10 BEST Wrestling Rip-Offs
7. JBL (Ted Dibiase)
It was always felt that the Ted Dibiase character earned such prominence because Vince McMahon had at long last been able to turn his own persona up to 11 and put it in the body and glitzy suit of a cartoonish pro wrestler.
With that in mind, was John Bradshaw Layfield's 2004 reinvention an updated take on the Million Dollar Man, or a contemporary spin on the even-louder-mouthed version of himself McMahon had become?
The cars, suits and lifestyle choices Layfield made during his divisive run as WWE Champion mirrored much of Dibiase's 80s audaciousness, but replaced the pantomime villainy of Reaganism with the altogether meaner streak. This seems true of McMahon too, who luxuriated in his pro wrestling monopoly so much that by 2003 it was nearly impossible to see where his on-screen persona ended and the man behind Mr McMahon begun.
Regardless of all that, the JBL gimmick was at long last the lump of sh*t thrown at a wall that actually stuck for the former APA man, gifting him nearly a year as SmackDown's top star and a career WWE have since generously labelled worthy of their Hall Of Fame.