What angles and characters has Vince stolen?

[The Curmudgeon]

It always kinda irks me when I look at TNA and see the downright zero ideas the company has when it comes to taking talent from WWE. They take Christian - and team him with Tomko. For absolutley no reason other than that was the team from WWE.

They take Rikishi, give him another name but make him a guy who dances to hip-hop style music and gives people the stink face. EXACTLY the same as WWE.

Please note: this isn't an anti-TNA thread, or a pro-WWE one. Just thought I'd mention that first.

I always liked the idea that Vince and creative at least tried to put a different spin on wrestlers when they joined WWE/F. They turned Mick Foley into Mankind. Scott Hall into Razor Ramon. And, thankfully, buried any notion of Paul Wight as Andre's son (a gimmick they really could have had more mileage from, given that Andre actually wrestled for WWF).

But what ideas HAS Vince stolen? What gimmicks have worked for WCW or whatever and the WWE has basically repacked them with a different name but the exact same character or gimmick? My knowledge of WCW and ECW is very limited, so I'm sure there are others out there that will know better than me.

EDIT - two good examples would be the NWO and Scott Steiner. True, Steiner was in WWF, but his horrendous freaks/peaks character was taken from WCW.

[sara]

NWO stands outthe most

[Jack]

All of entertainment is filled with borrowed ideas, there are very, very few original ideas or original idea-makers out there. You can look back at everyone of WWECWCW talent down the years and find some kind of association or link with someone who's gone before.

[The Curmudgeon]

tryme said:

All of entertainment is filled with borrowed ideas, there are very, very few original ideas or original idea-makers out there. You can look back at everyone of WWECWCW talent down the years and find some kind of association or link with someone who's gone before.

I don't really mean original ideas as such. I mean what gimmicks has a wrestler had in one company, and then went on to have exactly the same gimmick in the next?

[HMARK Center]

There's no big problem with taking a guy who's established a very successful character elsewhere and utilizing said well-established character to its fullest potential.

In TNA's case, as annoying as it is sometimes, its also a matter of cashing in on a certain characters established personality.

That said, we also know more about guys' previous characters in other promotions more these days than we did in years' past. It's that simple; we know what Christians' WWE character was, what Angle's WWE character was, etc. Back in the day, most of us had no idea who Hulk Hogan was before he showed up in the WWF; most of us had no idea who any number of other guys Vince signed up (Steamboat, Savage, the Harts, etc.) were, either.

Now, where I'll always give Vince credit is that, when his company has been at it's most successful, it's been largely because he's allowed his wrestlers some level of control over their character, from choosing a name (Steve Austin came up with "Stone Cold"), to scripting their own promos, to giving them a lot of freedom to really establish their personalities (i.e. Foley is really who made the Mankind character work, not the script writers).

Vince is no creative genius, but he's a smart enough man (at times) to let things feel more "natural" when it comes to characters. When you let a guy establish who he is and give him the responsibility of getting it over, the character feels more "organic", less factory-produced. It's too bad that he goes away from that so often; wish I could figure out why he does.

[pantherfan]

I remember WcW started doing this thing with Chavo and his pet horse on a stick, Peppy! Well shortly later Perry Saturn was in the WWE with Moppy!

[SAJ Forth]

Wasn't there a wrestler in the indies known as Repo Man?