Posted in: Opinion, Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: Bray Wyatt, Doink The Clown, jake the snake roberts, kane, Mankind, Mick Foley, The Brood, undertaker, wwe, wwf

10 Creepiest WWE Superstars To Ever Haunt Your Halloween Season

Tomorrow is Halloween, and as we celebrate all things spooky and creepy, I wanted to take a look back into WWE history to pick the ten superstars who made my skin crawl the most.  WWE has featured some of the greatest heroes ever, but a hero is only as great as the villain they have to face, and some true monsters have haunted WWE over the years.  Enough out of me, let's make with the nightmares and take a look at who I think are the creepiest superstars in WWE history.

Bray Wyatt

Let's start with our most recent entry here, a man who is still creating genuine horror scenes every week on WWE TV, Bray Wyatt.  The cool and scary thing about Wyatt is that you can't pin down who or what exactly he is.  We've seen him evolve from an unstable bayou cult leader to a witch doctor to a ghostly, almost demonic being that can jump between realities. This would all read as completely ridiculous, of course, but it's Wyatt's performance in all of these incarnations that always makes them convincing and downright chilling, no matter how absurd they might be in their descriptions.

And then there's his current form, which appears to have the potential to be his most horrific.  We're now presented with a Bray Wyatt, who, as himself, is a sad and apologetic character for the things he's done in the past.  But he's also being haunted by a terrifying being who may or may not be another creation in his mind.  A being who we learned just this week on SmackDown in a jaw-dropping segment is named Uncle Howdy.

The Undertaker (Ministry of Darkness)

The Undertaker is the ultimate spooky wrestling superstar.  His whole character is based around being undead and all that.  But it was in 1999 when Taker found a new gear and really unleashed the horror potential in his character.  Since debuting in 1990, Taker had either been just a motiveless force of power and destruction (kind of like the shark in Jaws) or a sort of dark, gothic enforcer of justice.  But in any of those forms, he was never truly evil.  That changed with this incarnation when he became a vicious, bloodthirsty leader of a satanic-appearing cult where through brute force and brainwashing tactics, he would turn some of WWE's most lethal tough guys into his henchman in his reign of terror.

It was here that The Undertaker debuted a new appearance where he didn't just appear to be satanic, but maybe Satan himself.  He made the lives of Vince & Stephanie McMahon,  The Rock, and Stone Cold Steve Austin a literal living hell and it was here that we learned that it wasn't just a made-up accusation by Paul Bearer that he burned Kane as a child and murdered their parents, but that it was indeed true.

While the Ministry of Darkness came to a very lackluster ending when "the Higher Power" was revealed to be Vinny Mac himself in an unclear attempt to screw Austin, at its heights before then, Taker and his Ministry were one of WWE's true horror presentations.  I can tell you as someone in those arenas back then, every time that music (Undertaker's best theme too, by the way) hit and he slowly made his way out, the same thing happened every time: there was a pause where everyone kind of took it all in a maybe took a step back, and then proceeded to boo him as they collected themselves and remembered he's a heel.  And that wasn't just children reacting that way, it was the adult crowd who made up the majority of the audience in those good old days.

Kane

There are several versions of Kane that are genuinely frightening or disturbing (his initial form, the unhinged/unmasked psycho, his abhorrent political beliefs of today), but I'm going to focus on the Kane we first met in 1997.  Kane made an immediate and startling impact when we first saw him.  If The Undertaker was WWE's monster, then this was the monster that could destroy that monster.  He was huge, impervious to pain, and had an unsettling look and demeanor.  Taker was spooky, but Kane was scary. Here was a guy that you honestly couldn't think of anyone who could stop him.  He was the quiet, slow, id-fueled violence of Michael Myers mixed with the haunted revenge story of Jason Voorhees.  The original version of Kane is still arguably WWE's greatest monster of all time.

Mankind

In 2022 when people think of Mick Foley or even his character Mankind, you instinctually want to give him a big hug.  Mankind in 1996 was in a very different situation.  WWE had had several creeps, psychos, and monsters, but Mankind was all of those things and yet also something else.

There was an instant believability to Mankind, and while obviously, a massive part of that is due to Foley being one of the best performers ever, another large part is due to the sadness of the character.  If you think about it, every great monster has some tragedy and sadness surrounding them.  Mankind really leaned into that, especially when we learned that Mankind was one of the ordinarily peaceful and kind Mick Foley's dangerous alternate personalities, and he was the most deranged one at that.  There was a masked, scarred freak who took some odd joy in hurting himself, either by taking huge punishment in a match or by self-inflicted means when he'd stab himself or rip his hair out.  Imagine being locked in a room with Mankind in 1996.  That's nightmare fuel.

