and more on [[ButNotTooWhite pastyness]] and facial hair. Otherwise he was the same on-the-mat pit bull who also liked to jump around a lot.
32	* Davey Richards has also been viewed as an expy of Dynamite Kid, and he fit the [[TheNapoleon overly muscular angry short man better]] than Danielson while in Wrestling/DragonGate. To the point Danielson tried to name Richards as a successor in DG USA.
33	* ''Wrestling/DramaticDreamTeam'': Sanshiro Takagi himself is an Expy of Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin, right down to having the same glass shattering sound that begins his entrance music.
34	* Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} was seen by many people as an expy of [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin "Stone Cold" Steve Austin]] due to his bald head and similar outfit (basic black [[UnderwearOfPower trunks]] and boots), and how Wrestling/EricBischoff had famously told Austin that [[HilariousInHindsight a guy wearing such an outfit wasn't marketable.]] Goldberg's streak of {{squash\|Match}}es and the fact that he usually said very little, as opposed to Austin's usual involvement in 20-minute interviews, served to get him over and give him his own identity. Despite the appearance, Goldberg was much closer to 1980s ForeignWrestlingHeel [[Wrestling/NikitaKoloff "The Russian Nightmare" Nikita Koloff]], though what he was going for was a CaptainErsatz of Wrestling/DanSevern[[note]]Wrestling/EricBischoff thought he could book a fake MMA fighter better than the WWF could book [[Wrestling/KenShamrock a real one]]. As it turns out, he was right. In a pretty funny coincidence the real Dan Severn was Wrestling/{{NWA}} world champion right around this time[[/note]], which isn't so obvious because Goldberg looks ''nothing'' like him, no matter how closely he tries to copy his mannerisms.
35	** Goldberg seems to have gotten an expy of his own in Wrestling/{{Ryback}}, who shares his quiet intensity, short [[{{CatchPhrase}} catch phrase]], baldness, and goatee. Not that smarks would let anyone forget that.
36	* The Renegade was an Expy of [[Wrestling/UltimateWarrior The Ultimate Warrior]], and a pretty [[BlessedWithSuck poor one at that.]] In fact, he was Wrestling/{{WCW}}'s THIRD attempt at creating their own version of UW.
37	** In 1991, WCW created "Heavy Metal" Van Hammer, essentially UW as a [[DreadfulMusician heavy metal guitarist who didn't or couldn't actually play.]] He'd bring his guitar to the ring and do AirGuitar. Despite a really good match with [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]] at ''WCW Clash of the Champions XVIII'' on January 21, 1992 and his real-life friendship with Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage, he never accomplished much of anything, never winning a title in any promotion.
38	** In late 1993-1994, WCW introduced "Jungle" Jim Steele, essentially a cross between UW and Franchise/{{Tarzan}}. While his time in WCW didn't add up to much (he defeated the Equalizer [William Dannenhauer, best known as Wrestling/KevinSullivan's [[{{Kayfabe}} dyslexic]] [[UnrelatedBrothers brother]] Dave] at ''WCW [=SuperBrawl=] IV'' and never had a WCW PPV match again), he would go on to success in Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling and the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico under the names [[VideoGame/VirtuaFighter Wolf Hawkfield]] and the Lacrosse. He won the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/pr/wwc/wwc-tv.html WWC Television Title]], the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/pr/wwc/pr-h.html WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Title]] and the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/alljapan/asia-t.html All Japan Pro Wrestling All-Asian Tag Team Title]] with Johnny Smith.
39	** The Renegade went beyond being an expy to an outright CaptainErsatz for UW, as videos were shown of him acting very much like UW, and he had similar facepaint, screamed, no-sold and was billed from PartsUnknown. He defeated Wrestling/ArnAnderson for the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wcw/wcw-tv.html WCW World Television Title]] at the ''Great American Bash'' in June 1995 and lost it to Diamond Dallas Page that September. He never got another push, being reduced to {{Jobber}} status. The man who Hulk Hogan had said would take "Hulkamania into the 21st Century" never got to see it. WCW released him in late 1998 and he committed suicide on February 23, 1999 at the age of 33.
40	* Dave [=McLane=] will use similar character types repeatedly in his various promotions GLOW, POWW, and WOW, which will in turn be used by whatever promotions that imitate them (ex:Wrestling/{{Wrestlicious}}).
41	* Wrestling/{{Kane}} spawned [[Wrestling/TotalNonstopActionWrestling TNA]]'s Wrestling/{{Abyss}}, who was vaguely Kane like in NWA Wildside but a combination of Kane and [[Wrestling/MickFoley Mankind]] in TNA.
