Which wrestlers scared you as a kid?

[Guest MrP]

At the top of my list would be Abdullah the Butcher. I only knew of Abdullah through the wrestling mags in the '70s, but that left enough of an impression! I used to have these nightmares about him; they would go something like this:

 

I'd be ringside at a wrestling match and suddenly, the Butcher would appear and his eyes would lock on mine with that crazed glare of his. He'd then start walking toward me with a fork or some other weapon. Of course, I'd run around the ring, trying to escape, slipping on spilled soda every five feet or so. I'm happy to say that he never actually caught me. Otherwise, I'd be using my forehead as a change purse right now.

 

Honorable mentions would be: the original Sheik, Ox Baker and Mark Lewin.

[Guest JohnFTW]

I started watching wrestling in 1989 (Which made me 8 years old). So the guy that used to terrify me was Norman the Lunatic, as crazy as that sounds. He had these weird promos saying he was coming to get me, lol.

[Aero 0]

Papa Shango, after used voodoo to set people on fire occasionally, and then the Warrior's face had that black stuff dripping down.

[Guest Auph10imitated]

The Bezerker actually scared me, he was so big and bolshy. Plus he no sold everything anyone ever gave him which made him seem pretty unstoppable, I remember him ripping up the mats outside in a mat at MSG I think on Prime Time and slamming his opponent (I think Jim Brunzell) on the concrete.

 

Abudullah The Butcher scared me, especially his obession with cuterlery.

 

I hated how Papa Shango made Warrior vomit like the exorsist, I hated Vomitting and couldnt watch that segment at all, id love too see it now, im praying it gets Youtubed at some point.

[swan 0]

Abdullah the Butcher and The Great Kabuki

[Darth Vader 0]

Not so much that he scared me, but I thought anybody who stepped in the ring against Yokozuna had BALLS. Back when he was on his killing spree in '93.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Jake Roberts as a heel. He had his fucking cobra attack Macho Man ferchristsake!

[geniusMoment 0]

Doink scared me in 93 when I was 8.

[King Kamala 0]

There's only been one; Andre The Giant. Jesus, I had nightmares until the time I was 12/13 about waking up in the middle of the ring and having Andre lumber after me trying to grab my neck and headbutt me to death.

 

 

 

I was a bit frightened when Jake Roberts sicked Damien on Randy Savage but I wasn't particularly afraid of Jake Roberts.

[razazteca 0]

Its kind of hard to be scared of something that is being promoted as a live action cartoon or circus sideshow act.

[Guest Auph10imitated]

Doink was quite scary, more so in a promo photo WWF magazine had of him once with sharp decaying bad teeth, like the film IT, I thought if he came out to the ring with those he would be terrifying.

 

Andre The Giant choking out Jake Roberts at Survivor Series 88 scared me, he is brutal its as if hes killing the guy.

 

Luna Vachon & Sensational Sherri had thier moments, not the sorta women id like to meet on a dark night

[Papacita 0]

I was scared to death of old school Taker. That gong especially used to bother my so much it's not funny.

[King Kamala 0]

I forgot about something.

 

 

 

 

Would you guys laugh at me if I told you there was a point where I was afraid of Giant Gonzalez? I don't know why but when I first started watching wrestling he scared the hell out of me.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Sid Vicious, but only after the scissors incident. After that I thought he was a psychopath who might break the act at any time and attack another wrestler or fan for real. I had thought he had been pretty much blackballed from the industry until he showed in the WWF in 1995.

 

Even when I first started watching at seven years old back in 1988, I knew wrestling was fake, but that incident went beyond the act. I used to like Sid prior to seeing that on the 6 o'clock news.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

It's a good thing I've had fifteen beers by this point to admit this:

 

The Berzerker and the Warlord scared the piss out of me when I was seven. I blame the Warlord's mask. Berzerker I can't explain.

[Guest 1916]

Papa Shango & The Berzerker both scared the shit out of me when I was a little kid. I was afraid of Vader too, when he wore the mastadon/elephant headpeice thing to the ring. One of the first PPV's I saw was GAB 92 or 93, where Vader beat Sting for the title. I used to have nightmares about Vader attacking me and Sting coming to make the save, only Vader would always end up beating the shit out of him before I woke up.

