10 Ideas WWE Blatantly STOLE From WCW
WWE has taken the p*ss out of WCW for decades (but lifts from it often!)
This is important: Vince McMahon and Triple H continue to lift from WCW because they can. WWE purchased the remnants of their competition back in 2001 for a nominal fee, then immediately launched into the quickly-botched "Invasion" premise and buried WCW as second-rate.
So, whilst it isn't a problem that McMahon's league nabbed/nabs countless WCW ideas, it is funny that they'd keep doing that after decades of ridicule for the dead brand. Turns out the "nonsense" WWE higher-ups tut-tutted WCW for producing wasn't actually always that bad, eh?
It never was.
WCW served semi-regular piles of sh*t throughout the 1990s into the 2000s, sure, but they also provided templates that WWE willingly studied. Often, and this is something ex-Atlanta boss Eric Bischoff has freely admitted on his podcast, the promotion then delivered them better than WCW ever could've hoped to.
SmackDown, WrestleMania, Hell In A Cell, the entire 'Attitude Era', Vinnie Mac himself, The Undertaker, the new WWE World Heavyweight Championship - all of it has rather unsubtle splashes of WCW. That isn't something WWE would own up to in 2023, but it's there for all to see.
WWE lifts a lot from WCW.
10. Edgy Characters And “Attitude”
Sorry, WWF loyalists, but your product was still largely balls in 1996. Workers like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and more were putting on in-ring clinics, but the company was still clutching on to cartoonish presentation that now felt totally outdated. That's why Steve Austin was such a bolt of lightning.
However, watch Austin's early run as 'Stone Cold' and you'll still see a lot of tame stuff. He didn't properly come into his own as a character until 1997, which was well after the nWo's 'bad guys so good at being bad guys they get cheered for it' routine kicked in.
That edge gave Vince McMahon blueprints to fashion 'WWF Attitude' with.
Make no mistake about it, WCW blurred the lines first, and they made a truckload of cash doing it. The nWo was hot. McMahon took that template, improved on it, pushed the envelope further with DX and made even more money in the process, but...would he have gone 'Attitude' on his own?