The Undertaker and some of the scariest wrestlers of all time

The world of professional wrestling has seen its share of scary characters and gimmicks — both legitimately scare and hilariously scary.

So in time for Halloween, we're here to present some of the scariest characters in the history of wrestling. The list will be broken down into two categories: legit scary and hokey scary, but will be in no particular order.

Legitimately scary is self-explanatory. It's the characters the sent real shivers down your spine when they came across you television screen.

The hokey scary characters are the ones that were intended to be scary, but didn't quite get the job done.

Legitimate scary

The Undertaker: You cannot start a list of scary characters in professional wrestling without The Undertaker. The list would be invalid without him.

The greatest character in WWE history has garnered the respect of thousands of fans, even to the point where fans shed tears when his undefeated streak at WrestleMania ended.

But when the demon from Death Valley first debuted in the WWE, he gave little kids, including myself, nightmares.

When The Undertaker came from behind the curtain, fans saw a man standing nearly seven feet all, wearing all black, with long hair covering his pale face walking down to the ring. During his entrance, the WWE would routinely cut to children in the stands so that the people at home could see the horror on their faces.

The Assassins: It doesn't get much scarier than a tag team called The Assassins. Jody Hamilton and most notably Tom Renesto were big, mean and they wore masks, which only played into their assassin characters.

Not being able to see their pair's faces only made them more menacing.

During the territorial days of wrestling, it didn't get much tougher or scarier than these two.

Ox Baker: Ox Baker's appearance alone was enough to soil a man's drawers, but his finishing move, the heart punch, really struck fear into the hearts (no pun intended) of fans around the country.

Baker's heart punch was just that, a punch to the heart. What was scary about that it was partially responsible for the death of wrestler Ray Gunkel in 1972.

Gunkel suffered from arteriosclerosis and had heart disease, but no one knew at the time. When Baker delivered the heart punch during a match, it caused a hematoma to form, worsening the condition of his heart, which eventually led to his death later that day.

Baker's heart punch wasn't directly responsible for Gunkel's death, but that didn't stop him from adding to the lore surrounding the move.

Baker's tales of the heart punch only added to the fans' angst when he would perform the move. One time in Cleveland, Ohio (and probably many other times), Baker's numerous heart punches to "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd caused one of the biggest wrestling riots ever caught on video.

Baker's persona led to a feature role in the film Escape From New York and also appeared on The Price is Right. No, he did not heart punch Bob Barker.

The Great Kabuki: Kabuki on his own was pretty darn scary. The creepy masks, the creepy face paint and the exotic moves (for the 1980s) made him a very mysterious character.

People fear what they don't understand.

But with the evil Gary Hart by his side, Kabuki was made all the more menacing.

Kevin Sullivan: When Kevin Sullivan was wrestling in Florida, he was one of the scariest characters going in wrestling.

Sullivan's cult leader persona was a great foil for whatever babyface he was feuding with and led to some memorable television.

Honorable Mentions: Kane, The Wyatt Family, Abdullah The Butcher, Kamala, Mad Dog Vachon, Luna Vachon (Evil) Doink the Clown

Hokey scary

Kevin Thorn/Mordecai: Kevin Fertig was one unlucky fellow. First, he got saddled with Mordecai, which was essentially The Undertaker dressed in white.

The character went nowhere fast and was gone as fast as it came.

He then got saddled with another scary character in the form of Kevin Thorn, who was a vampire that body slammed people.

Thorn wasn't awful, but Mordecai was. The fact that they were played by the same guy only makes each character that much more hilarious.

Boogeyman: He's the Boogeyman and he's coming to get you! And by get you, he meant get you to change the channel, which was what I did on many occasions when he came across my television screen.

The Boogeyman was a silly character, but what was really scary was his wrestling ability or lack their of.

Oh, and he ate a lot of worms, which wasn't scary. That's just nasty.

Wrestling Mummy (all of them): Since there were so many Wrestling Mummies, we're going to include all of them on the list.

So, we're supposed to believe that a 2,000-year-old mummy has come back to life to deliver a vertical suplex? As Jim Cornette would say, that went over like a wet fart in church.

Kiss Demon: Just no. No. This is bad, really bad.

Kiss Demon? It's bad enough you have a guy running around in a Kiss costume, but then you make him a demon?

This demon was doomed from the start. To be fair, WCW was also doomed by this point and was clearly grasping straws.

Dungeon of Doom: Kevin Sullivan was really scary when he was wrestling in the Florida territory, but when he was the head of the Dungeon of Doom in WCW in 1994, he sort of lost his bite.

You talk about hokey. This entire group was the epitome of hokey.

The Shark? John Tenta was great as Earthquake in the WWE, but here he was a shark. Not a real shark of course, but a man with shark face paint. Super scary.

How about The Zodiac, who was Brutus Beefcake the WWE? Words can't even describe how bad that was.

You know what was the hokiest part of it all? Hulk Hogan, who wasn't even in the group. He acted like he was going up against this supernatural force. He was going up against a man with a shark painted on his face!

Honorable Mentions:

Papa Shango, The Shockmaster, The Missing Link (WWE version)