Rinse and repeat. Sometimes literally.
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00:00Wrestling is cyclical, that doesn't mean that it rides around on a little bite board,
00:04it does mean that if you hit solid gold, you can wait a few years and then you can do it
00:08again and why the flub not, there's only so many ideas.
00:12Sometimes it can be a little bit too wink wink nudge nudge however, and everyone just
00:16goes, well they're just doing that for a ratings grab.
00:18So hello, I am Simon from WhatCulture, please hit that subscribe button, and this is ten
00:23times WWE blatantly ripped off their own angles.
00:27Number ten, this is your life.
00:29Do you want to know a crazy fact?
00:31After the This Is Your Life segment between Mankind and The Rock, they went backstage
00:35and Vince McMahon yelled at them because they had gone well over time, and the ratings came
00:40in and everybody hugged and said, ha ha, you can go as long as you want, just goes to show.
00:45It is brilliant though, although if you do watch it in 2022, you may just go, yeah it
00:50was a little bit overly long, we could have edited this up a bit, and if we move forward
00:53to 2017, WWE decided to do it again between Alexa Bliss and Bayley.
00:59And this one did not work at all, mostly because the major shift was that Mick Foley and The
01:04Great One had this lovely rapport and they were basically friends, whereas Bliss and
01:08Bayles were feuding, that was just like watching something completely different.
01:12Therefore, this was filled with bad jokes and proper awkwardness, to the point, after
01:17the fact, even WWE insulted themselves for it, sometimes you just know.
01:22Let's not pretend this was the only attempt either, because hidden away in the archives
01:26back in 2011, Mick Foley tried to do this again with John Cena, and yes, for a second
01:33time, Mick came out afterwards and was like, I shouldn't have done it, oh how I regret
01:38it.
01:39Number 9, doppelgangers collide.
01:40Let's just get it out there now, I liked Undertaker vs Undertaker at Summerslam 1994,
01:45now I watch it today, I'm like this is not good stuff, this is really really bad, but
01:49when I was basically a fetus, I couldn't believe it, how was there two deadmans?
01:54The real issue was that it was put in the main event, really it should have been in
01:56the middle of the card, and even the Undertaker went to Bruce Prichard afterwards and said
02:00why did you do this, this was absolutely terrible, never make me do it again.
02:04For some reason though, we then got to 2006 and we did do it for a second time.
02:09Now on this occasion it was with Kane, just because he's the deadman's brother, and
02:13we told Luke Gallows, yeah you've got to dress up like the big red machine, including
02:18this terrible fake wig, and everyone's going to pretend that you're Kane.
02:21WWE just dropped this from nowhere one day, because I presume they realised it was not
02:26clicking, and actually when you think about Glenn Jacobs and his career in WWE, all this
02:32stuff was obviously going to happen, because it went on for so damn long, we were going
02:37to get through everything.
02:38Number 8, the Undertaker battles the unstoppable monsters.
02:41Vince McMahon absolutely loved this one, didn't he?
02:43I suppose because the Undertaker was such a mythical character from day one, we instead
02:48decided to walk down the route of, oh my god, his opponent is so big, how the hell
02:52is he ever going to overcome this?
02:55Then he just overcame it.
02:56The two that were most identical came years apart from one another, but they did basically
03:01follow the same format, because in the mid-90s, the giant Gonzalez arrived in the WWF, complete
03:07with his weird hair suit, and he jumped the Undertaker, and then in the 2000s, did it
03:12again with the Great Khali.
03:13I mean both of these dudes just battered the fiend arm, and while Gonzalez never went on
03:17to do anything, Khali was able to use this as a platform to become the WWE Champion.
03:24I will never get over it.
03:26This was yet another situation too, where Taker was sick of it himself, and even went
03:29to management and was like, please, would you put me with somebody I can actually work?
03:34Seriously, go watch like the early half of his WrestleMania streak, every single match
03:39is basically this.
03:41Number 7, the anti-American group.
