0:00

Vince McMahon wrote every amazing

0:02

wrestling story ever. Also, some

0:04

folk would have you think. He's obviously come up with some

0:06

incredible angles over the years, but when we get into

0:09

the nitty-gritty, there's a host of individuals

0:11

that deserve some credit, which is what we

0:13

shall do today. So hello, I am sorry

0:15

for what culture, please do hit that subscribe

0:17

button. This is 10 Unthinkable

0:19

Masterminds for High Legendary

0:22

Wrestling Ideas. Number 10, Kevin

0:24

Kelly came up with the Triple H Stephanie McMahon

0:26

angle. Yup, think about the consequences

0:28

of this. This absolutely changed the course of wrestling

0:31

history and kind of amazingly started off

0:33

with a story that saw Tess try

0:35

to get together with Stephanie McMahon. Why

0:37

not? This was all fueled forward thanks to Vince Russo.

0:40

So when he left for WCW in 1999, there

0:42

wasn't actually a finish to this, which is when

0:45

Kevin Kelly had a thought. It came after

0:47

a company-wide email that had been sent out

0:49

asking for suggestions, or so it is said, when

0:51

Kelly was like, well, alright, how about we do

0:53

this? Because given that to buy themselves some time,

0:56

WWE had decided to have the British Bulldog hurl

0:58

a trash can at her. Why

1:00

don't we say Steph has memory issues? Sure,

1:02

it is the attitude era after all. This

1:05

would then allow the game to swoop in and use that

1:07

to wed McMahon against her will, which

1:09

is as bad as it sounds, until, ta-da,

1:12

it will be revealed that they were in cahoots the whole

1:14

time. This then launched the McMahon-Helmsley domination

1:17

faction, and of course, in real life, these

1:19

two are still married today. What

1:21

a lovely tale. Number 9, Tiger Ali

1:23

Singh coined one of the greatest phrases of all time.

1:26

We all want to be The Rock, considered one of

1:28

the greatest wrestlers ever, despite only

1:30

being active for a cup of coffee. Now,

1:32

the great one rules Hollywood. It has been

1:34

a mad career. Going back to the grappling,

1:36

people would actually tune in to Raw just to hear what

1:38

he was going to say into a microphone, and

1:41

that's amazing. He didn't even have to fall on the floor.

1:43

He could just talk and bam, superstar. One

1:46

of his go-tos was asking an unsuspecting

1:48

wrestler a question and then cutting them off with, it doesn't

1:50

matter, but here's a spin for you. He

1:52

didn't really come up with that. Whether intentional

1:55

or not, Tiger Ali Singh dropped this

1:57

when doing the always offensive, I'm a foreigner,

1:59

therefore I hate Americans' gimmicks. Cause

2:02

he wanted to prove that these heathens would do

2:04

anything, so of course he invited a

2:06

woman into the ring to embarrass her. After

2:08

Tiger asked her name though, he did

2:10

indeed jump in with a it does what matter,

2:13

so there you go. It didn't have the same impact

2:15

as when Rocky did it, but that brings us to...

2:18

Number 8, Conan O'Brien also got in

2:20

there first. I mean, here we go. To

2:22

be fair, this isn't really legendary, but people still

2:24

do talk about it, so it counts a bit, and

2:26

we also turn our attention to the Simpsons.

2:29

We are all over

2:29

the place today. Cause many people were swearblind

2:32

for smart reasons that seasons 1-8 represent

2:34

the peak of the show, and of course there's

2:36

still constant gems wherever you go. It's

2:39

one of the best programs ever. During this high,

2:41

one Conan O'Brien was writing for this series, and

2:43

as a joke, he would say to those on

2:45

the team when they suggested something he didn't think

2:47

was very good, that maybe they should go

2:50

drink a tall glass of shutup juice. Where

2:52

have we heard that before? There is no grey

2:55

area with this one either. Right at Tommy Blanchard

2:57

left late night with Conan O'Brien to work for WWE

3:00

in 1999, so surely that's

3:02

how it came to be. Although, yeah, it

3:04

was a slight error. That one never clicked.

3:07

Number 7, Jon Moxley wanted to squash CM

3:09

Punk. Jon Moxley seems like a good dude.

