Line #23 Wrestling/Boogeyman


1	[[quoteright:252:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theboogeyman_5774.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:252:He's coming to get you!]]
3	->''I'm the BOOGEYMAN!...And I'm coming to GET YOU!''
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5	Martin "Marty" Wright (born July 15, 1964) is an American actor and {{Professional Wrestl\|ing}}er best known for his time in Wrestling/{{WWE}} from 2005-2009 as The Boogeyman. Wright had tried out for ''Wrestling/WWEToughEnough'' but was rejected after he admitted that he had lied about his age. Despite this, he got a developmental deal and was assigned to [=WWE=]'s farm league Ohio Valley Wrestling, who ran a storyline about him snooping around and causing mischief on their property. In July of 2005, vignettes started airing on ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown WWE [=SmackDown!=]]]'' promoting "The Boogeyman," all of which ended with [[{{CatchPhrase}} "I'm the Boogeyman, and I'm coming to get you!"]].
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7	On the October 18th episode, Palmer Cannon (real name Brian Mailhot, aka New England indy wrestler Brian Black), in his [[{{Kayfabe}} role]] as [[Creator/{{UPN}} UPN Network]] [[CorruptCorporateExecutive representative]], told ''WWE [=SmackDown=]'' General Manager Mr. Theodore R. Long that ''The Boogeyman'' was going to be a new show on the network, then [[{{Kayfabe}} explained]] that something had "happened on the set," but that they had a multi-year holding deal with the guy who was supposed to be the star and that in his opinion "the Boogeyman" would be a great addition for Smackdown, then introducing Long to the Boogeyman himself. Boogeyman recited a shortened version of the "NeverSleepAgain" chant from ''Film/{{A Nightmare On Elm Street\|1984}}'', substituting himself for Freddy Krueger, before smashing a clock over his own head and saying, "I'm the Boogeyman, and I'm coming to get you!" Boogeyman would compete on ''[=SmackDown!=]'' and [=ECW=] TV from December 2005 to March 2009.
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9	Boogeyman would win his first title belt in 2015, becoming one half of the Alabama Wrestling Federation's tag team champions with Wrestling/BobbyLashley
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11	In late 2015, the ''WWE'' announced that he had signed a legends contract with them[[note]]A legends contract is an agreement to make non-wrestling appearances every so often[[/note]].
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13	Not to be confused with the 1980 horror film ''Film/TheBoogeyman1980''. For the imaginary being used to frighten children, see ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight.
14	----
15	!! "THE BOOGEYMAN is coming to get you if you don't read these tropes!":
16	* AbhorrentAdmirer: Seemed to be this towards Wrestling/JillianHall and Sharmell, with the expected results.
17	* ArchEnemy
18	** In succeeding order: Wrestling/JohnBradshawLayfield, Wrestling/BookerT, Finlay, Wrestling/MarkHenry, [[Characters/WWECommentators Matt Striker]] and Big Daddy V.
19	** UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, who Wright has since claimed "didn't want to sell the gimmick."
20	** Wrestling/TheUndertaker in ''[[VideoGame/WWEVideoGames [=SmackDown=] vs. RAW 2009]]''.
21	* BarrierBustingBlow: What OVW's attempts to seal off potential Boogeyman entrance points resulted in, that is when he wasn't already inside to begin with.
22	* BlackEyesOfCrazy: His eyes inexplicably turned black when he went to get his revenge on Big Daddy V.
23	* CanonDiscontinuity: Boogeyman's original gimmick in OVW, directly inspired from Wright's own tenure in the show under his real name, was that of a crazed Tough Enough contestant who wanted to be a wrestler despite his elimination. In WWE, Boogeyman was {{RetCon}}ned to a crazed actor who participated in a TV series and got too much into the character. While those two backgrounds are admittedly not impossible to reconcile in storyline, the former was never mentioned again once he moved up.
