Rinse and repeat. Sometimes literally.
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00:00 Wrestling is cyclical.
00:01 That doesn't mean that it rides around on a little bike,
00:03 but what it does mean, if you hit solid gold,
00:06 you can wait a few years and then you can do it again.
00:09 Why the flub not?
00:10 There's only so many ideas.
00:11 Sometimes it can be a little bit too wink, wink,
00:13 nudge, nudge, however, and everyone just goes,
00:16 they're just doing that for a ratings grab.
00:19 So hello, I am Cyberwok Culture.
00:20 Please hit that subscribe button.
00:22 And this is 10 times WWE blatantly
00:26 ripped off their own angles.
00:27 Number 10, this is your life.
00:28 Do you want to know a crazy fact?
00:31 After the This Is Your Life segment
00:32 between Mankind and The Rock,
00:34 they went backstage and Vince McMahon yelled at them
00:37 because they had gone well over time.
00:39 And the ratings came in and everybody hugged and said,
00:41 ha ha, you can go as long as you want.
00:44 Just goes to show.
00:45 It is brilliant though,
00:46 although if you do watch it in 2022,
00:48 you may just go, yeah, it was a little bit overly long.
00:51 We could have edited this up a bit.
00:53 And if we move forward to 2017,
00:55 WWE decided to do it again between Alexa Bliss and Bayley.
00:59 And this one did not work at all,
01:01 mostly because the major shift was that Mick Foley
01:03 and The Great One had this lovely rapport
01:05 and they were basically friends,
01:07 whereas Bliss and Bales were feuding.
01:10 That was just like watching something completely different.
01:12 Therefore, this was filled with bad jokes
01:14 and proper awkwardness to the point,
01:16 after the fact, even WWE insulted themselves for it.
01:21 Sometimes you just know.
01:22 Let's not pretend this was the only attempt either,
01:24 because hidden away in the archives back in 2011,
01:28 Mick Foley tried to do this again with John Cena.
01:31 And yes, for a second time,
01:33 Mick came out afterwards and was like,
01:35 I shouldn't have done it.
01:36 Oh, how I regret it.
01:38 Number nine, doppelgangers collide.
01:40 Let's just get it out there now.
01:41 I liked Undertaker versus Undertaker at SummerSlam 1994.
01:45 Now I watch it today, I'm like, this is not good stuff.
01:48 This is really, really bad.
01:49 But when I was basically a fetus, I couldn't believe it.
01:52 How was there two dead man's?
01:54 The real issue was that it was put in the main event.
01:55 Really, it should have been in the middle of the card.
01:57 And even the Undertaker went to Bruce Prichard afterwards
02:00 and said, why did you do this?
02:01 This was absolutely terrible.
02:03 Never make me do it again.
02:04 For some reason though, we then got to 2006
02:07 and we did do it for a second time.
02:09 Now on this occasion, it was with Kane,
02:11 just because he's the dead man's brother.
02:13 And we told Luke Gallows, yeah,
02:15 you've got to dress up like the big red machine,
02:17 including this terrible fake wig.
02:20 And everyone's going to pretend that you're Kane.
02:21 WWE just dropped this from nowhere one day
02:24 because I presume they realised it was not clicking.
02:27 And actually, when you think about Glenn Jacobs
02:29 and his career in WWE,
02:31 all this stuff was obviously going to happen
02:34 because it went on for so damn long.
02:36 We were going to get through everything.
02:38 Number eight, the Undertaker battles
02:40 in the Stumble Monsters.
02:41 Vince McMahon absolutely loved this one, didn't he?
02:43 I suppose because the Undertaker
02:45 was such a mythical character from day one,
02:47 we instead decided to walk down the route of,
02:49 oh my God, his opponent is so big.
02:52 How the hell is he ever going to overcome this?
02:55 Then he just overcame it.
02:56 The two that were most identical
02:58 came years apart from one another,
03:00 but they did basically follow the same format
03:02 because in the mid '90s,
03:04 the giant Gonzalez arrived in the WWF,
03:07 complete with his weird hair suit,
03:09 and he jumped the Undertaker.
03:10 And then in the 2000s, did it again with the great Khali.
03:14 I mean, both of these dudes just batted the fiend arm.
03:16 And while Gonzalez never went on to do anything,
03:18 Khali was able to use this as a platform
03:21 to become the WWE Champion.
03:24 I will never get over it.
03:25 This was yet another situation too,
03:27 where Taker was sick of it himself
03:29 and even went to management and was like,
03:30 "Please, would you put me with somebody?
