Making his way to the ring... Dracula! (Part Three)

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve looked at Dracula’s occasional appearance in the wrestling ring, as well as the silver screen encounters between Mexico’s most famous luchador, El Santo, and the undying Count. But beyond Stoker’s creation, there is a surprisingly long and vibrant history of the vampiric character in the world of "pro rasslin’", which we’ll be exploring today!

One of the most famous vampire stables in wrestling was doubtless The Brood, led by Gangrel (depicted by David Heath), whose long hair, Gothic appearance and fanged front teeth caught immediate attention in the then-WWF. Add into this the entrance of drinking blood from a chalice and spitting it into the air and the vampiric presence was complete. 

While Gangrel himself would go on to have a long and solid career, his two Gothic disciples in The Brood would become even better known in the industry. Edge and Christian had found their way into wrestling together, and were an acclaimed tag team, taking part in the iconic Tables, Ladder and Chairs match at Wrestlemania 17. They would also become decorated singles wrestlers, and even into their 50s both are still plying their trade to great effect in AEW.

Another well-known vampire gimmick from WWE was that of Kevin Thorn and Ariel, who sadly had rather more limited success. Before the Kevin Thorn role, wrestler Kevin Fertig was briefly tried in a religious zealot role as Mordecai, but that gimmick was swiftly dropped. However, he would return to the ECW show in Gothic garb, accompanied by valet Ariel, who would hang upside down in the ropes like a bat as part of the ring entrance. None of Thorn, Ariel or the ECW brand itself were long for the company – the failure of the ECW revival is another story of itself – but the pair would continue wrestling and performing elsewhere.

Of course, I couldn’t explore this topic without a huge nod to Vampiro, a Canadian by birth who would make his way to Mexico in the early 90s, where the Vampiro Canadiense (Canadian Vampire) and in turn Vampiro was born. The iconic face paint and in-ring attitude carried the man behind the paint, Ian Hodgkinson, to great success as part of WCW in the US, where his rivalry with fellow face-painted icon Sting was some of the wildest content in wrestling in 2000, featuring a First Blood match, a graveyard attack and a Human Torch match. Vampiro remains a big name in Mexico in particular, with a long-standing association with AAA, and was recently seen on NWA programming as well.

And let’s close with the first man to go full vampire in the industry, Freddie Blassie. Blassie was a man with many monikers and gimmicks and spent a lot of time as a wrestler as well as a wrestling manager (for those new to the industry, managers would typically help with backstage interviews and in-ring promos, and would often interfere in matches on behalf of their clients). But as far back as the 1950s he was working under the nickname ‘The Vampire’ in Georgia Championship Wrestling, filing his teeth on camera and via a bit of clever work with blading was seen biting his opponents too! (Blading is a wrestling practice where a performer nicks themselves with a small blade to produce some blood.)

There have been a few others over the years, of course, but today we’ve covered some of the best-known vampires across a range of companies and promotions. I’m sure there will be more in years to come – after all, if anything, Dracula and the vampire seem to be getting ever more popular.