Imitation is considered the highest form of flattery by many, but what if it’s used or done better and puts the originator out of business? It’s an interesting question, and begs another as to when is it enough, or is there ever too much? When it comes to running a company like the WWE, Vince McMahon’s borrowed imagination has toppled fiefdoms and created an empire.
Taking talent from rival promotions
Vince McMahon is often credited as a genius, and he is. He was the first to see the power or high production values and cable television. Those alone were game changers, but he needed the talent to pull it off.
After taking over the then WWF from his father, Vince soon began raiding the other promotional territories for the talent he needed. Nothing wrong with that as wrestlers often moved from promotion to promotion, territory to territory. Some of these names include Greg Valentine, Roddy Piper, and Bobby Heenan. But the biggest names was Hulk Hogan, who he signed away from the AWA (American Wrestling Alliance).
Following the purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions by Ted Turner and the rebranding/launch of WCW, McMahon again went after another rival’s top talent, offering large sums of money to lure them away. As Sting said in his book, Sting: Moment of Truth, Ric Flair and Lex Luger were the biggest names to leave. Others followed, seeking to test the waters, but would eventually return.
It goes beyond collecting talent
As important as acquiring talent is, if there isn’t a showcase to display them in it’s going to be hard to pay our all the promised money used to lure them away. The biggest stage is the pay-per-view. In 1983, the NWA created Starrcade, the first professional wrestling pay-per-view to a decent payday that changed the landscape. In 1985 with his pieces in place, McMahon put all of his family’s money, their entire future, into the first WrestleMania to counter and match NWA’s Starrcade.
If WrestleMania didn’t pan out there wouldn’t be a WWE today, and the wrestling landscape as a whole would be far different as we may still have territories under the NWA banner. There wouldn’t have been a Monday Night War and wrestling wouldn’t be nearly as popular over the last thirty years.
But WrestleMania was a success.
Even gimmicks for wrestlers were copied, but McMahon wasn’t alone here. Everyone wanted their version of the Road Warriors. Sting and Ultimate Warrior were a smaller promotion’s attempt when they were teamed together as the Blade Runners. Demolition, arguably the greatest tag team in WWE history, was green lighted by McMahon because of their nearly identical style to Hawk and Animal.
Even storylines like the Monday Night Messiah is based on the AEW’s Dark Order, and the WWE’s new hacker truth finder resembles Matt Hardy’s drone when it comes to spying, as well as the Dark Order’s mysteriousness.
In the ‘90s, the Nation of Domination and D-X were the WWE’s version of WCW’s nWo.
To borrow a phrase used in the NFL (National Football League), it’s a copycat league. Everyone borrows from someone else, but it takes a special someone to put it all together and create something special. In the end, does it matter how something’s built if we all enjoy it? We don’t hold grudges against a professional sports team when they are built by acquiring other teams’ talent, so why do so here?
Everything is borrowed on some level.
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