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 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 subscribe.
00:16 And yes, this is 10 brilliant WWE success stories.
00:20 That should have sucked.
00:21 Number 10, 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 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 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 out, and it was just a joy.
00:47 They deserve all the credit for it, as they threw themselves into this.
00:50 You could just see they were having a blast.
00:52 Pat and Jerry were also desperate to impress The Boss, which is why Austin in particular would always go after them.
00:57 And it lasted ages.
00:59 I mean, why would you stop? It was a treat.
01:00 When they did start to fade out in the year 2000, I think there was a genuine sadness, and man, just to finish this off, those matches with the Mean Street Posse, they were so damn good.
01:10 Number 9, The Hurricane debuts mid-WCW invasion.
01:14 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.
01:24 As it turned out, the man himself had a much better plan.
01:27 Because why not cement a super long career for yourself by going full sports entertainment and becoming 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 of a WCW invasion, but man, it was so good.
01:42 Despite being on the hillside, everybody loved it, and while many other talent vanished when all was said and done, The Hurricane just got better and better, and he went and beat the flippin' rock.
01:51 Again, though, if you had chatted about doing comedy when we had an angle millions had been 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 Number 8, Too Cool parodies The Hardys.
02:05 In 1999, Scott Taylor and Brian Christopher were the team of too much, and they weren't 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 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, 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 we have a good time?
02:39 Somehow even Rikishi worked in this act too, which was even more mad, but hey, it goes back to the intro.
02:45 There's no right or wrong with wrestling, it all depends on the reaction.
02:48 It boosted all three of their runs and more power to them, because many, many people still look back on this with happiness in their hearts.
02:55 Number 7, 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? Hell yeah, why not?
03:04 The more traditional fan raised an eyebrow though, because it was Triple H taking a Dusty Rhodes tradition and tweaking it a bit.
03:10 The roof was gone for one and that didn't sit right.
03:12 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 every single time we've rolled this out, it's been great.
03:24 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 up to the top and do something crazy.
03:32 Let's not pretend in 2023 that's not expected.
03:35 If you want to now argue some of the best War Game matches have happened since this 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 Number 6, Judgment Day 2.0 is born.
03:48 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.
03:54 Couldn't really put your finger on why.
03:55 It's just the way sometimes you try, you fail, 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 fly on their own, and then throw in Dominik Mysterio.
04:06 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 headline Night 1 at WrestleMania,
04:16 Damien Priest is just a force, and Domi Boy is the best thing on the show, and I mean it.
04:21 It only got stronger after these changes, and with all these rumours of a split after 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 Number 5 - 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 pretend to be unicorns.
04:41 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 not only made this work,
04:49 but they turned it into one of the best groups ever, hence why almost one decade later, they are still going strong.
04:56 What started as gospel singers transformed into a trio of wonderful goofs,
05:00 as far as 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,
05:09 whereas Woods achieved 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.
05:17 They're too, too good.
05:18 Number 4 - Sami Zayn Will Invade The Bloodline
05:21 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 aside,
05:28 because that's what it was meant to be.
05:30 WWE had this penned in for three weeks, and then we were going to 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,
05:40 mostly because Zayn is so damn lovable.
05:43 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,
05:52 whereas Sami had just done a 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's down to Triple H seeing it's worth and carrying it on or whatever,
06:06 it has carried Smackdown for the past eight months or so,
06:09 and for my money, is the best storyline WWE has told in ages.
06:13 Long may this approach continue too, it has been flubbing fantastic.
06:18 Number 3 - Mankind Is Dude Love
06:20 Only Mick Foley could have pulled this off.
06:22 Like, imagine we did this today.
06:24 Fans would be on Reddit before you could say "riot",
06:26 one wrestler pretending to be somebody else?
06:29 Try again.
06:30 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 the audience,
06:36 so when it was time for something new,
06:37 we tapped into his very real past and introduced Dude Love.
06:41 It was wild.
06:43 This was Mick's first character that he had created as a child,
06:45 and we got our first glimpse of him in 1997,
06:48 when about a year later, Mr. Love was feuding with Steve Austin.
06:52 That wasn't by mistake.
06:53 It also let us do the three faces of Foley in the Royal Rumble,
06:56 which will never be topped, 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
07:05 and Triple H showed it like he'd seen a ghost,
07:07 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 Number 2 - 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,
07:21 Mick Foley couldn't do what he once did,
07:23 so he thought outside the box.
07:25 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.
07:33 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
07:39 because he embraced his goofy ways,
07:41 and everybody lapped it up.
07:43 He was having fun, so we could too.
07:45 Socko's debut was amazing too,
07:46 because it was part of that classic Vince McMahon in 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 Number 1 - The Undertaker's Boneyard Match
08:01 Now, while that sounds terrible and like a euphemism,
08:03 I don't mean it that way,
08:04 but when we got to WrestleMania 36 and the pandemic had stopped the world from moving,
08:09 we had to come up with a brand new idea for The Undertaker.
08:11 This was quite disappointing beforehand,
08:13 because it was meant to be The Deadman vs. AJ Styles,
08:16 which would have been a phenomenal match,
08:17 and that was a pun,
08:18 when all of a sudden they turned it into a cinematic contest,
08:22 and my word, it was great.
08:24 I mean, there was huge potential that this was going to look like a bad B-movie,
08:27 and I suppose at times it did,
08:28 but because everybody bought in and we came up with so many good ideas,
08:32 this was genuinely a highlight of the weekend.
08:34 And there were others that tried to compete with this too,
08:36 like the Swamp Fight between Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt,
08:39 or that thing in the dentist's office between Britt Baker and Big Swole,
08:42 but nobody ever came close to this,
08:44 and that's because everybody totally smashed it.
08:47 I remember watching it live and just remembering how cool it made everybody seem too,
08:51 and when The Undertaker rode off into the sunset,
08:54 well, let's face it, that was basically the perfect 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,
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09:17 Thank you so much for joining me as always,
09:19 and I look forward to talking to you very, very soon.