10 Wrestling Moments You Didn’t Know Were Totally Ripped Off

9. Arn Anderson

Ripped Off
WWE

Arn Anderson hasn't seen Nicolas Cage's Academy Award-winning turn as Ben Sanderson in Leaving Las Vegas, but he has seen the 1987 gangster drama the Untouchables, and its twisting tale of police corruption.

In it, Sean Connery's Jimmy Malone challenges Kevin Costner's Elliott Ness to fight fire with criminal fire:

"He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue!"

Anderson was among the first victims of the New World Order's brutal, early, mass beatdowns. Hulk Hogan and the Outsiders had hospitalised him with a baseball bat on Nitro the previous week, setting the scene for an incendiary, retaliatory babyface promo. It was typically superb work from Arn, whose simmering fury worked perfectly as build. He didn't immediately lash out. He never did; instead, he made his audience pay strict attention to the boiling pot, creating anticipation for the spilled-over fury.

His own ingenuity refashioned the ragtag personnel associated with WCW as a united front - "We were people brought together not by philosophy but by necessity" - before liberally borrowing from David Mamet's script.

The best wrestlers know what to plagiarise, and Arn borrowed from the snappiest, wittiest screenwriter of them all.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!