7 Wrestling characters played by multiple men.
Pro wrestling gimmicks are often inexorably tied to the person performing them. For example, can you imagine anyone but Steve Austin performing the Stone Cold character?
On the other hand, some special gimmicks are either so unique or easy to recast that they wind up having multiple wrestlers use them. The gimmick becomes something that is 'passed on' to the next generation.
Often this happens with masked wrestlers--because of the ease with which they may be replaced. After all, it could be anyone behind the mask, right? But sometimes it does not involve a mask at all.
For the purposes of our list, we're not going to count similar wrestlers--Hulk Hogan may have stolen his look from Superstar Billy Graham but was a different character. We're only going to consider those wrestlers who use the same name and/or character in the ring.
Here are seven wrestling gimmicks held by multiple performers.
Gimmick #1: The Nature Boy
First off, there's not a shadow of a doubt that the most successful performer to call himself the Nature Boy was Ric Flair. However, he was hardly the first Nature Boy.
That honour goes to Buddy Rogers, a major star of the 1940s wrestling scene. Rogers actually had a match against Ric Flair at one point, and Rogers would admit that Flair made better use of the gimmick than he ever did.
Buddy Landel was a contemporary of Flair's who started using the Nature Boy gimmick around the same era. However, unlike Flair, he did not utilize Roger's figure four leg lock but a spinning elbow drop as his finisher.
Landel and Flair had a few bouts against each other, which usually ended with Flair being victorious. It remains to be seen if anyone else will adopt the Nature Boy gimmick now that Ric Flair is officially retired.