03:32 "I can actually work."
03:34 Seriously, go watch like the early half
03:36 of his WrestleMania streak.
03:38 Every single match is basically this.
03:41 Number seven, the anti-American group.
03:43 The height of this has got to be in 1997
03:45 when Bret Hart formed the Hart Foundation
03:47 and just blurred the line so well
03:49 to the point he was super duper over in Canada,
03:52 but the rest of the United States hated him.
03:54 I mean, it was so successful,
03:55 five years later we tried again,
03:57 but this time it was with the UnAmericans,
04:00 and the problem lies in the name.
04:02 It's just too on the nose.
04:03 I mean, the dudes in it were good
04:05 because it was Christian Lance Storm and Tess,
04:07 and eventually they were joined by William Regal.
04:09 And even though it started as the whole,
04:10 "We're Canadian and we hate everybody else,"
04:13 when Regal did join, it was more of,
04:15 "Hey ho, the Commonwealth."
04:16 The reason this never really worked though
04:17 is because WWE never went whole hog with it,
04:20 and also everybody in it wasn't that enthused
04:22 about the gimmick, as Bruce Prichard
04:24 once told us on his podcast.
04:26 So that is always going to hurt,
04:27 as it did in 2015, when we had the League of Nations.
04:31 Do you remember the League of Nations?
04:33 Shameless, Wade Barrett, Alberto Del Rio, and Bruce.
04:37 And again, there's loads of stories out there.
04:39 They all just fell out with each other behind the scenes.
04:42 So ignore what I said earlier.
04:44 Let's kill this idea and never have it back.
04:46 Number six, D-Generation X dress up.
04:49 There is no two ways about it.
04:50 The DX Nation of Domination parody in 1998
04:53 is just bad, bad television.
04:55 This isn't the right thing to say.
04:58 It never should have gone down,
04:59 and even X-Pac agrees with that,
05:01 and he was in the thing, and he's also a super good dude.
05:04 You just don't wear blackface though.
05:05 You don't do it, and if you want to debate that, fine,
05:08 but I want to meet you in the pocket lot.
05:10 It really did become a thing though,
05:11 so months later we did it again
05:13 when D-Generation X was mimicking the corporation,
05:16 and then years later, after they were back into the fold,
05:19 Shawn Michaels and Triple H did this
05:20 to Vince McMahon and Shane.
05:22 That one is quite fondly remembered as well
05:23 because HBK/Shane O'Mac's mannerisms
05:26 were absolutely hilarious,
05:28 but they kept on doing this time and time again
05:30 before you just sat there and you were like,
05:32 "Yeah, I know DX are gonna do this.
05:34 "It's just what they do."
05:35 And you know the deal with that.
05:36 Eventually it does become the law of diminishing returns
05:39 because the creative idea isn't that creative
05:41 when you've done it 72,000 times,
05:44 and I bet you this, will a group do it again in the future?
05:48 Yes.
05:49 Number five, arresting the baby face.
05:50 I don't think anyone will ever do this
05:51 as well as Steve Austin
05:52 because he did make you believe
05:53 he was being taken away for prison,
05:56 but this is a gimmick that seems to work.
05:58 There's plenty of we can talk about,
05:59 but the one that really set everybody on fire
06:01 was when Becky Lynch did it in 2019,
06:04 and she came across as so unhinged,
06:07 it was super duper to watch,
06:08 and if she was trying to tangle Stone Cold,
06:10 fair play to her 'cause she absolutely nailed it.
06:13 Fans loved it too, and this was quite the risk
06:15 given what we were trying to copy,
06:16 but seriously, go back to this period
06:19 and just watch every little thing the man does,
06:22 crowd goes crazy for it.
06:23 Ultimately, she just came across as cool as Austin did too,
06:26 meaning even though they were being arrested,
06:28 we would be like, "Oh man,
06:29 "this is the best person I've ever seen."
06:32 I mean, you can only do that in wrestling,
06:34 but maybe that's where the magic lies.
06:36 Number four, the good guy versus the authority.
06:38 WWE is never going to stop trying
06:41 to get another Austin versus McMahon part two.
06:43 And I can completely understand this, I get it.
06:46 It was one of the most successful programs ever,
06:49 so they wanna try and replicate it.
06:50 The problem in 2022 is that we've done it so many times,
06:53 it's just boring now, and has anybody actually
06:56 even got close to what Steve and Vincent did?
06:59 The answer is no, I mean,
07:00 it is literally like night and day.
