Seeing that Indio Guajiro ripped off our Masambula, even his name, when wrestling in South America, I just came to wonder how many other visiting foreigners checked out the British scene and then copied when they wrestled elsewhere.
There was the Japanese with the painted face who wrestled not without success stateside as Kendo Nagasaki.
Were there many others?
American wrestler, Chris Colt, was in a Hells Angels tag team, late 1960's I think. Not sure if that team pre-dates Adrian and Bobby.
I think the Dr. Death nickname is just coincidence. Steve Williams got that nickname in junior high school when he broke his nose and had to wrestle in a hockey goaltender's mask (this was pre-Friday the 13th or he'd probably have been nicknamed Jason). Jerry Lawler's King gimmick, while hardly original, also pre-dates the Harts' appearances in UK rings by several years.
Good call John, I knew there had to be more. The King of the Ring and the guitar to-boot - sure, all fits. They copied Goldbelt for sure.
Dr Death copied too - but can we count the originator as British? Yeah, one of ours like Masambula.
I was rather thinking that The Hells Angels had been copied. I don't think they copied anyone else (Garfield a bit, folding the robes.) So they gradually developed their show over three years - and then only milked it for two.
Was Mike Marino copied by Mario Milano in Australia? I saw Milano in Australia, it was a similar style, and a blatant pitch to attract Italian immigrants.
I read somewhere once that one of the Hart brothers, when he was wrestling in this country, had seen Brian Maxine wrestling, with his arrogant, cocky image, wearing a crown into the ring and when the Hart brother went back to Canada they started using this image for their wrestler Wayne Ferris, who later became The Honky Tonk Man. This image was later also copied in the USA by Jerry 'The King' Lawler.
The worst and most blatant copy has to be our own Bernie Wright, who pinched Bearcat Wright's name. The American Bearcat had used that same moniker as a wrestler, as his dad had used when being a very good boxer, who's career started way back in 1919!
In the early 80s, Stampede in Canada had a Big Daddy Ritter (better known later as the Junk Yard Dog) and Florida had a Big Daddy. It's possible they were taken from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as well, though Stampede in particular was aware of the British scene. An odd one that goes in both directions was Samoan wrestler Peter Anderson who came to the UK and was renamed by a promoter here who'd seen the name of wrestler Neff Maiava. The promoter made a mistake in adopting the name and Anderson became Peter Maivia, which led to his grandson wrestling for the WWF as Rocky Maivia before eventually becoming The Rock.
What about that Japanese Kendo Nagasaki and the Dr Death name copied by an American.
I am struggling to come up with any but remember that Max Crabtree used to love to give British Wrestlers names of well known US Wrestlers, Greg Valentine and Black Jack Mulligan immediately come to mind.