5. Total Divas = Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9thL8oT5IE Pro wrestlers being turned into everything but pro wrestlers has been a popular theme for Vince McMahon for 30 years. 1985 marked the debut of Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling on CBS, a show that took a collection of WWE's most popular babyfaces and heels and pit them against each other in a series of slapstick cartoon melodramas. Compare that to 2015, where a collection of female wrestling heels and babyfaces engage in a series of slapstick reality TV melodramas on E! Networks Total Divas. Expanding wrestling's brand potential into unique spaces has always been a hotly contested part of Vince McMahon's branding strategy for pro wrestling. Interestingly enough though, for as much flack as McMahon catches for his concepts, the two year cartoon and also now two-year reality TV show have both mightily exceeded expectations.
Marcus K. Dowling
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Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
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