These WWE successes had no business being as great as they ended up being!
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00:00 Having some predetermined template for success in wrestling is silly.
00:04 Over the years the dumbest things have gotten over with the fans, which is the only ingredient
00:07 you need.
00:08 If people like it, good work, you smashed it.
00:11 Let's celebrate this fact right now then as I am Simon from WhatCulture, please do
00:15 subscribe and yes, this is 10 Brilliant WWE Success Stories That Should Have Sucked.
00:21 10.
00:22 Vince McMahon's Stooges
00:23 I mean, in many ways this would be the equivalent of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock returning
00:27 to be Triple H's lackeys in 2023.
00:30 But back in their day Pat Patterson and Gerald Briscoe were legends.
00:33 No one in their right mind would predict come the turn of the century, they'd be the best
00:37 comedy act in wrestling.
00:38 For those who happened to miss the Attitude Era though, they were.
00:42 As Vince McMahon's Stooges, they were happy to play the village idiots week in and week
00:45 out and it was just a joy.
00:47 They deserve all the credit for it as they threw themselves into this, you could just
00:50 see they were having a blast.
00:52 Pat and Jerry were also desperate to impress the boss, which is why Austin in particular
00:55 would always go after them, and it lasted ages.
00:59 Why would you stop?
01:00 It was a treat.
01:01 When they did start to fade out in the year 2000, I think there was a genuine sadness
01:04 and man, just to finish this off, those matches with the Mean Street Posse were so damn good.
01:10 9.
01:11 The Hurricane Debuts Mid-WCW Invasion
01:13 When the WWF bought WCW in 2001, Shane Helms must have been pumped.
01:18 He was a young up-and-comer that deserved a bigger push, so this could be his time.
01:22 That dude could go.
01:23 As it turned out, the man himself had a much better plan.
01:27 Why not cement a super long career for yourself by going full sports entertainment and becoming
01:32 the Hurricane?
01:33 This rocked.
01:34 On paper it sounds like nonsense because Helms wanted to be a fake superhero in the middle
01:38 of a WCW invasion, but man, it was so good.
01:42 Despite being on the heels side, everybody loved it, and while many other talent vanished
01:45 when all was said and done, the Hurricane just got better and better and he went and
01:49 beat the flippin' rock.
01:51 Even though if you had chatted about doing comedy when we had an angle millions had been
01:55 waiting for, few would have bought in.
01:57 We were all wrong, however, and Helms continues to do this character today.
02:02 What a decision.
02:03 8.
02:04 Too Cool Parodies The Hardys
02:05 In 1999, Scott Taylor and Brian Christopher were the team of too much, and they weren't
02:10 really doing anything.
02:11 Vince Russo spotted this and sat them down with an idea, and man, what a shout this was.
02:16 He had seen what Matt and Jeff Hardy were doing, so told these two to go out there and
02:20 copy it, but in the most obnoxious way possible.
02:23 This soon meant they transformed into out of touch nerds, and yep, it was magic.
02:27 They also renamed themselves to Scotty Too Hotty and Grandmaster Sexy, which is stupid,
02:32 and they started to dance a lot.
02:34 The end result was some people having so much fun, the fans lapped it up, because why shouldn't
02:38 we have a good time?
02:39 Somehow even Rikishi worked in this act too, which was even more mad, but hey, it goes
02:44 back to the intro.
02:45 There's no right or wrong with wrestling, it all depends on the reaction.
02:48 They boosted all three of their runs and more power to them, because many people still look
02:52 back on this with happiness in their hearts.
02:55 7.
02:56 Triple H's Revamped War Games
02:57 So if you're new to wrestling, this has been awesome.
03:00 A double cage with a bunch of wrestlers going nuts?
03:02 Hell yeah.
03:03 The more traditional fan raised an eyebrow though, because it was Triple H taking a Dusty
03:07 Rhodes tradition and tweaking it a bit.
03:10 The roof was gone for one, and that didn't sit right.
03:13 Sometimes you just want what you had.
03:14 As it turned out, there was absolutely no need to worry.
03:17 It was quite clear Paul Levesque had made this call to pay homage to a classic, and
03:21 every single time we've rolled this out, it's been great.
03:23 In fact, it's been a pleasure to have it back.
03:26 It also enhanced the whole thing from a modern perspective, because wrestlers could now climb
03:29 up to the top and do something crazy.
03:31 And let's not pretend in 2023 that's not expected.
03:34 If you want to now argue some of the best war game matches have happened since this
03:38 switch, I think you could, but either way, none of it has been a failure.
03:42 It's almost like Triple H knew what he was doing.
03:45 6.
03:46 Edge of the Judgment Day 2.0 is Born
03:47 We have said this on Ups and Downs.
03:50 The version of the Judgment Day where Edge was in charge just wasn't clicking.
03:53 Couldn't really put your finger on why.
03:55 It's just the way sometimes.
03:56 You try, you fail.
03:58 Go and do something else.
03:59 As it turns out, what we needed to do was let Rhea Ripley, Damien Priest and Finn Balor
04:03 fly on their own, and then throw in Dominik Mysterio.
04:05 Boom.
04:06 Ever since those changes, it has been so good and every single person has benefited.
04:11 Balor's version of everybody's drunk mate is fantastic, Ripley is about to potentially
04:15 headline Night 1 at WrestleMania, Damien Priest is just a force, and Domi-Boy is the best
04:19 thing on the show.
04:20 And I mean it.
04:21 It only got stronger after these changes, and with all these rumours of a split after
04:25 Mania, well no.
04:27 Just don't do it.
04:28 There's so much more gas in the tank, and I can't wait to see it.
