8 Times WWE Tried (And Failed) To Recreate Their Past Success

Despite our best efforts, we can’t just catch lightning in a bottle twice. Often, the best things in life are the results of the right people in the right place at the right time. This is very true in wrestling, where most of the truly iconic characters, storylines, matches, and moments come as a result of a very specific set of circumstances.

Too often, however, many companies look to the past and incorrectly assumed that replicating a few surface elements is all it takes to likewise replicate the success that came previously. But much to their disappointment, the performers, booking, or even just the passage of time created the opposite result.

WWE is most often guilty of such failed self-replicating. Driven by nostalgia or a lack of fresh ideas (oftentimes both at the same time), they will on numerous occasions attempt to strike oil from the same patch of land they did many years prior, but instead, they just wind up with dirt. In addition: because they try so hard to connect their repeats with the originals in question, it just ends up making the new iteration look worse by comparison.

And thus, this list chronicles 10 Times WWE Tried (And Failed) To Recreate Their Past Success.

Hey, you know that Hell in a Cell match where Mick Foley fell off the cage onto an announce table? You know how it looked really ugly and you thought for a second Foley actually died? You know how Jim Ross sold the spot with such an iconic call:

Well, at WrestleMania 32, when Shane McMahon fought The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match, the only parts of the memo WWE got were “have someone fall off a really tall thing,” and “have a line that sounds iconic.” (the keyword being “sounds”).

In their utterly dire match, Shane and ‘Taker broke out of the cell and started brawling outside. Shane, putting The Undertaker on an announce table, got an idea. He climbed to the top of the cell, and jumped off. Of course, ‘Taker rolled out of the way, allowing Shane to crash through the announce table. Michael Cole then shouted “For the love of Mankind!”

Apart from the fact that all of this was surrounded by a terrible match, this moment just didn’t work in its goal of replicating the magic of Mankind’s fall in 1998. For starters, “For the love of Mankind” is an obviously manufactured phrase, as evidenced by the fact that you can see Michael Cole reading it from a script.

Secondly, the spot itself feels so contrived. Now obviously, that’s the case with any extreme match. While Foley falling through the roof of the cell was an accident, the initial fall off the cage was agreed upon beforehand. However, aside from the fact that ‘Taker and Mankind were good enough to make it look like it came out of nowhere, it was also a benefit that such a move was completely unprecedented. Sure, Shawn Michaels fell off the wall of the cage and through a table in the inaugural HiAC match, but here was a man being tossed off the top of a 16-foot structure.

Even with the cage being bigger for Shane and ‘Taker’s match, it had been nearly 18 years since Mankind’s fall. Fans had become so jaded to big falls (including ones from Shane), him jumping off the cell wasn’t going to do much for them.

In fairness, from a business perspective, this was actually quite a successful move on WWE’s part. Once the match was announced on RAW the night after Fastlane, the remaining tickets for WrestleMania 32 sold quickly, as people were really excited to see Shane return. However, if WWE wanted to make a #WrestleManiaMoment that the #WWEUniverse would rememember and cherish #ThenNowForever, they’re probably out of luck.