3:11

He's also a fantastic wrestler who has lived up to

3:14

all his potential, and it's why he's

3:16

so beloved in AEW. The fans

3:18

can feel it. He's also got a keen ear for the business,

3:20

which is why, as the rumour goes, he

3:22

suggested that before their all-out 2022 encounter, he

3:26

should just squash CM Punk with the World title

3:28

on the line, and that would be that. Huh. This

3:30

has led to rumours that Mox maybe, just maybe,

3:33

could see what was going to happen and was trying to get

3:35

in there first to protect his aura. Dave

3:37

Meltzer had backed this report up, and look,

3:39

it happened. We still got the pay-per-view match. Seeing

3:42

Jon take Punk to Tars beforehand certainly

3:44

helped his character. How could it

3:46

not? But there you go. If you saw this

3:48

and shouted, what, like Stone Cold Steve Austin,

3:51

came from the brain of the man who

3:53

loves to bleed. Number six, who came

3:55

up with the Attitude Era logo? Now, this

3:57

thing was iconic. Tied into the fact

3:59

that the period... before WWE was massive,

4:01

but when they did decide to change their logo in 1998, it

4:03

kickstarted a golden

4:06

period. It was also just so cool which helped sell

4:08

what the company was now selling, and internally

4:11

it was referred to the Scratch logo for obvious

4:13

reasons. Look closer. While

4:15

you'd imagine this was some creation of the design department

4:17

though, it actually came from

4:20

Vince McMahon. Following two disastrous

4:22

Raw ratings when they headed overseas, Vince

4:25

decided everything had to change, including

4:27

this. It's one of the reasons why Vince Russo also

4:29

got the green light as there was no going back,

4:32

we had to rebuild. Of course McMahon's

4:34

original drawing, or so goes the rumour,

4:37

had some testicles attached to it. Sadly

4:40

I'm not joking, but I suppose sometimes

4:42

you need a terrible idea to spark off a good one

4:44

and this was it. Everyone saw the benefit

4:46

in the black and white motif and the rest

4:48

is history. Before we go any further

4:50

though, this podcast is brought to you

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This price guaranteed. Scott

6:03

Hall Reinvent Sting If you want to tell

6:05

me that Tony Khan has booked Sting better than anybody

6:07

else, I think I'd agree with you. He has

6:09

been treated so well and as the legend he is,

6:12

so much so that his status has actually increased

6:14

and I didn't think that was possible, the level of

6:17

respect has rocked. It doesn't even matter he's 63

6:19

years old because we can just ignore that, and

6:21

of course the face paint helps, it hydrinkles.

6:24

When we turn the clocks back to, this all

6:26

came from Scott Hall. As the pair were changing

6:29

together back in

6:29

WCW and Steve Borden was thinking about how

6:32

to reimagine his character, Razor Ramone

6:34

asked if he'd ever seen the movie The Crow. Because

6:37

Hall was the best he followed it up with, I'm not telling

6:39

you to rip off The Undertaker, but maybe rip

6:41

off The Undertaker. This was incredible

6:43

advice. Sting listened, tweaked it to

6:45

make it his own and look what he

6:47

did. Amazing. Borden himself has always

6:49

credited Scott for this as has Eric Bischoff

6:52

and the fact he didn't do anything but look down

6:54

from the Rasters for an entire year. This

6:56

was so cool, somebody today

6:58

should probably rip off Sting. Vince

7:01

Russo finds his feet Vince Russo gets a lot of crap

7:04

for some of his ideas and rightfully so. Judy

7:06

Backwelt on a forklift is never going to be justified

7:09

and the amount of pole matches he booked

7:11

was silly. One had Viagra

7:14

up there. It wasn't all bad though,

7:16

and anyone saying that it was isn't being fair.

7:18

While he did over rely on swerves, when Russo

7:20

got it right it was riveting TV such as

7:22

it was a night of the 1998 Survivor Series. The

7:26

finish which saw The Rock join up with the corporation was

7:28

all time good, especially as nobody

7:31

saw it coming. On the Raw beforehand, Rocky

7:33

had dropped the People's Elbow onto Vince McMahon

7:35

and now they were buddies. Ah, we'd

7:37

been screwed. It also had logic as The Rock

7:39

told us he never forgot the fans had told him to die,

7:42

which was true, and this turn launched

7:44

everything between The Great One and Stone Cold Steve

7:46

Austin. Can't argue against it.

7:49

There were other top moments too, and it's

7:51

just a shame we have to go through the likes of Beva

7:53

Cleavage as well. I mean

7:55

it's 2023 and I still ask myself, what the

7:58

flub was that? Number 3, The Key.