03:43The height of this has got to be in 1997, when Bret Hart formed the Hart Foundation,
03:47and just blurred the line so well, to the point he was super duper over in Canada, but
03:52the rest of the United States hated him.
03:54I mean it was so successful, five years later we tried again, but this time it was with
03:58the Un-Americans, and the problem lies in the name, it's just too on the nose.
04:03I mean the dudes in it were good, because it was Christian Lance Storm and Test, and
04:07eventually they were joined by William Regal, and even though it started as the whole, we're
04:11Canadian and we hate everybody else, when Regal did join, it was more of hey ho the
04:15Commonwealth.
04:16The reason this never really worked though, is because WWE never went whole hog with it,
04:20and also everybody in it wasn't that enthused about the gimmick, as Bruce Prichard once
04:25told us on his podcast.
04:26So that is always going to hurt, as it did in 2015, when we had the League of Nations,
04:31do you remember the League of Nations?
04:32Sheamus, Wade Barrett, Alberto Del Rio and Bruce, and again, there's loads of stories
04:38out there, they all just fell out with each other behind the scenes, so ignore what I
04:43said earlier, let's kill this idea, and never have it back.
04:476.
04:48D-Generation X Dress Up
04:49There is no two ways about it, the DX Nation of Domination parody in 1998 is just bad bad
04:55television, and this isn't the right thing to say, it never should have gone down, and
04:59even X-Pac agrees with that, and he was in the thing, and he's also a super good dude.
05:04You just don't wear blackface though, you don't do it, and if you want to debate that,
05:07fine, but I want to meet you in the pocket lot.
05:10It really did become a thing though, so months later we did it again when D-Generation X
05:14was mimicking the corporation, and then years later, after they were back into the fold,
05:19Shawn Michaels and Triple H did this to Vince McMahon and Shane.
05:22That one is quite fondly remembered as well, because HBK, Shane-O, Max Mannerisms were
05:26absolutely hilarious, but they kept on doing this time and time again, before you just
05:31sat there and you were like, yeah, I know DX are going to do this, it's just what they
05:35do.
05:36And you know the deal with that, eventually it does become the law of diminishing returns,
05:39because a creative idea isn't that creative when you've done it 72,000 times, and I bet
05:44you this, will a group do it again in the future?
05:47Yes.
05:48Number five, arresting the babyface.
05:50I don't think anyone will ever do this as well as Steve Austin, because he did make
05:53you believe he was being taken away for prison, but this is a gimmick that seems to work.
05:57There's plenty of we can talk about, but the one that really set everybody on fire was
06:01when Becky Lynch did it in 2019, and she came across as so unhinged, it was super duper
06:08to watch.
06:09And if she was trying to tangle Stone Cold, fair play to her, because she absolutely nailed
06:13it.
06:14Fans loved it too, and this was quite the risk, given what we were trying to copy, but
06:17seriously, go back to this period and just watch every little thing the man does, the
06:22crowd goes crazy for it.
06:23Ultimately, she just came across as cool, as Austin did too, meaning even though they
06:27were being arrested, we would be like, oh man, this is the best person I've ever seen.
06:31I mean, you could only do that in wrestling, but maybe that's where the magic lies.
06:364.
06:37THE GOOD GUY VS.
06:38THE AUTHORITY
06:39WWE is never going to stop trying to get another Austin vs. McMahon part two.
06:43If I can completely understand this, I get it.
06:46It was one of the most successful programs ever, so they want to try and replicate it.
06:50The problem in 2022 is that we've done it so many times, it's just boring now.
06:54And has anybody actually even got close to what Steve and Vincent did?
06:59The answer is no.
07:00I mean, it is literally like night and day.
07:02Then in 2005, we were trying this because Eric Bischoff was management and John Cena
07:06was the everyman, trying to rally against it.
07:09And by the time Roman Reigns was a star, here came McMahon back again.
07:12I mean, it was so damn obvious.
