10 Wrestling Reboots More Famous Than The Original
Credit where it's due.
The sheer of volume of wrestling these days means that concepts therein are forever being recycled. We're probably only a couple of years away from someone in a dark trench-coat debuting under the name "The Gravedigger".
In most cases, the bootlegged copy doesn't achieve anywhere near the same type of success as the original. A good case in point here is Ryback, who was introduced to our screens in 2012 as the unofficial successor to fellow hairless muscle monster Goldberg. He tried his best, but he could never inspire the same awe, in part thanks to the perception of him as a desperate knock-off.
This isn't always the way, though. In rare instances, wrestling reboots have managed to eclipse the performer, gimmick or storyline from which they were derived so much so that many fans are blissfully unaware of their copy-cat origins. It's kind of like Jimi Hendrix's cover of Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower, only without the proper accreditation.
But fear not. We're here to make sure the originators are recognised for their contribution, as well as to remind them that they're a lot less famous than the guy who shamelessly ripped them off.
10. SmackDown (Thunder)
In the modern era, a weekly slot on one of America's major television networks is almost a prerequisite for any fledgling wrestling promotion with ambitions of becoming mainstream. Every wrestling company worth its salt has boasted a slot on prime time, the most obvious examples being WWE's Monday Night Raw and WCW's Monday Nitro.
Though Vince McMahon likes to take credit for this trend, debuting All-American Wrestling on the USA Network back in 1983, he can't say the same for the secondary show. In fact, it was bitter competitors WCW who beat him to the punch, debuting on TBS with Thunder in January 1998 - a full year before SmackDown got its slot on UPN.
The WWE chairman would probably argue that he had plans to launch a second show at some point regardless, but at the very least it must be conceded that news of Ted Turner landing another lucrative TV deal forced him to put them into action more quickly.
As for which is more famous, by simple virtue of the fact that Thunder went off the airwaves after its parent company collapsed in 2001, and SmackDown is still around today, fast approaching its 1,000th episode, you've got to give this one to Vince.