04:31 5.
04:32 The New Day and Their Silliness
04:33 So once again, we just read the facts.
04:36 Big E, Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston are going to join forces, play a trombone and
04:39 pretend to be unicorns.
04:40 That will never work, and if it was anybody else, you'd likely be right.
04:44 Because these three have amazing chemistry though and have no issue hamming it up, they
04:48 not only made this work, but they turned it into one of the best groups ever, hence why
04:52 almost one decade later, they are still going strong.
04:56 What started as gospel singers transformed into a trio of wonderful goofs, as far as
05:00 I'm concerned they're already Hall of Famers.
05:03 The sheer joy they have given me over the years.
05:05 It also saw Kofi become the WWE Champion, Big E do the same, whereas Woods achieved
05:10 his dream of being King of the Ring, and I just couldn't love this more.
05:13 It's been a joy since day one, and let's never break them up, they're too good.
05:18 4.
05:19 Sami Zayn Will Invade The Bloodline
05:20 Don't pretend you knew how good this was going to be after the fact.
05:24 When Sami Zayn started to hang around with Roman Reigns, it felt like it was just a nice
05:27 aside because that's what it was meant to be.
05:30 WWE had this penned in for three weeks, and then we were gonna move on.
05:34 Which is when the crowd started to make noise.
05:37 Around the month mark, it was very clear there was more here than met the eye, mostly because
05:41 Zayn is so damn lovable.
05:42 You wanted to see him accepted into the group because damn it, look at his face.
05:46 The reason it seems so ridiculous is because of where they were at in the pecking order.
05:50 Roman was the face of the company and basically untouchable, whereas Sami had just done a
05:54 jackass match at WrestleMania.
05:56 Now look, that was brilliant, but would the head of the table ever do this?
05:59 No, never.
06:00 Chemistry is undeniable though, and look what we did.
06:03 Whether it was down to Triple H seeing it's worth and carrying it on or whatever, it has
06:07 carried Smackdown for the past eight months or so, and for my money, is the best storyline
06:11 WWE has told in ages.
06:13 Long may this approach continue too.
06:16 It has been flubbing fantastic.
06:17 3.
06:18 Mankind Is Dude Love
06:20 Only Mick Foley could have pulled this off.
06:22 Imagine we did this today.
06:24 Fans would be on Reddit before you could say "riot", one wrestler pretending to be somebody
06:28 else, try again.
06:29 With Foley though, he just got it.
06:32 After years of being the tortured Mankind he had proven he knew how to connect with
06:35 the audience, so when it was time for something new, we tapped into his very real past and
06:39 introduced Dude Love, it was wild.
06:42 This was Mick's first character that he had created as a child, and we got our first
06:46 glimpse of him in 1997, when about a year later, Mr. Love was feuding with Steve Austin.
06:51 That wasn't by mistake.
06:53 It also let us do the three faces of Foley in the Royal Rumble, which will never be topped,
06:57 but this was insane.
06:59 What do you mean you're not the same person that I've been watching for years?
07:02 There was help with this, much like when we did it with Cactus Jack and Triple H showed
07:05 it like he'd seen a ghost, but it just shows how awesome Foley was.
07:09 He totally knew what to do and when to do it.
07:11 The man is a proper legend.
07:13 2.
07:14 Mr. Socko Takes Off
07:15 Which is why this worked too.
07:17 Again let's break it down.
07:18 After a career of throwing himself off cages and into floors, Mick Foley couldn't do
07:22 what he once did, so he thought outside the box.
07:24 The main goal of wrestling was fan reaction, hence his crazy bumps.
07:28 So what else could he do?
07:30 Well, he could pull a sock out of his underwear.
07:32 Bingo.
07:33 It sounds borderline insulting, but you can't argue with the results.
07:36 This version of Foley may very well have been the most popular because he embraced his goofy
07:40 ways and everybody lapped it up.
07:42 He was having fun, so we could too.
07:44 Socko's debut was amazing too because it was part of that classic Vince McMahon in
07:48 the hospital segment.
07:49 And I tell you, we never looked back.
07:51 From that moment on this exploded and I'm so glad it did.
07:54 It was joyous and what I needed in my life.
07:57 And yes I still do.
07:58 1.
07:59 The Undertaker's Boneyard Match
08:01 Now while that sounds terrible and like a euphemism I don't mean it that way, but
08:04 when we got to WrestleMania 36 and the pandemic had stopped the world from moving, we had
08:09 to come up with a brand new idea for The Undertaker.
08:11 This was quite disappointing beforehand because it was meant to be the Deadman vs AJ Styles
08:16 which would have been a phenomenal match, and that was a pun, when all of a sudden they'd
08:19 turned it into a cinematic contest and my word it was great.
08:23 I mean there was huge potential that this was going to look like a Bad B movie, and
08:26 I suppose at times it did, but because everybody bought in and we came up with so many good
08:31 ideas, this was genuinely a highlight of the weekend.
08:34 And there were others that tried to compete with this too, like the Swamp Fight between
08:37 Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt or that thing in the dentist's office between Britt Baker
08:41 and Big Swole, but nobody ever came close to this and that's because everybody totally
08:46 smashed it.
08:47 I remember watching it live and just remembering how cool it made everybody seem too, and when
08:51 The Undertaker rode off into the sunset, well let's face it, that was basically the perfect
08:56 goodbye.
08:57 Know of any other WWE success stories that should have sucked but were absolutely brilliant?
09:01 Let me know in the comments below and don't forget to like the video, share the video
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09:15 My name is Simon for What Culture, thank you so much for joining me as always, and I look
09:19 forward to talking to you very, very soon.