by Brian Phelps
http://wrestlersway.blogspot.com
In the world of pro wrestling, no name is more known or recognized than Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon has come up with a lot of great ideas over the years, or has he? I'm a firm believer that although Vince McMahon is a genius chess player, I also believe that Vince McMahon hasn't come up with many original ideas. Vince McMahon is not an idea man. Vince McMahon is a business man. Vince McMahon basically just takes every one else's ideas, polishes them, and then does them better. I truly do believe that Vince has come up with a lot of great ideas over the years, and I'm not trying to take anything away from Vince McMahon's genius. However, I'm going to call it in spades. One thing about Vince McMahon that makes him such a great chess player is that if he can't get his hands on the real thing, he'll darn sure make his own version of someone else's idea. And he won't just make his own version of it, he'll make it as good or BETTER. If he can't make a better version of someone else's idea, it will if nothing else look much more polished. Like I said, Vince McMahon is a brilliant tactician and decision maker. Vince McMahon has had a lot of great ideas, but they're never original ideas. He either bought the best, or made his own copy cats. I've listed below 8 legendary ideas that he basically ripped off of other companies.
Vince Rips off NWA's Road Warriors with WWF's Demolition
The Road Warrior's dominated pro wrestling throughout the early 1980s with a Mad Max inspired gimmick that made them one of the most popular wrestlers of all-time. In 1987, Vince McMahon put out Demolition, a tag team of his own as an answer to NWA's Road Warriors. Demolition had the same exact gimmick of two musclebound warriors in face paint that were based off the Mad Max movies. What is more amusing is that Vince McMahon pushed Demolition as the face of the WWF tag team division... until he finally signed The Road Warriors. Once he had the real Road Warriors, Demolition almost immediately became jobbers until they disbanded while the Road Warriors became the face of the WWF tag team division. Demolition were nothing more than a very good rip off of the Road Warriors.
Vince McMahon rips off WCW's nWo faction with WWF's D-X
In 1996, WCW blew the mind off the professional wrestling world with the formation of the New World Order. They were a group of guys who aimed to take over WCW, and did what they wanted whenever they wanted to. They consisted of two members of the WWF's famed 'Kliq' (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash), a legendary heel manager (Ted Dibiase), a freak athlete (The Giant), and the face of WCW (Hulk Hogan). WCW immediately took over the ratings war. Determined not to be outdone, Vince McMahon answered by forming Degeneration-X in 1997. DX (for short) ironically consisted of two members of the WWF's famed 'Kliq' (Triple H and Shawn Michaels), a legendary heel manager (Rick Rude), a freak athlete (Chyna), and the face of the company (also Shawn Michaels). The nWo also included another 'Kliq' member (Sean "Syxx-Pac" Waltman) who actually ended up also being a member of WWF's Degeneration-X, changing his name from "Syxx-Pac" to "X-Pac". The formation of DX allowed Vince McMahon to semi-halt the momentum of the nWo angle by creating an equally entertaining faction that like the nWo, employed juvenile pranks and violence to take over the company.
Vince McMahon turns WCW's Goldberg into a formula for wrestlers Batista, Brock Lesnar, and Bobby Lashley
After the monster success that WCW enjoyed with Bill Goldberg, Vince McMahon took WCW's Goldberg and turned it into more of a formula that led to future stars like Batista, Brock Lesnar, and Bobby Lashley. The basic formula of a tattooed monster face in basic trunks with a football player's build that mowed through the entire roster in animalistic fashion was used on Batista, Brock Lesnar, and Bobby Lashley (who left before his push was finished). The one mistake that Vince McMahon successfully avoided was the black hole of the undefeated streak. The undefeated streak ended up hurting Goldberg in the end because it was built up to astronomical proportions, and no matter how WCW made him lose it hurt his fan base because the streak became bigger than Goldberg himself.
Vince McMahon rips off TNA Wrestling by having Jersey Shore member Snooki appear on RAW 11 days AFTER fellow Jersey Shore cast member Angelina Pavarnick originally appeared on TNA Impact.
