Pro wrestling is as popular as ever, with over fourteen million fans tuning in to watch the action unfold during each broadcast. Tons of merchandise is available, from shirts to action figures. But none of it would exist without the most important aspect of the sport: interesting characters.

Since the sport's humble beginnings, wrestlers have developed characters that run the gamut from menacing to downright silly. Some wrestlers will change their name and persona multiple times during their careers, while others become so loved that they even respond to their stage name while in public.

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Whether they assume the role of protagonist or antagonist (also called a heel), a unique character helps a wrestler stand out from the crowd. Here are some of the strangest, most successful, or most original wrestlers to ever climb into a ring.

The Undertaker is one of the most popular wrestlers in history. Merely hearing the cemetery bells that mark his entrance is enough to set the crowd into a frenzy. Modelled after an old west mortician, the Undertaker is so recognizable that most people who aren't wrestling fans can recognize him. Winner of numerous titles, the Undertaker has been involved in some of the industry's most memorable bouts. In his early days The Undertaker was often accompanied by his manager Paul Bearer, who was just as entertaining to watch as the Undertaker.

The Honky Tonk Man is on the opposite side of the spectrum. Combining elements of an Elvis impersonator with a country-western singer style, Honky Tonk Man became a surprisingly big star in the eighties and nineties, winning an Intercontinental Championship title with his unique finishing move, the “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”. Cocky and prone to cheating to win his matches, Honky Tonk Man will go down as one of the most memorable wrestlers ever.

Jake the Snake, while his appearance in the wrestling documentary “Beyond the Mat” showed a broken man, was insanely popular during the late eighties. He even hosted a talk-show segment called “The Snake Pit”. Accompanied to the ring with a giant python stuffed into a bag, Jake the Snake fought some of the biggest names in pro wrestling, including Andre the Giant and Macho Man Randy Savage, who suffered one of the most unusual  wrestling injuries ever when he was bitten by one of Jake's devenomed king cobras.

No profession went untouched by pro wrestling, and Issac Yankem DDS played to everyone's aversion to dentists. Yankem was an insane dentist with horrible teeth. His reign was short lived, and he quickly faded into memory.

The Gobbledy Gooker was a giant turkey that actually hatched from an egg during World Wrestling Federation's Survivor Series in 1990. It never even wrestled. Once it emerged, it did a short dance before being booed out of the ring. Thankfully, the Gobbledy Gooker never returned to wrestling.

Finally, no list of great character's would be complete without mentioning WCW's Arachnaman. A blatant copy of the Spiderman comic book character, Arachnaman took to the ring spraying silly string everywhere and trying to display superhuman agility. The character didn't last long at all—a copyright infringement lawsuit chased him into obscurity.

This is by no means a complete list of the wrestling world's most colourful characters. There are simply too many to discuss—you could talk for days about all the interesting personas who have graced the ring over the years, and everyone has their favorites. One thing is for sure, however. Wrestling will keep giving us a plethora of characters to entertain us for decades to come.