10 Most Successful Things WWE Borrowed From Other Promotions

WCW's own Thursday evening offering, Thunder, debuted in January 1998 - more than a year before WWE got the idea for SmackDown - but this, to be fair, can't go down as another instance of Vince stealing from Eric.

In fact, even though they were, at the time, leading in the ratings war, Bischoff was reportedly reluctant to produce a secondary show, fearing that the roster wasn't large enough to sustain four hours of television a week (and, to be fair, he probably wasn't far wrong).

For WWE though, the decision worked out pretty well - particularly after the acquisitions of WCW and ECW in 2001, which ultimately precipitated the launch of the brand extension, something the company still uses, albeit amid some well-founded criticism, to this very day.