[cabbageboy 0]

Well, Vader was a pretty legit scary dude if you were his opponent, so I'd agree with that one. As far as stuff like Shango, I dunno. It weirded me out on some level as a kid, but I was about 12 at the time so I was a little too old to be scared of the guy. Ditto UT. Berserker used to make me laugh, I loved the "HUSS!"

 

Doink however? Yeah, he freaked me out originally. I am terrified even now of evil clowns.

[Epic Reine 0]

Old school Taker for me. I remember being especially scared at the 1994 Royal Rumble when he appeared on the titantron from inside the casket. That was just creepy to me at 7 years old.

[spman 0]

Nailz with that voice synthesizer he cut promos with scared me shitless

[Guest Auph10imitated]

The Nailz jail promos for his debut was creepy.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Well, I was only exposed to WWF when I was really young, so I'd say Earthquake was pretty darn scary to me. He seemed like he'd legitimately kill someone in the ring, and then probably laugh about it later.

 

Oh, and one other...I think I only saw him in one televised match, but Killer Kahn also frightened me. I saw him squash some poor jobber, and use the mist on him. I swear this jobber was bleeding to, but my memory is probably foggy (since I doubt much blading happened on late '80s WWF TV). Anyway, he just abused this guy in the ring, and it definitely made an impression on me.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Earthquake

Yokozuna

Bam Bam Bigelow

Diesel

Papa Shango

Waylon Mercy

heel Bob Backlund

The Undetaker

Vader

Mankind

[Angelus 0]

Ax and Smash from Demolition ... Man they scared me to death, in fact i used to switch the channel when They were coming to the ring. I was also scared of Outlaw Ron Bass cause of his attack on Brutus Beefcake before SummerSlam 88.

[Guest DogOn]

When I was 9 a teenager jumped on top of my head while a bunch of us were 'play wrestling' in a pool... He was playing as the Undertaker. it was years because I could enjoy an Undertaker match.

[Guest MrP]

These are all great posts. It's funny to remember those days, isn't it? There's one name that I left out and, surprisingly, I didn't see him mentioned elsewhere: Bruiser Brody. Brody was a big, tall, and very unpredictable guy and - like Abdullah - he bled all the time. Even worse than Abdullah, he could've surely caught me!

[David Blazenwing 0]

I've never been scared by a wrestler, per se (having only been a fan since 2002, when I was 16) but I do recall feeling concerned after

 

a) Shane McMahon kicking Kane into a flaming dumpster on raw in 2003

 

and

 

b) Big Show chokeslamming Kurt Angle off the balcony in 2004, leading to his "injury"

 

I realized they were both fake, and even did at the time, but right when it happened, my first thought was "holy shit..."

 

Then of course, I just wanted to see how they explained it come next week.

 

Kane had a bandaid. Angle had a fake cast.

 

Yay, continuity!

[Special K 0]

In terms of genuinly being scared for the wrestler:

 

Seeing Brock Lesnar do the shooting star faceplant live was fucking scary. I knew he could so a SSP, and was all excited, and then fucking SPLOMP. I thought he was seriously dead.

[Guest MrP]

These are all great posts. It's funny to remember those days, isn't it? There's one name that I left out and, surprisingly, I didn't see him mentioned elsewhere: Bruiser Brody. Brody was a big, tall, and very unpredictable guy and - like Abdullah - he bled all the time. Even worse than Abdullah, he could've surely caught me!

I also left out Stan Hansen, who I found to be quite frightening.

[tigeraid 0]

Definitely Andre the Giant for me. His heel promos where he'd do that slow maniacal badass laugh. It wasn't so much the laugh, but the fact that his mouth, full of yellow teeth, was wider than my entire head and he was grinning like a skull when he did them.

 

Not as scary, but this pic helps:

 

[swan 0]

Its kind of hard to be scared of something that is being promoted as a live action cartoon or circus sideshow act.

 

 

Oh yeah? I think circus clowns are the most evil, scary things on this earth.