24	* CarryABigStick: Carried a pretty impressive wooden staff with [[OminousFog orange smoke coming out of it]]. It was mostly for show, however, and he only used it as an offensive weapon in a couple of occasions.
25	* CatchPhrase: "I'm the Boogeyman, and I'm coming to get you!"
26	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: In-character is an understatement, but even before getting the Boogeyman gimmick, Wright competed in Tough Enough with domino mask-like black makeup and a triangular haircut.
27	* CompanionCube: The various clocks he carried with him and smashed over his own head. He could be found in random locations backstage reciting rhymes and poems to them. If not to them, then to a heart he wore as a necklace and squeezed.
28	* ConfusionFu: To the point that it really took some time before any of his opponents were able to put together any kind of offensive strategy against him, since he had such a psychological advantage before the match even started. Even his wrestling style, while relatively simple and power based, was unpredictable enough to catch his opponents off guard.
29	* DarkIsNotEvil[=/=]CreepyGood: Despite his overall creepiness, Boogeyman definitely seemed to be a force of good in his own, weird way.
30	* DefeatMeansFriendship: Years after being defeated in his feud against Finlay, Boogeyman came to save him from Wrestling/JohnMorrison and Wrestling/TheMiz in ECW and teamed up with him against them. In a related example, Finlay would team up with Little Boogeyman in National Wrestling Superstars after the former's release from WWE.
31	* {{Determinator}}: Wrestled his match with Booker T and his wife Sharmell at ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} XXII'' with torn left biceps. The match was kept particularly short for that reason. However, since Boogeyman's matches tended to be pretty short already, it's doubtful anyone noticed a difference.
32	* DiabolusExNihilo: Very much booked this way and his character certainly lent itself to it. Aside from the vague backstory about his being switched from the fictitious TV show to ''[=SmackDown!=]'', no other background was given for him and his motivations were never explained, beyond threatening to make people face their fears. As part of the build to his proper TV in-ring debut, he'd often just show up or be found in some unlikely place (see PlaygroundSong and ShoutOut below), [[WaxingLyrical recite lyrics]] or just scare/confuse people. It was absolutely ''necessary'', though, since, unlike Wrestling/{{Kane}} or the original heel Wrestling/DoinkTheClown, who would randomly attack people and explain it later, the ''last'' thing that Boogey should have been made to do is explain himself.
33	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: In his PPV debut, at ''Wrestling/RoyalRumble 2006'', defeated John "Bradshaw" Layfield in a mere '''1:56'''. [=JBL=] ''acknowledged'' this after, talking about how he had been so dominant as [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWE World Heavyweight Champion]], and Boogeyman just beat him with ease.
34	* DissonantSerenity: While he always shouted his catch phrase with insane eyes and laughs, Boogeyman was relatively soft spoken for a professional wrestler almost every other time he talked.
35	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: One of his first looks in OVW featured brown and black makeup and ''antlers''.
36	* EvilLaugh[=/=]LaughingMad: He laughed a lot while stalking other wrestlers backstage, like an evil laugh. On the other hand he clearly was mad since he believed himself to be the Boogeyman.
37	* EvilSmellsBad: The orange smoke that came out of his wooden staff.
38	* ExecutiveMeddling: An InUniverse example: Palmer Cannon adding Boogeyman to ''[=SmackDown!=]'' as part of his "New Talent Initiative."
39	* {{Expy}}:
40	** His gimmick/character was often compared to [[Wrestling/CharlesWright Papa Shango]], although certainly less classically Voodoo and more... whatever Boogeyman was.
41	** His facepaint, creepy look and twisty movements inevitably evoke [[Wrestling/KeijiMutoh The Great Muta]], especially judging [[OhCrap the reaction]] he elicites in his opponents and the fact that he ends usually being a good guy despite his darkish presence. He even used his worms to gain advantage over his opponents like Muta's Asian mist.
42	** Notably, Boogeyman got his own expy in Wrestling/DragonGate's character Gamma Daio.