TNA Wrestling had a great idea by trying to tap into the success of MTV's cable rating king pin The Jersey Shore by having a member of the cast guest star on an episode of Impact Wrestling. On the March 3, 2011 broadcast of Impact, Jersey Shore cast member Angelina Pavarnick made her debut. Not to be outdone, Vince McMahon brought in Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi on RAW a mere 11 days AFTER Angelina Pavarnick appeared for TNA. On top of that, he also "one upped" TNA by having Snooki appear at Wrestlemania 27. TNA has since "one upped" WWE by having J-Woww and Ronnie also appear on Impact.
Vince McMahon rips off TNA Wrestling's "The Beautiful People" with WWE's "LayCool"
In 2008, TNA Wrestling made waves a few years ago by forming a female faction called "The Beautiful People". They were two besties who thought they were better than everyone else and proceeded to call out and belittle other female wrestlers for being ugly. They had a unique entrance, and have gone on to EASILY become the greatest women's gimmick of all-time. They were an instant hit, and were constantly the highest rated segment on Impact. In 2009, the WWE packaged Layla and Michelle McCool together as LayCool in the exact same gimmick. LayCool went after Mickie James the same way that the Beautiful People went after Roxxi and other knockouts. It was eerie how similar LayCool was. It even led to a twitter war of words between the two groups. Rumor had it that LayCool was actually created as a direct answer to The Beautiful People because Vince allegedly felt that the Beautiful People were making his Divas look like a joke (which they were). Some in the IWC will argue that LayCool is a rehash of PMS (Pretty Mean Sisters), but that is false. PMS consisted of 3 members, and were not like LayCool or Beautiful People.
Vince McMahon rips off NWA's Starrcade with WWF's Wrestlemania
NWA's Starrcade was the FIRST BIG flagship wrestling event and served as the precursor to every pay-per-view that followed including Wrestlemania, which followed the blueprint laid out by the NWA and Starrcade. Basically, Starrcade was Wrestlemania BEFORE Wrestlemania. There would be NO Wrestlemania without Starrcade.
Vince McMahon rips off WCW and Eric Bischoff's "Evil Boss Gimmick" with Mr. McMahon gimmick.
This is one of the bigger rip offs in pro wrestling history. WCW had revolutionary idea after revolutionary idea in the 1990s and this other than the nWo, was the BIGGEST. In 1996, Eric Bischoff became the evil puppet master of the nWo, and proceeded to make the entire WCW roster's lives miserable. He was injecting WCW with nWo poison looong before Vince screwed Bret Hart, took on Stone Cold, ran the Corporation, and injected the WWF with nWo poison. Vince's famous Mr.McMahon character was a direct answer and rip off of WCW's "Eazy E" Eric Bischoff evil boss character. There would have NEVER been a Mr.McMahon gimmick had it not been for Eric Bischoff's heel boss gimmick. Bischoff did it first, and Vince McMahon just polished the idea a little bit. It was after Sting started Scorpion Death Dropping Bischoff that we saw Stone Cold give his famed Stunner to Mr.McMahon.
Vince McMahon rips off WCW's highly successful "Cruiserweight Division" with WWF's flop "Light Heavyweight Division"
With WCW taking over the ratings in 1996, Bischoff began signing international talent and developed the WCW Cruiserweight Division in 1996. The Cruiserweight division showcased a who's who of lucha libre legends and future hall of famers such as Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Ultimo Dragon, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Billy Kidman, Juventud Guerrera, and Chris Benoit. The WWF attempted to answer WCW's division in 1997 by creating the Light Heavyweight Championship. However, the Light Heavyweight Division was a massive flop and nothing more than a poor man's Cruiserweight Division. It featured forgettable stars such as Essa Rios, Taka Michinoku, and Brian Chistopher... who never really caught on with fans. The division didn't last long before being scrapped.
http://wrestlersway.blogspot.com
In the world of pro wrestling, no name is more known or recognized than Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon has come up with a lot of great ideas over the years, or has he? I'm a firm believer that although Vince McMahon is a genius chess player, I also believe that Vince McMahon hasn't come up with many original ideas. Vince McMahon is not an idea man. Vince McMahon is a business man. Vince McMahon basically just takes every one else's ideas, polishes them, and then does them better. I truly do believe that Vince has come up with a lot of great ideas over the years, and I'm not trying to take anything away from Vince McMahon's genius. However, I'm going to call it in spades. One thing about Vince McMahon that makes him such a great chess player is that if he can't get his hands on the real thing, he'll darn sure make his own version of someone else's idea. And he won't just make his own version of it, he'll make it as good or BETTER. If he can't make a better version of someone else's idea, it will if nothing else look much more polished. Like I said, Vince McMahon is a brilliant tactician and decision maker. Vince McMahon has had a lot of great ideas, but they're never original ideas. He either bought the best, or made his own copy cats. I've listed below 8 legendary ideas that he basically ripped off of other companies.
