10 Times WWE Blatantly Ripped Off Their Own Angles

4. Babyface Champ vs. Evil Authority

Steve Austin Vince McMahon John Cena Eric Bischoff
WWE

WWE may never stop trying to recreate Austin vs. McMahon.

The old babyface champion vs. evil heel authority feud has become a pro wrestling staple, and it's not hard to see why. Austin vs. McMahon was sheer money and undoubtedly one of the best rivalries in industry history - it'll never be bettered, but that won't stop the company from giving it a go.

In 2005, they cast Eric Bischoff in the Vince role and had breakout babyface John Cena play 'Stone Cold' as best he could. The main problem here is that fans knew exactly what was going to happen ahead of time. They'd seen it all before, and knew Cena would get the last laugh on a helpless Bischoff eventually.

Another issue with these repeated attempts to piggy-back old glories is that no-one can play rebel as well as Austin did. Fans looked at Cena's increasingly-tame dissent as a dime store version of Austin's gritty insubordination of years before.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.