10 Times WWE Actually Worked With Other Companies
6. USWA - New York Heads South
A firm favourite on the tape trading circuit in the 1990s and discoverable gem for future generations thanks to countless YouTube uploads, the ingenious WWE/USWA angle in 1993 presented two organisations as each others' mirror universe and gave Vince McMahon the first chance to play the heel that would eventually make him a billionaire.
It was inspired stuff - McMahon and Jerry Lawler's on-air bickering in WWE was always flipped for the local Memphis crowd that idolised 'The King', which subsequently extended out to other wrestlers Lawler was feuding with.
Appearances by McMahon on Memphis television (and very occasionally, live in the arena) as a cynical promoter were deliciously salty without ever fully betraying his announcer role on home soil. The same too went for the likes of Bret and Owen Hart and Randy Savage, who were babyfaces battling back Lawler's bullsh*t in every state other than the King's own. In Memphis, they were loathed yankee outsiders trying to come in and steal his throne.
All the angle lacked was a payoff. Lawler was indicted for rape in November 1993, bring all of his various wrestling affairs to an abrupt halt.