Vince Rips off NWA's Road Warriors with WWF's Demolition
The Road Warrior's dominated pro wrestling throughout the early 1980s with a Mad Max inspired gimmick that made them one of the most popular wrestlers of all-time. In 1987, Vince McMahon put out Demolition, a tag team of his own as an answer to NWA's Road Warriors. Demolition had the same exact gimmick of two musclebound warriors in face paint that were based off the Mad Max movies. What is more amusing is that Vince McMahon pushed Demolition as the face of the WWF tag team division... until he finally signed The Road Warriors. Once he had the real Road Warriors, Demolition almost immediately became jobbers until they disbanded while the Road Warriors became the face of the WWF tag team division. Demolition were nothing more than a very good rip off of the Road Warriors.
Vince McMahon rips off WCW's nWo faction with WWF's D-XIn 1996, WCW blew the mind off the professional wrestling world with the formation of the New World Order. They were a group of guys who aimed to take over WCW, and did what they wanted whenever they wanted to. They consisted of two members of the WWF's famed 'Kliq' (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash), a legendary heel manager (Ted Dibiase), a freak athlete (The Giant), and the face of WCW (Hulk Hogan). WCW immediately took over the ratings war. Determined not to be outdone, Vince McMahon answered by forming Degeneration-X in 1997. DX (for short) ironically consisted of two members of the WWF's famed 'Kliq' (Triple H and Shawn Michaels), a legendary heel manager (Rick Rude), a freak athlete (Chyna), and the face of the company (also Shawn Michaels). The nWo also included another 'Kliq' member (Sean "Syxx-Pac" Waltman) who actually ended up also being a member of WWF's Degeneration-X, changing his name from "Syxx-Pac" to "X-Pac". The formation of DX allowed Vince McMahon to semi-halt the momentum of the nWo angle by creating an equally entertaining faction that like the nWo, employed juvenile pranks and violence to take over the company.
Vince McMahon turns WCW's Goldberg into a formula for wrestlers Batista, Brock Lesnar, and Bobby LashleyAfter the monster success that WCW enjoyed with Bill Goldberg, Vince McMahon took WCW's Goldberg and turned it into more of a formula that led to future stars like Batista, Brock Lesnar, and Bobby Lashley. The basic formula of a tattooed monster face in basic trunks with a football player's build that mowed through the entire roster in animalistic fashion was used on Batista, Brock Lesnar, and Bobby Lashley (who left before his push was finished). The one mistake that Vince McMahon successfully avoided was the black hole of the undefeated streak. The undefeated streak ended up hurting Goldberg in the end because it was built up to astronomical proportions, and no matter how WCW made him lose it hurt his fan base because the streak became bigger than Goldberg himself.
Vince McMahon rips off TNA Wrestling by having Jersey Shore member Snooki appear on RAW 11 days AFTER fellow Jersey Shore cast member Angelina Pavarnick originally appeared on TNA Impact.TNA Wrestling had a great idea by trying to tap into the success of MTV's cable rating king pin The Jersey Shore by having a member of the cast guest star on an episode of Impact Wrestling. On the March 3, 2011 broadcast of Impact, Jersey Shore cast member Angelina Pavarnick made her debut. Not to be outdone, Vince McMahon brought in Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi on RAW a mere 11 days AFTER Angelina Pavarnick appeared for TNA. On top of that, he also "one upped" TNA by having Snooki appear at Wrestlemania 27. TNA has since "one upped" WWE by having J-Woww and Ronnie also appear on Impact.