43	* FacialMarkings: Pictured is the usual pattern, but he had others.
44	* FinishingMove: His main finisher was the Goodnight (a pumphandle powerslam), though his first one in the WWE was the Boogeyslam or Supernatural Driver (an inverted falling slam, facefirst to the ground), which only used once before adopting a falling chokebomb fan-nicknamed as Boogeybomb. He also had a rarely used diving splash and an unnamed finisher in OVW which saw him lifting two-handed an opponent by the neck and chokeslamming him one-handed to the side.
45	* {{Flanderization}}: The worm-eating schtick became more and more of a focus until it was all Michael Cole would talk about on commentary during Boogeyman segments.
46	* FolkMusic: Sang "Oh My Darling, Clementine", with alive worms crawling around his head, to [[Wrestling/MikeBucci Simon Dean]] before their match, Boogeyman's TV in-ring debut, on the December 2, 2005 episode of ''[=SmackDown!=]''.
47	* FreakyIsCool: The crowds would explode when he went for his bag once they got used to his {{force feeding}} routine. When he caught [[Wrestling/KatarinaWaters Katie Lea]] for interfering in his match with Paul Burchil, even Matt Striker admitted he kind of wanted to see her get wormed.
48	* FunPersonified: He was very entertaining, but was never pushed as a threat to any of the champions of the time. See No Hit Wonder on the Trivia page.
49	* HardHead: He smashed clocks over his own head to freak out other wrestlers, often wrestling with the glass ''still in his head''.
50	* HeroicBuild: He was a bodybuilder before he got into wrestling, and retained a signficantly ripped build. Wrestling/MichaelCole and Wrestling/{{Tazz}} both acknowledged his strength during the replay of the finish of his match against Simon Dean on the December 2, 2005 ''[=SmackDown!=]''.
51	* HesBack
52	** He left wrestling in February 2012, but [[TenMinuteRetirement came back in July]].
53	** On November 1, 2013, WWE posted [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gf4Utid_B0 this video]] on their Website/YouTube channel.
54	** Made an appearance at Royal Rumble 2015, facing Wrestling/BrayWyatt. It was very short, but just as disturbing as it sounds.
55	* HollywoodVoodoo: Actually not part of the gimmick, but King Booker accused him of practicing some strange form of voodoo, playing the trope straight. Wrestling/JimCornette also described his prop as a "voodoo stick".
56	* HonoraryTrueCompanion: As odd as it sounds, Boogeyman is honorary member of D-Generation X, along with The Great Khali and Hornswoggle. It happened basically because he (well, all of them) politely asked to participate in a special reunion of the stable and the official members couldn't see a reason to say no. As put by Wrestling/TripleH, "you can't have enough nerds, freaks, and weirdos."
57	* HornedHumanoid: He originally had antlers in OVW but they kept sliding off to the side.
58	* HumanoidAbomination: Quite possibly. Once WWE abandoned the whole backstory about the cancelled TV show, they were left with no logical InUniverse explanation as to ''what'' Boogeyman was and why he acted the way he did, only that he was scary, strong, capable of functioning with glass stuck in his head, and utterly unpredictable.
59	* ImprobableHairstyle: When he was not bald, he is know for a low triangular cut in the front with none behind it.
60	* {{Keet}}: Him jumping back and forth on the ring apron while Kane refused to tag out.
61	* KingpinInHisGym: ''Wrestling/BobbyLashley vs Boogeyman'' starts out with Boogeyman interrupting Lashley's as he starts to play this kind of sequence out.
62	* LampshadeHanging: The backstory about his being switched from the (fictitious) abandoned TV show to ''[=SmackDown=]''. Eventually, all of that was abandoned too.
63	* LightningBruiser: Not only strong, Boogeyman was surprisingly agile. Aside from his usual power moves, he could do high leapfrogs, and in 2007 he unveiled a diving splash in which he jumped more than half of the ring before landing on his opponent.