07:02 Even in 2005, we were trying this
07:04 because Eric Bischoff was management,
07:06 John Cena was the everyman trying to rally against it,
07:08 and by the time Roman Reigns was a star,
07:11 here came McMahon back again.
07:13 I mean, it was so damn obvious.
07:14 The real problem was that Austin had this rebellious streak
07:17 that you could believe in,
07:18 whereas guys like Cena and Reigns just didn't.
07:21 John especially was a strange one
07:22 because he came across like a goody two shoes,
07:25 and it was more likely that he would have gone to management
07:27 and sat down with them and kind of vocalized his issues
07:30 as opposed to putting them in a wrestling ring
07:32 and kicking their ass.
07:33 I mean, it's almost like when you have
07:34 a brand new top guy, they should forge their own path.
07:39 Or do I know?
07:39 Number three, somebody steals the urn.
07:41 Do you remember the Undertaker's urn?
07:43 For a good while, it seemed to only exist
07:46 so that other people could steal it.
07:48 Yep.
07:49 We also all forget that this was the source
07:50 of the Undertaker's powers for a while
07:53 'cause Paul Bearer would hold it aloft
07:54 when the Deadman was in trouble, which caused the sit-up.
07:58 And then years later, he was doing it without the urn,
08:02 so something smells fishy to me.
08:03 We haven't seen this gold pot in ages now,
08:05 but back in the day, my word,
08:07 you wanted to get possession of this
08:09 'cause then you could control the Undertaker.
08:11 So Ted DiBiase did it, Paul Heyman did it,
08:13 CM Punk did it, Bray Wyatt did it.
08:15 Hell, even Paul Bearer himself one did it
08:18 'cause he screwed the Undertaker with the urn
08:20 and he joined up with mankind.
08:21 And like I say, we went to crazy levels with this too,
08:24 and we acted like now you were in control of the Undertaker,
08:27 which is why it's very strange
08:29 that one day he came out wearing MMA gloves.
08:33 What the flub was that about?
08:34 Number two, heels getting sprayed with liquid.
08:36 I know that sounds terrible, but bear with me.
08:38 Most famous of these was the 22nd of March, 1999 Raw
08:42 when Steve Austin came out with the beard truck
08:44 and he took said liquid and he sprayed down
08:46 Vince McMahon's Shane McMahon of The Rock.
08:48 And this clip is so historic and it is so famous,
08:52 you still see it on TV today, it is never gonna die.
08:55 But so popular, WWE couldn't help themselves
08:58 and did it two years later,
08:59 but this time it was with Kurt Angle
09:01 who drove a milk truck to the ring.
09:03 Now the reason this worked is that was so redonkulous
09:06 and it was such a stupid parody, everybody was laughing
09:09 and when you laugh, you feel good in your tum tum.
09:12 Somehow this hasn't been tried since,
09:13 but I bet we do do it soon.
09:15 I mean, you can do it with Drew McIntyre and whiskey.
09:18 Roman Reigns could do it with a table,
09:20 but I'm not sure how that would work.
09:22 Maybe Cody Rhodes could do it with orange juice,
09:24 if he likes orange juice.
09:26 This is why somebody else should come up with it,
09:28 but mark it on your calendars.
09:30 It's probably just around the corner.
09:32 Number one, heels getting soaked with urine.
09:34 Why is this even a sentence I have to say out loud?
09:37 But hey, it's true because a lot of people in modern times
09:40 saw Jeff Hardy throw his piss over Sheamus
09:43 after the Irishman had accused him of being a drunkard.
09:46 And really this does happen because people backstage
09:48 in WWE really enjoy toilet humor.
09:53 On this occasion, I mean that literally.
09:54 This was nothing new though,
09:55 as back in 2006, Vince McMahon had been directly involved
09:58 in this because he was doing the same thing
10:00 with Shawn Michaels.
10:01 He told him to take a whiz into a little tube.
10:04 And when HBK was suitably upset by it,
10:07 he took it and he threw it into Vince's face.
10:10 Now there was 14 years between these angles.
10:12 So I'm going to say it was fair game,
10:14 but as a wrestling fan,
10:15 I don't need to see anyone take their urine
10:18 and chuck it into another human being.
10:20 Also, my gosh, talk about don't try this at home.
10:23 I would rather be pile driven through 78 different tables
10:27 than someone take their stuff and pour it all over me.
10:31 I mean, again, why are we even talking about this?
10:34 Not many other times WWE blatantly ripped off
10:36 their own angles.
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