Vince McMahon rips off TNA Wrestling's "The Beautiful People" with WWE's "LayCool"In 2008, TNA Wrestling made waves a few years ago by forming a female faction called "The Beautiful People". They were two besties who thought they were better than everyone else and proceeded to call out and belittle other female wrestlers for being ugly. They had a unique entrance, and have gone on to EASILY become the greatest women's gimmick of all-time. They were an instant hit, and were constantly the highest rated segment on Impact. In 2009, the WWE packaged Layla and Michelle McCool together as LayCool in the exact same gimmick. LayCool went after Mickie James the same way that the Beautiful People went after Roxxi and other knockouts. It was eerie how similar LayCool was. It even led to a twitter war of words between the two groups. Rumor had it that LayCool was actually created as a direct answer to The Beautiful People because Vince allegedly felt that the Beautiful People were making his Divas look like a joke (which they were). Some in the IWC will argue that LayCool is a rehash of PMS (Pretty Mean Sisters), but that is false. PMS consisted of 3 members, and were not like LayCool or Beautiful People.
Vince McMahon rips off NWA's Starrcade with WWF's WrestlemaniaNWA's Starrcade was the FIRST BIG flagship wrestling event and served as the precursor to every pay-per-view that followed including Wrestlemania, which followed the blueprint laid out by the NWA and Starrcade. Basically, Starrcade was Wrestlemania BEFORE Wrestlemania. There would be NO Wrestlemania without Starrcade.
This is one of the bigger rip offs in pro wrestling history. WCW had revolutionary idea after revolutionary idea in the 1990s and this other than the nWo, was the BIGGEST. In 1996, Eric Bischoff became the evil puppet master of the nWo, and proceeded to make the entire WCW roster's lives miserable. He was injecting WCW with nWo poison looong before Vince screwed Bret Hart, took on Stone Cold, ran the Corporation, and injected the WWF with nWo poison. Vince's famous Mr.McMahon character was a direct answer and rip off of WCW's "Eazy E" Eric Bischoff evil boss character. There would have NEVER been a Mr.McMahon gimmick had it not been for Eric Bischoff's heel boss gimmick. Bischoff did it first, and Vince McMahon just polished the idea a little bit. It was after Sting started Scorpion Death Dropping Bischoff that we saw Stone Cold give his famed Stunner to Mr.McMahon.
Vince McMahon rips off WCW's highly successful "Cruiserweight Division" with WWF's flop "Light Heavyweight Division"With WCW taking over the ratings in 1996, Bischoff began signing international talent and developed the WCW Cruiserweight Division in 1996. The Cruiserweight division showcased a who's who of lucha libre legends and future hall of famers such as Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Ultimo Dragon, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Billy Kidman, Juventud Guerrera, and Chris Benoit. The WWF attempted to answer WCW's division in 1997 by creating the Light Heavyweight Championship. However, the Light Heavyweight Division was a massive flop and nothing more than a poor man's Cruiserweight Division. It featured forgettable stars such as Essa Rios, Taka Michinoku, and Brian Chistopher... who never really caught on with fans. The division didn't last long before being scrapped.
LOL, McMahon was a heel boss in Memphis in the early 90's before he turned heel in WWE.
ReplyDeleteBlogs like this are why "smart" marks are not taken very seriously. The idea for Demolition was actually pitched to Vince by Randy Culley, the original Demolition Smash, and they were heels for a long time. In fact, they didn't turn face till late 1988, a good year and a half after debuting. And for being "nothing more than a very good ripoff of the Road Warriors," Demolition sure was over huge.
ReplyDeleteDX was hardly a rip off of the nWo. Whereas the nWo was a faction bent on taking over WCW, DX was more about pushing the envelope and causing hijinx. They also were not a group of wrestlers supposedly from another company trying to take over. It was well known they were under the employ of the WWF. If anything, they were portrayed more as rebel employees.
One problem with your comment... you didn't read the post.
Delete1) The blog never said that Vince came up with Demolition. You know why? Because Vince doesn't come up with anything. It said he "put out Demolition". Vince has wrestlers and creative teams that pump him ideas. Vince never comes up with any ideas, and never has (for the most part). It's a creative team that comes up with everything. You're missing the point that Vince is the FILTER for all ideas. He approved a rip off tag team to be pushed as the face of the WWF tag division.
2) Eric Bischoff himself stated that DX was "Nothing more than a really good rip off of the nWo". Also, you do know that Triple H and Shawn Michaels ACKNOWLEDGED that DX were nWo rip offs on an episode of RAW before right? But you're so smart you knew that already I'm sure.