64	* LostInCharacter: While we don't know what happened on the set of his proposed UPN show that cause it to be cancelled, we do know that he was merely supposed to be playing the Boogeyman before coming to believe he really was Boogeyman. Despite this, he still followed Palmer Cannon's orders to an extent.
65	* MeaningfulName: His role in OVW to randomly attack {{heel}}s or any wrestlers who call him by name suddenly makes more sense when you remember a Boogeyman's purpose is to {{scare em straight}} and the Bible warns about calling the names of certain things, a being from the pit would probably be one of them.
66	* MiniMook: Little Boogeyman, brought in to torment Wrestling/{{Hornswoggle}} during [=Boogeyman=]'s feud with Finlay. Little Boogeyman was not as effective as the big guy, though.
67	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: It means living embodiment of terror, in case you did not know. The ECW commentators noted "the bottomless pit" is the prison for demons in the Bible.
68	* NeckLift: Gives one to Bobby Lashley in a promotional video, and otherwise uses several chokeslam-type finishers.
69	* NoSell: Often would simply gyrate with a bemused expression on his face when struck rather than show pain. Finlay needed a shillelagh to hurt him, and he also no sold a ''slingshot dropkick'' from Wrestling/JohnMorrison to the WWECW announce team's horror (though Morrison got him to sell a strike to the throat though - guess he still needs to breathe).
70	* NothingIsScarier: Type 3 (HeWasRightThereAllAlong). On the November 11, 2005 ''Wrestling/{{WWE SmackDown}}'', there was a scene with Wrestling/{{Edge\|Wrestler}} and Wrestling/{{Lita}} backstage with Edge talking about how ''[=SmackDown!=]'' [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure General Manager]] Wrestling/TeddyLong putting him in a Street Fight against Wrestling/{{Batista}} can't happen and that he was going to talk some sense into Batista and that he was going to put some security on the door so nobody could come into the room. Edge walked out and the room got briefly dark before lighting up again and THE BOOGEYMAN popped up from behind the couch! He told the scared Lita, "Close your eyes! [[CatchPhrase I'm the Boogeyman, and I'm coming to get you!"]], sending Lita screaming from the room.
71	* OddFriendship:
72	** With [=Kane=], and even then it took the big red machine a while to get used to Boogeyman. The first time they tagged together Kane spent ten minutes in the ring before he even ''considered'' tagging Boogeyman in and would stay in another four before doing so. After Boogeyman cleaned up Dave Taylor and William Regal Kane finally took to Boogeyman but still would not accept his "gifts".
73	** In real life, with Wrestling/BobbyLashley. They even feature some funny vids together in Website/YouTube.
74	* PartsUnknown: "The Bottomless Pit", an even more bizarre location than PartsUnknown.
75	* PayEvilUntoEvil: Boogeyman used to appear in development leagues to attack other scary monsters like him. Among other deeds, he unmasked OVW's resident psycho Jacob Duncan and chased DSW's [[Wrestling/DrewHankinson Freakin Deacon']] to eat his pet spider. He also devoured Wrestling/JillianHall's facial tumor, which was probably not [[{{Pun}} malignant]] but nonetheless made her unhappy.
76	* PerkyFemaleMinion: Sometimes managed by [[Wrestling/JackieGayda Jackie Haas]] in the independent circuit.
77	* PlaygroundSong: Sang "London Bridge Is Falling Down" to Wrestling/JohnCena on the November 21, 2005 ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw Raw]]''[[note]]The show was in Sheffield, England that week[[/note]] when Cena randomly opened a closet door while looking for other wrestlers, so he could ask them their opinions about Wrestling/KurtAngle. The Boogeyman then smashed the clock over his own head.
78	* PopularityPower: Was ''supposed'' to be a heel, but even when he went after the super popular [[Wrestling/MickieJames Alexis Laree]] fans were chanting "Boogeyman". It is not that fans wanted to see him hurt her, just that he was so funny and charismatic that they couldn't help but love him.