42	* Cryme Tyme (Shad Gaspard & JTG) of the Gangstas (Wrestling/NewJack & Mustafa) in [[Wrestling/{{SMW}} Smoky Mountain Wrestling]] and Wrestling/{{ECW}}, though, because they worked for a [[{{Wrestling/WWE}} big-money worldwide promotion]] and not, originally, a small independent in eastern Tennessee, Cryme Tyme were PlayedForLaughs rather than to provoke racial anger, worked a more traditional in-ring style as opposed to the [[GarbageWrestler hardcore]] style of the Gangstas, and without the success. (New Jack & Mustafa were 1x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tn/e/smw/smw-t.html SMW Tag Team Champions]] and 2x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/ecw/ecw-t.html ECW World Tag Team Champions]]. As Shad Gaspard & the Neighborhoodie, they held the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/ky/ovw/ovw-t.html OVW Southern Tag Team Titles]] in WWE's then-developmental promotion Ohio Valley Wrestling for two months.)
43	* [[Wrestling/JamesStorm Beer]] [[Wrestling/BobbyRoode Money Inc.]] was an expy of Wrestling/TheAPA; they even had [[Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}} the same manager.]]
44	* And TNA did expy versions of much older WWE characters. Orlando Jordan's playing with gay stereotypes bore a few similarities to Wrestling/{{Goldust}}. [[Wrestling/KenAnderson Mr. Anderson]] was the same type of loudmouth as Wrestling/TheMiz (who is an expy of Anderson back when he was Kennedy).
45	** Orlando Jordan is actually bisexual in real life. The gimmick was supposedly his idea, though who can say if he wanted it to be taken as far as or in the direction it was.
46	* WWE and TNA have been having a little game of back and forth with the same types of characters. Granted, they're common tropes, but one tends to pop up a few weeks or months after the other, making it look more like a blatant combo of expy and FollowTheLeader. Some Examples:
47	** AlphaBitch: Vince's Devils, Wrestling/TheBeautifulPeople, Wrestling/{{LayCool}}, Dollhouse, the [[Wrestling/SummerRae SLay]][[Wrestling/{{Layla}} ers]].
48	** Annoying Foreigner: Wrestling/DrewMcIntyre and [[Wrestling/NigelMcGuinness Desmond Wolfe]].
49	** Arrogant Pretty Boy: "Dashing" Wrestling/CodyRhodes, Wrestling/ZackRyder, and Wrestling/{{Magnus}}.
50	* [[Wrestling/AJLee Psycho!AJ]] was extremely similar to [[Wrestling/MickieJames Psycho!Mickie James]] from circa 2005. Both got rejected from their respective [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson love]] [[Wrestling/TrishStratus interests]] and acted erratically in retaliation while descending into insanity. Mickie took the the Women's Title from Trish at ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}}'' while AJ strung along Daniel and two of his rivals, then-current WWE Champion Wrestling/CMPunk and [[Wrestling/TeamHellNo future tag team partner]] Wrestling/{{Kane}} for ''months''[[note]]Punk and AJ would later [[Main/RomanceOnTheSet marry in real life]][[/note]]. The only really differences are how they reacted and the lesbian overtones of Mickie's storyline. One could deign to say that the main reason AJ became so popular is because her psycho gimmick is extremely similar to Mickie's, who became popular due to the gimmick.
51	* Wrestling/JackSwagger was basically a whinier, lamer Wrestling/KurtAngle — both are former amateur wrestlers who use the Ankle Lock as a finishing move, dress in the traditional singlet and are very, ''very proud'' of their amateur accomplishments. Both use American patriotism in their gimmicks.
52	* Wrestling/AlbertoDelRio and Wrestling/JohnBradshawLayfield are both expies of [[Wrestling/TedDiBiase Ted [=DiBiase=]]], in so far as being richer-than-thou characters who flaunt it in the face of the audience (given that a recession is always either around the corner or already in full swing, this always gets heat).
53	* Zeb Colter and Wrestling/JackSwagger essentially replayed Wrestling/SgtSlaughter's early 90's gimmick (used for a few months before he became an "Iraqi sympathizer" during the Gulf War). Slaughter targeted Wrestling/TitoSantana, Zeb and Swagger went after Wrestling/AlbertoDelRio, each basically claiming their opponent was in the United States illegally. And then Swagger even had a foreigner, [[Wrestling/ClaudioCastagnoli Antonio Cesaro]], as a partner, much as Slaughter eventually teamed with Col. Mustafa ([[Wrestling/TheIronSheik Iron Sheik]] repackaged as an Iraqi instead of an Iranian).
