10 Most Flamboyant Performers In Wrestling History

Flamboyance is defined as a person or their behavior tending to attract attention because of their exuberance, confidence, and stylishness. That being said, practically every single wrestler ever has a little bit of flamboyance to them, especially in a major company like WWE or AEW. So figuring out which ones are truly flamboyant can be an arduous task.

Do you pick the flashiest? The most braggadocios? The best and smoothest workers? Perhaps a swath of wrestlers that have most of those traits and a helluva lot more. That’s what flamboyant means as far as the wrestling industry goes. And when you have to go big in a theater sport like wrestling, you have to be flamboyant to stick out.

10 Rick The Model Martel

As a solid technician who traveled the world and even won the AWA Championship before heading to the WWE, Rick Martel is a (no pun intended) model for how to take a career and turn it up a notch. After turning on Tito Santana and disbanding Strike Force, the Quebecer underwent a completely different character change.

He became The Model, a self-centered and arrogant piece of work. He even carried around his own cologne called Arrogance, which according to the babyface announcers stunk up the arenas, and to the heels it smelled fantastic.

9 Vince McMahon

The owner of the WWE flaunts his stuff whenever he can, consequences be damned - which is sort of the very embodiment of what flamboyance is. Whether as the character of Mr. McMahon or the real-life Vince McMahon, there’s nothing The Chairman doesn’t do in life without a shred of flamboyance.

Every announcement, every decision he had ever made - even as he faced scrutiny, he stepped right in the middle of the ring and made an appearance. He has always lived his life with a ton of bravado.

8 Ravishing Rick Rude

Heading to the ring with gorgeous velvet robes immediately signaled Ravishing Rick Rude was anything but flamboyant. Then right before he’d disrobe to reveal a physique that at the time was not seen in wrestling, he would deride the out-of-shape crowd for their lack of one.

Not only would Rude reveal his washboard abs, but Rude would also have the audacity to put his opponent (or his opponent’s wife or girlfriend) on his gear for extra flamboyance.

7 Shawn Michaels

From the very moment Shawn Michaels kicked Marty Jannetty in the mush, he had only been flamboyant for the rest of his WWE career. From the beginning with the crazy-looking chaps and ladies like Sherri, and even Luna at his side all the way to his in-ring style of never backing down, Shawn Michaels doesn’t know how not to be flamboyant.

Brash and braggadocios for the sake of pushing the needle forward, he nearly single-handedly brought the WWE out of the New Generation Era and into a new attitude.

6 Johnny B. Badd

As one of the early standout gimmicks of WCW, perhaps the saddest problem about Johnny B. Badd is that Marc Mero wasn’t allowed to explore the character more when he got to WWE. But the flamboyance factor was certainly turned up to the next levels of entertainment and excitement.

Johnny B. Badd’s glitter gun, sometimes interesting robes and masks, and even make-up helped to make him seem far less tough than he actually was. Which caught some opponents way off guard, paving the way for The Kiss That Don’t Miss.

5 Goldust

Sure, Vince McMahon and other commentators hurled adjectives like 'androgynous' or 'bizarre' around when describing Goldust, but flamboyance was also a trait that he embodied.

Even after he stopped coming onto his opponents, he and Marlena were still able to showcase just how flamboyant they were, constantly draped in gold, as literal gold dust dripped from the ceiling.

4 Exotic Adrian Street

In the department of being flamboyant just to put opponents off-guard, Exotic Adrian Street might not have been the first ever to do it. But he certainly cracked the template and paved new ground over it.

Wrestlers like the aforementioned Goldust, Sonny Kiss, Velveteen Dream, Dalton Castle, and nearly every androgynous/flamboyant superstar are just a derivative of Street - all are tough as nails, but all act like they would be afraid of a baby horsefly.

3 The Macho Man Randy Savage

For many fans who grew up during The Golden Era, The Macho Man Randy Savage was their introduction to the world of flamboyant superstars. The WWE could make an entire ten-season series about recovering all the outfits that Savage wore to the ring.

The guy even had Michael Braun - who designed costumes for the likes of Jimmy Hendrix make his clothes as well. The Macho Man also did as much as he could to seldom wear the same robes, jackets, and cowboy hats for too long.

2 Seth Freakin' Rollins

The first-ever and so far only man to hold the NXT, WWE, Universal, and World Titles has taken flamboyance for flamboyance’s sake to new levels. The Architect and the Monday Night Messiah became The Visionary - Seth Freakin' Rollins.

That very instant also became the moment that just about everything he does is flamboyant for flamboyance’s sake and to get his opponents off guard. Imagine if all you wanted to do was intimidate a guy like Seth Rollins, and he showed up wearing Safari-meets-Sephora gear and then just starts laughing in your face.

1 Ric Flair

Seth Freakin' Rollins might think of himself as The Drip God. But there’s only one superstar that has a song named after his drip. The Ric Flair Drip is real and has been for nearly forty years. Even as he was the biggest heel in the world, fans showed up in their own best suits, flashing four fingers in salute to The Nature Boy.

The man (The Man?) who coined the phrase “stylin' and profilin'” even now at 74 years old should have his picture next to flamboyance in the dictionary.