79	* PowerBornOfMadness: The only real way to explain most of his "monster" tropes like his ability to turn out the lights, since it was admitted on screen Boogeyman was just an actor gone mad as opposed to a [[Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom Yeti]] or something.
80	* PutOnABus: Released in September 2006. TheBusCameBack less than a month later before being released again in 2009, and then came again in the 2012 Slammys, if only for a brief cameo.
81	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: His first gimmick in OVW was based on Wright's own performance in Tough Enough, which included lying about his age.
82	* RefugeInAudacity: Eating worms, wrestling a match, and then forcing his fallen opponent to eat the worms by regurgitating them straight from his mouth into theirs. How about eating a giant mole off of Jillian Hall's face?
83	* RuleOfCool: He smacked himself over the head with a ''clock'', setting off the pyro during his entrances, and he wrestled with ''glass stuck in his head!'' What more do you need?
84	* ScareChord: Okay, scare keys. His WWE entrance theme starts with what sounds like an elbow on a piano.
85	* ShoutOut: Sang [[Film/MaryPoppins "A Spoonful of Sugar"]] to John "Bradshaw" Layfield on the November 25, 2005 ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown WWE SmackDown]]'', while eating something from a bowl, when [=JBL=] found him in a van in the garage while looking for "''[=Raw=]'' guys trying to invade my show," during the build to the Team ''[=Raw=]''[[note]]Wrestling/ShawnMichaels[=/=][=Kane=][=/=]Wrestling/BigShow[=/=]Wrestling/{{Carlito\|Colon}}[=/=]Chris Masters[[/note]]-Team ''[=SmackDown=]''[[note]]John "Bradshaw" Layfield[=/=]Wrestling/RandyOrton[=/=]Wrestling/{{Batista}}[=/=]Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr[=/=]Wrestling/BobbyLashley[[/note]] match at ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries'' that Sunday. Boogeyman said his catchphrase, smashed the clock (which had gone off) over his head, took another spoonful of whatever was in the bowl, did his evil laugh and called JBL a "noob."
86	* SpeakOfTheDevil: In OVW he would soon appear by, and usually squash, who ever spoke his name.
87	* SquashMatch: Many of his matches fell into this category.
88	* SummonBiggerFish: He was the reason Matt Striker brought in Big Daddy V. He is also the reason Zombie showed up in National Wrestling Superstars, though Zombie was a much less successful example.
89	* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: His original angle was him as a psychologically troubled man, believed but unproven to have a history of legal trouble, who believed himself to be the Boogeyman. He had a strong desire to become a professional wrestler, which lead him to continually trespass on OVW property, always coming up with new ways to elude OVW's security.
90	* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: He thinks he is one anyway.
91	* ToothyIssue: A couple of his front teeth got knocked out during training but he decided that the new look fit the gimmick better so he kept it that way. It made chewing motions while keeping the worms alive for regurgitation easier, for instance. During his late run, he got dentures.
92	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: He eats '''''worms'''''.
93	* WalkingShirtlessScene: Subverted in OVW, where he completed his black attire with a matching vest. He ditched it before hitting WWE.
94	* WhenYouComingHomeDad: He claimed to be Vince [=McMahon=]'s bastard son (it was Hornswoggle, and actually all was a prank by Finlay, both of whom where Boogeyman's enemies). It would make somehow sense, given what Boogeyman believes about himself and people calling Vince [=McMahon=] Satan for years, though probably Boogey was claiming it only to join the party like many other wrestlers.
95	* WrestlingMonster: The rare baby {{face}} variety.
96	* WrestlingPsychology: Since his matches tend to be over quickly, he had to make up for it by becoming a master at scaring his opponents before he even got into the ring.
97	* WolverineClaws: Wore a clawed glove in ''Bobby Lashley vs Boogeyman'', parodying Freddy Krueger.

Context Wrestling / Boogeyman