7:59

of the Forbidden Door. It should come as

8:02

no surprise this one given how much he was involved,

8:04

but yes, it was Kenny Omega who decided the

8:06

best way to get the wrestling world talking was

8:09

to start working with as many wrestling companies

8:11

as possible. Smart man. After winning

8:13

the AEW World title, Omega went over to

8:15

Impact Wrestling and started getting belts over there too,

8:18

and he made sure the Good Brothers kept going back and

8:20

forth. Kenny also feud with the likes of Sami

8:22

Kalahane and Moose while also mending relationships

8:24

between All Elite Wrestling and New Japan. This

8:27

is why Kent had turned up a beach break in 2021.

8:29

The last ripple of this concept was a huge pay-per-view

8:32

where the two promotions went head to head and

8:34

we got that. It was literally called the Forbidden

8:36

Door and it was also amazing. As

8:38

we speak, rumours have cropped up that number two is on the

8:41

way soon as well. Why wouldn't ya?

8:43

Not only do you get one of a kind fight, but

8:45

it did a great buy rate last time and outdid

8:48

expectations. The dream would always be a huge

8:50

wrestling world cup and no doubt Omega would love that

8:52

too. Problem is, if you go and ask

8:54

WWE what they think, they will say,

8:57

no. Number two, the Elite helped shape

8:59

Britt Baker's character. When AEW

9:01

first launched, Britt Baker was penciled in as their

9:03

super-duper babyface. This makes

9:05

sense as she ticked all those boxes. Classic

9:08

wrestling certainly wasn't a bust, but

9:10

it didn't click as intended. This

9:12

happens. Ship. As this was a time

9:15

where Cody Rose, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega

9:17

were very integral to the creative process, they

9:19

all got together and told Britt to go out there

9:21

and say that the fans had whataburger faces.

9:24

So she was basically calling them fat. We then got

9:26

to the Jericho Crews where Baker fired shots at

9:28

Tony Schiavone for being a Starbucks barista,

9:31

which was his other job at the time, and boom,

9:33

this was money, all of a sudden the crowd

9:36

started to turn. Britt then used this to recraft

9:38

her gimmick and look at the success. She

9:40

began to tease the idea of maybe including

9:42

a bit more of a bad guy Edge, but as soon as those

9:44

at the top pushed her, we found what we

9:47

needed. I remember when all of this was happening

9:49

too, you just knew it was the right

9:51

call and it was. Number one, the Money

9:53

in the Bank ladder match. Now we're never going to know about

9:55

this one for sure, but there was a period where it

9:57

felt like Vince McMahon made all the decisions.

9:59

And flub you if you had any ideas.

10:02

He didn't care. While there may be some

10:05

truth to it, let's go back in time and talk about

10:07

the Money in the Bank ladder match. Regardless

10:09

of whether superstars are able to offer input

10:11

in 2023 or not, one Chris Jericho felt like he

10:13

had the platform, and he went to the powers

10:16

that be with a plan. He saw there was

10:18

a load of great midcard talent which didn't have a spot

10:20

when it came to WrestleMania, so suggested

10:22

that there could be an annual ladder match that would feature

10:24

multiple performance. He sat down with

10:26

the writer Brian Govertz, who then came up with the kicker,

10:29

so a winner could receive a world title opportunity

10:32

at a time of their choosing. Here we

10:34

go. The pair went to Vince with this, who suggested

10:36

a prop, because of course he did. The briefcase

10:39

was born. That was a good call though, because as

10:41

we know, it would become quite the symbol. And

10:43

look at this. Three humans working

10:46

together to invent a concept which still exists

10:48

today. Sometimes things are

10:50

just meant to be. Know of any other unthinkable

10:52

masterminds behind legendary wrestling ideas?

10:55

Maybe you are one, and it's great to have you. Let

10:57

us know in the comments below and don't forget to like the video, share the

10:59

video and

10:59

subscribe. Then head over to whatculture.com where

11:02

you can read yourself some articles. Make sure you come give us

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a follow at WhatCultureWWE and sign them

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in at 316. And there should be

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a video on the screen right now. I

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think you should give it a click. My name is Simon

11:12

from WhatCulture. Thank you very much for joining me

11:14

as always, and I look forward to talking

11:17

to you very, very soon.