07:14The real problem was that Austin had this rebellious streak that you could believe in,
07:18whereas guys like Cena and Reigns just didn't.
07:21John especially was a strange one because he came across like a goody two shoes, and
07:25it was more likely that he would have gone to management and sat down with them and kind
07:29of vocalised his issues as opposed to putting them in a wrestling ring and kicking their
07:32ass.
07:33I mean, it's almost like when you have a brand new top guy, they should forge their
07:37own path.
07:38What do I know?
07:39Number three, somebody steals the urn.
07:41Do you remember the Undertaker's urn?
07:43For a good while, it seemed to only exist so that other people could steal it.
07:48Yeah.
07:49We also all forget that this was the source of the Undertaker's powers for a while, because
07:53Paul Bearer would hold it aloft when the Deadman was in trouble, which caused the sit-up.
07:58And then years later, he was doing it without the urn, so something smells fishy to me.
08:03We haven't seen this gold pot in ages now, but back in the day, my word, you wanted to
08:07get possession of this because then you could control the Undertaker.
08:11So Ted DiBiase did it, Paul Heyman did it, CM Punk did it, Dre White did it, hell, even
08:16Paul Bearer himself one did it, because he screwed the Undertaker with the urn and he
08:20joined up with mankind.
08:21And like I say, we went to crazy levels with this too, and we acted like now you were in
08:25control of the Undertaker, which is why it's very strange that one day he came out wearing
08:31MMA gloves.
08:32What the flub was that about?
08:342.
08:35Heels getting sprayed with liquid
08:36I know that sounds terrible, but bear with me.
08:38The most famous of these was the 22nd of March 1999 Raw, when Steve Austin came out with
08:43the beard truck and he took said liquid and he sprayed down Vince McMahon's Shane McMahon
08:48of The Rock.
08:49And this clip is so historic and it is so famous, you still see it on TV today, it is
08:54never going to die.
08:55It was so popular WWE couldn't help themselves and did it two years later, but this time
09:00it was with Kurt Angle who drove a milk truck to the ring.
09:03Now the reason this worked is that it was so redonkulous and it was such a stupid parody,
09:08everybody was laughing and when you laugh, you feel good in your tum tum.
09:12Somehow this hasn't been tried since, but I bet we do do it soon, I mean you could do
09:16it with Drew McIntyre and whiskey, Roman Reigns could do it with a table, but I'm not sure
09:21how that would work.
09:22Maybe Cody Rhodes could do it with orange juice, if he likes orange juice.
09:26This is why somebody else should come up with it, but mark it on your calendars, it's probably
09:31just around the corner.
09:321.
09:33HEELS GETTING SOAKED WITH URINE
09:34Why is this even a sentence I have to say out loud?
09:37But hey, it's true because a lot of people in modern times saw Jeff Hardy throw his piss
09:42over Sheamus after the Irishman had accused him of being a drunkard, and really this does
09:47happen because people backstage in WWE really enjoy toilet humour, on this occasion I mean
09:54that literally.
09:55This was nothing new though, as back in 2006 Vince McMahon had been directly involved in
09:58this, because he was doing the same thing with Shawn Michaels, he told him to take a
10:03whiz into a little tube and when HBK was suitably upset by it, he took it and threw it into
10:09Vince's face.
10:10Now there was 14 years between these angles, so I'm going to say it was fair game, but
10:14as a wrestling fan, I don't need to see anyone take their urine and chuck it into another
10:19human being.
10:20Also, my gosh, talk about don't try this at home, I would rather be pile driven through
10:2578 different tables than someone take their stuff and pour it all over me.
10:31I mean again, why are we even talking about this?
10:34Not many other times WWE blatantly ripped off their own angles, make sure you let us
10:38know in the comments below and don't forget to like the video, share the video and subscribe.
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10:55My name is Simon from WhatCulture, thank you very much for joining me as always, I'll see
10:58you the next time you click a video and I'm with it, unless you know where I live, but
11:03if that's the case, maybe I'll move, goodbye.