10 Most Successful Things WWE Borrowed From Other Promotions
It's the sincerest form of flattery.
More often than not, WWE is professional wrestling's trend-setter. When they decide to do something - hold an annual over-the-top-rope battle royal, for example, or make use of a masked monster with a tortured origin story - other, smaller promotions tend to follow.
But it's not all one-way traffic. The recent decisions to revive WCW staples Starrcade and WarGames are more explicit examples of WWE copying (or, as they would prefer you put it, paying homage to) the competition, but there are plenty more examples throughout its history.
WWE is just as likely to borrow from rival promotions as they are to be imitated, particularly at times of relative crisis (hence, as we're about to find out, Paul Heyman's ECW became such an important creative source during the Monday Night Wars).
It's for you to decide whether there is anything unethical about reading your rivals' playbook. Pepsi was perhaps inspired by Coke, to be fair, and, in wrestling - since most of history's great promotions are now dead and buried, it ensures that the best ideas can survive for years ahead.
10. Cruiserweight Division (WCW)
You'd be hard pushed to make an argument for 205 Live - WWE's current cruiserweight offering - being classified as a success (unless by "success" you mean the ability to empty a previously packed arena in a couple of minutes).
But the original version, beginning with the creation of the Light Heavyweight Championship in 1997, merging with WCW's Cruiserweight division after the 2001 buy-out, and - admittedly - dying a painful death with the coronation of Hornswoggle six years later, at the very least helped launch the WWE careers of Rey Mysterio, Tajiri and Chavo Guerrero, among others.
And there can be no doubt that its launch was a direct response to Eric Bischoff's collection of high-flyers, who were stealing the show down in Georgia before the idea ever even entered Vince McMahon's head.