54	** Colter had a little bit of JBL in him as well, particularly doing the same anti-immigration angle that was done with Wrestling/EddieGuerrero with Alberto Del Rio. Ironic, considering Uncle Zebekiah was JBL's manager at one point.
55	** The Swagger-Cesaro team being called "The Real Americans" brings to mind the Wrestling/{{N\|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA "Real American Heroes" Wrestling/JoeyRyan and Wrestling/KarlAnderson. For added bonus WWE group feuded with "Los Matadores" as the NWA group had with "Los Luchas".
56	* What do you get when you cross the promotion dominating goals of the [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]] with the youth of the Natural Born Thrillers? Wrestling/TheNexus.
57	** Nowadays, it seems every new team that debuts just attacks random people for no real reason like the [=nWo=]. In the New Tens, we have had the aforementioned Nexus, the Corre, the Wrestling/{{Aces And Eights\|Wrestlers}} in TNA, Wrestling/TheShield, and the Wyatt Family.
58	* Mason Ryan not only looked very similar to Wrestling/{{Batista}}, but his role in the New Nexus was similar to the role Batista played when he was part of Evolution (namely, being [[TheBrute the largest, most physically imposing member]] of a four-man heel stable).
59	* Wrestling/CMPunk's world champion turn made him an expy of Wrestling/HarleyRace in the way of stating himself as the very best and how people MUST admit that they respect him. This is very similar to Race's heel run as "King" Harley Race where he told his opponents and detractors to bow and kneel before him. Whereas Race had Wrestling/BobbyHeenan, Punk had Wrestling/PaulHeyman. Punk even went as far as trimming his beard much like how Race's looked and wearing colors matching Race's at the time.
60	* Masa Kitamiya of ''Wrestling/ProWrestlingNOAH'' was portrayed as the second coming of Masa ''Saito'' — he used Saito's name, dressed like him in the ring, and did all of his moves. There isn't a great facial resemblance between them, though, so it's hard to say where this character came from.
61	* For a period during 2010 and 2011, WWE tried turning Wrestling/MichaelCole into a new version of Wrestling/VinceMcMahon[='=]s "Mr. [=McMahon=]" character. Unfortunately, it failed spectacularly, mostly because [=McMahon=] actually was [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the boss of WW(F/E)]], while Wrestling/MichaelCole was simply an announcer. Thankfully, WWE ended the experiment at Over The Limit 2011, with Cole returning to his neutral [[TheChewToy Chew Toy]] announcer role on Raw the night after — though he does still show a tendency to root for the {{heel}}s.
62	* YAMATO of Wrestling/DragonGate debuted as a successor to then-retired Yasushi Kanda, wearing Kanda's gear and performing his moves.
63	** Kzy's rapper character was partially based on "brother" Yasshi, including the use of the running Blockbuster move. The two had an amusing interaction when Yasshi returned to Dragon Gate in early 2016.
64	** Kotoka once wrestled as CIBA, a knockoff of Wrestling/{{CIMA}}. This gimmick was poorly-received and therefore short-lived, but Kotoka still uses the Meteora-based Caldera double stomp as his finishing move.
65	* The mysterious personas, penchant for random out-of-nowhere gang beatings, and 'outsider' gimmick of Wrestling/TheUndisputedEra recall the early days of Wrestling/TheShield — or, if you want to go back even further, the original [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]]. Even more appropriate would be Wrestling/BulletClub, since Wrestling/AdamCole was a member.
66	* Willie "Da Bomb" Richardson of Da Soul Touchaz calls himself [[RedBaron "The Urban-American Dream"]] after [[Wrestling/DustyRhodes "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes]], is {{Acrofatic}} like Big Dust was and sometimes uses Dusty's Bionic Elbow.
67	* Lakay operated on early Latin American Wrestling Entertainment shows in a very similar manner that Wrestling/{{Carl\|itoColon}}y operated early in his WWC career, dressing just like Carly, carrying a shovel like Carly and having the same attitude, if for different reasons than Carly. The biggest difference between the two is that Lakay wears a straw hat, like Carly's father, while Carly usually did all he could to distance himself from Carlos, but besides that, Lakay is basically to LAWE what Carly was to WWC back then.

Context Expy / ProWrestling