Waylon Mercy

Here's one that not many modern fans would know, but if you know, you know.  Waylon Mercy was a character played by veteran wrestler Dan Spivey in 1995 WWE, and that was part of the issue.  If you don't know, 1995 is widely considered the worst content year in wrestling history, and as such, some gems slipped through the cracks.  Waylon Mercy is a big one.

An eery, soft-spoken man who speaks poetically about just wanting to find peace and quiet.  It sounds nice until you start looking closer at what he's saying and then, especially when you see what he does in the ring.  Mercy was almost entirely based on Robert De Niro's charismatic psychotic character Max Cady in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear remake from 1991.  Mercy looked like a real monster heel waiting to be unleashed, but unfortunately, the character came at the very end of Spivey's career, and he was forced to retire that year due to injuries.

Even Bret Hart has said that it was an unfortunate case of wrong timing and that the Waylon Mercy character would have been a hit under different circumstances.  Proof of this is the obvious influence Mercy had on Bray Wyatt decades later, from his promos to his costume.  Spivey even voiced Mercy The Buzzard in Wyatt's Firefly Funhouse segments if you need further proof.  His time on TV was short, but the impact is still being felt today.

Mordecai

Mordecai should have worked better.  He had the look, the performance, and the character traits that were truly upsetting.  Here's a deranged religious zealot that wants to punish the world with violence for their "sins," and he looks like a creepy weirdo too.  The only problem was WWE in 2004 was in a very weird transition period between the Attitude Era (where this character probably would have fit in nicely) and the Ruthless Aggression/PG Era.  It just felt like there wasn't ground for Mordecai to stand on, and that's a shame because the vignettes teasing his arrival and his performance were very unsettling.

The Brood

They were vampires who rose up through a ring of fire.  You really don't need anything else.  And yet, while their entrance alone could have left fans satisfied, The Brood did bring more to the table.  They didn't just look like goofs playing vampires: they legit appeared to be doing the whole thing.  That included blood (or the "red viscous liquid," as they'd say on TV) which leader Gangrel would drink and spit into the crowd pre-match.  Or the bloodbaths they'd victimize their enemies with.  The Brood took what was maybe the silliest possible gimmick in the reality-fueled Attitude Era and gave it legit fangs.

Mideon

Kind of lost in the shuffle in the Ministry of Darkness between the Undertaker and The Acolytes was poor Dennis Knight, who would be abducted, tortured, brainwashed, and turned into the lost soul known as Mideon.

While not a major star, Mideon got your attention and creeped you out.  Knight was fully committed to the character and gave it his all, appearing to be almost inspired by Charles Manson deciple Squeaky Fromme in his loud and rambling adoration of The Lord of Darkness, down to his putting his symbol on his forehead in tribute.  Oh, and he carried a jar with an eye in it to the ring.  Mideon didn't have the longest run of terror, but it left an impression and probably upset quite a few viewers.

Jake "The Snake" Roberts

Here's a guy who brings live deadly snakes to the ring and attacks his opponents with them… and that's not why he's frightening.  Jake "The Snake" Roberts is arguably the greatest promo in wrestling history, and unlike most, if not all, of his peers on that list, he never screams.  He's always calm and cold-blooded, letting his eyes stare a hole through your soul and saying things with such conviction that you're honestly not sure whether he's acting or not.

And then there are his actions. Jake is a completely amoral, dangerous, and evil character capable of violence and sadistic behavior that few others have approached in WWE history.  I've mentioned many monsters on this list, but Jake is WWE's Hannibal Lecter.  Do you ever remember Lecter screaming or acting like a raving lunatic?  No, and that's what makes him and Jake so scary.  You know what they're capable of without any frills, and because of their eery calm at all times, you never know when they'll strike.

Doink The Clown

Clowns are scary as hell.  This is a universally accepted fact.  I don't even have a clown phobia, but I get it.  So now imagine a wrestling heel who is designed as someone who was a gifted technical wrestler but never got his break because he wasn't enough of a flamboyant showman.  So he becomes a clown to mock this assessment and sets out to terrorize and upset everyone.  This is how we met Doink The Clown.  I know he's become a silly and beloved fan favorite over the years, but when you go back to the beginning with the late great Matt Borne putting his all into it, Doink was pure sinister evil.

Doink is another great villain who could frighten you through a TV screen but was caught in the wrong era.  And his effect wasn't just felt in promos either.  In the ring, Doink would carry his unhinged and unstable characteristics with him, often creating more of a character performance than a traditional wrestling match.

And that's my list of who I think are WWE's creepiest stars in history.  Hopefully, this was a fun and spooky trip down memory lane.  Happy Halloween!

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