Professional wrestling has a long history of bigger-than-life heroes: Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Dusty Rhodes, Steve Austin, Bruno Sammartino and many more. Wrestling has also produced some great villians like Roddy Piper, Gorgeous George, Killer Kowalski, Baron Von Raschke, The NWO.

But little praise is typically offered to the clowns of pro wrestling; those maddeningly annoying, sometimes comedic, sometimes good, sometimes evil-- but always douche-chill inducing-- foils that keep us wishing for their sudden demise.

Without a single doubt, the biggest douchebag (and that really is the most appropriate word I can come up with) in wrestling today in Santino Marella. From his unlikely WWE debut (as a "fan" who defeated Umaga for the Intercontinental Title) to his too-small Speedo trunks to his silly Italian accent and even sillier malapropisms, Marella is quickly becoming the only reason to watch Monday Night Raw these days.

Marella gets most of the fans worked up into rooting for his untimely demise, but for my money there's nothing more entertaining than watching Marella berate "Rodney the Piper" (Roddy Piper) before taking a cake to the face or watching him get his "plum tomatoes" stomped by every single WWE Diva-- all at once.

A truly good douchebag combines the ability to agitate the crowd, the mic skills to humorously berate opponents and the physical comedic skills of Buster Keaton. Having said that, I'll list my Top Five douchebag wrestlers of the past 25 years or so...

Rick 'The Model' Martel - This guy was one of my all-time favorties. I'm not talking about the clean-cut AWA World Champion or Tito Santana's tag partner in 'Strike Force'-- I'm talking about the pompous, bow-tie wearing, perfume-spritzing (the name of his scent was "Arrogance") tool who used to stomp his opponents in the corner of the ring-- but stop every third stomp to pose for the crowd and do jumping jacks. He also spoke with a thick French-Canadian accent-- another checkmark in the douchbag column!

Marcus 'Buff' Bagwell - When this pretty boy entered the ring, the girls would go wild-- so already half way to being a world-class douchebag. But when you throw in that huge top-hat he wore to the ring along with his insipid proclamation of "I'm Buff, and I'm the stuff!", combined with that ridiculous strut of his... well, Bagwell had a great little mini-run as a d-bag.

'Cowardly' Steve Corino - Corino may be the 'King of Old School' right now, but when he first joined the original ECW, he was the human incarnation of the Cowardly Lion. Always talking smack leading up to a match, he would then spend the entire broadcast trying to avoid actually wrestling. A short-lived but entertaining gimmick.

Buck 'Rock & Roll' Zumhoff - Zumhoff is the only douchebag on this list who didn't set out to be a douchebag. Yep, ol' Rock & Roll probably thought he real cool and all, but he was a true douche. With his ever-present boombox, '70s porn mustache, spastic-like dance moves and his imposing 5'11", 220 lb. frame, Zumhoff was a douchebag of the first order. The fact that Verne Gagne kept putting him over as a champion was completely infuriating. I just remember watching this idiot on AWA broadcasts and vowing that if I ever met Zumhoff on the street, I would kick him in the nuts and give him an atomic wedgie.

The Spirit Squad - What can I say? This special, Paul Heyman-inspired douchebaggery was one of the best gimmicks ever! Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, Nicky and Mikey were male cheerleaders who were loud, metrosexual and very peppy. Before matches, they would typically lead some annoying cheer in the center of the ring-- usually followed by voguing, moonwalking, jumping jacks, push ups and various other hillarity. Best of all, they reigned as tag team champions for over 200 days, which is like an eternity in today's WWE. And yes, under their "Freebird Exemption', any two of the five members could defend the title. It's too bad that the gimmick was blown up after about a year.

Honorable Mention - they may not have technically been douchebags, but the original incarnation of DX came tantilizingly close to getting included on my list. Their antics-- stuffing salamis in their trunks, wearing spit-guards when talking to Sgt. Slaughter-- had several elements of douchebaggery. I suppose the reason I don't include them on this list is that they were actually headliners and top wrestling talent... but they were damn funny anyway.