Most Controversial Wrestling Gimmicks of All-Time

Wrestling is a hardcore combat sport that gets its dramatic flair from the gimmicks professional wrestlers embrace to present themselves in front of an audience. It’s their entire in-ring persona, including the character they play, their mannerisms, their flamboyant costumes, and their peculiar traits. 

One of the most prominent gimmicks in the wrestling world is that of The Undertaker, who takes on the fiery persona of an und$$d mortician. Mark Calaway, who immortalized the epic ring name, never broke character his entire career. While some gimmicks work exceptionally well and are primarily likable, there are a few controversial ones that the audience disagrees with and disengages with. Here are those that crossed the line and proved offensive at times. 

Ted DiBiase’s The Million Dollar Man 

Technically, The Million Dollar Man remains one of the best wrestlers and greatest villains of the pro-wrestling era. Portrayed by the great Ted DiBiase for decades, the fictional character wasn’t controversial. It was the connection that the persona shared with his “man-servant” Virgil that the audience felt uncomfortable with. 

Often, Virgil was commanded to serve his master, the Million Dollar Man, in humiliating ways that the viewers found offensive. The fact that an African American wrestler who played Virgil was subjected to servitude did not sit well with the fans. Most of the performances drew comparisons to slavery and aimed at the NWA booker Dusty Rhodes making the entire thing unpalatable. 

The Controversial Mexicools Trio 

The Mexicools burst into the limelight in the mid-2000s wearing matching blue coveralls and driving John Deere lawnmowers into the ring. Three Mexican wrestlers who had ample experience in WWE - Juventud, Super Crazy, and Psicosis made up the stable and pretty much signed up to parody how their community was viewed as nothing but laborers. 

While the tag team’s stereotypical gimmick worked initially, people quickly got tired of the repeated association with how Latino immigrants were mainly seen as gardeners and laborers. Years after the match, people still recall their feud with another stable Full Blooded Italians on the WWE television program *Velocity*, especially on racial stereotypes. 

Shawn Stasiak’s Brief Stint as Meat

Shawn Stasiak is a practicing Chiropractor and a motivational speaker, but there was a time when he followed in his famous father Stan Stasiak’s footsteps as a professional wrestler. In 1999, he made his debut as Meat in an episode of the television program *WWE Heat.*

The character’s brief was embarrassingly simple; he was the valet and the young lover of another stable, Pretty Mean Sisters, composed of three women wrestlers. His “lack of energy” was quickly attributed to his role as Meat when Shawn went on a losing spree at one point. His professional career came to an early end, and he moved on to greener pastures.