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00:00So as you all know from listening to the end of the videos that I voice here on YouTube,
00:04I like to promote a bit of self-love, and I encourage people to forgive themselves for
00:08mistakes they've made in the past. It is definitely okay to make mistakes. We're all
00:12human. Just make sure that you try to learn from them. Unfortunately, when it comes to the WWE,
00:17though, they tend to repeat mistakes ad nauseum and never learn a single thing.
00:22So let's take a look at them. As I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:25and these are 10 times that WWE tried the same failure twice.
00:30Number 10. Doppelganger Warfare.
00:32Now, back in 1994, somebody thought it would be a good idea to try an Undertaker versus
00:37Undertaker match. Maybe it sounded good on paper. I mean, this is the kind of thing young kids lucky
00:41enough to have two Taker action figures might have actually booked on their own kitchen table.
00:45But in reality, though, it completely sucked. SummerSlam 94 should have taught Vince McMahon
00:50that Doppelganger Warfare is less horror movie showdown and more horror show in general.
00:54But in 2006, he tried it again. There was a slight twist this time, admittedly,
00:59because fake Kane appeared as the character's old-school gimmick and new,
01:03baldy serial killer Kane didn't return to the mask. Still, it was just as bad as Taker versus
01:09Faker. WWE failed to realize that fans didn't want twin sanity, they wanted fresh ideas. The Kane
01:15story arguably bombed harder than the original with Taker, and that is saying something.
01:20Number 9. A School Teacher Gimmick.
01:22Now, the logic behind turning Shane Douglas into a hoity-toity professor called Dean was
01:27pretty simple. Douglas would get on everyone's nerves for reminding them of school when they
01:31were watching wrestling. And then he'd get nuclear heat without doing much other than playing the
01:35smug git who uses words like vivify on WWF telly. But years later, on WWE's version of ECW,
01:42Matt Stryker tried the same thing. But the bizarre moment here is that Douglas was a genuine legend in
01:48the original Land of Extreme. By 2006, Stryker was plundering Dean's old material and using it as
01:54part of his unwanted classroom segments. Now, Stryker was admittedly a teacher in real life,
01:58but neither of these characters had any success. So why in the name of buttoned-up polo shirts did
02:04the company think that this monstrosity was ripe for recycling? Things wouldn't have been any worse
02:08had they looked back to 1995 and decided that Man Tour 2.0 should have become ECW's next heel menace.
02:15Number 8. The Kayfabe Son.
02:17Now, if you're a wrestler and somebody in creative pictures that you become authority figure A's
02:22illegitimate son, punch them in the balls and then write your own P-45 and run away. Because
02:27it is a recipe for disaster, if recent WWE history is anything to go by. You'll either become a comedic
02:33afterthought or be accused of killing an icon's comeback. In 2007, WWE were ready to reveal that
02:39Mr. Kennedy was Vince McMahon's boy, but wellness policy violations got in the way,
02:43and Hornswoggle got the nod instead. A decade later, in 2017, promising ex-NXT man Jason Jordan
02:50was also suddenly revealed to be Kurt Angle's son, and it actually led to both men sinking in fan
02:55estimations, at least for a while. WWE should sit down and have a right good think about the next
03:00time that they try and plan some phony family reveals. It's rarely taken seriously, and it
03:04had an adverse effect on everyone involved in the past two examples. So, let's not go here again,
03:10Vince. Please.
03:11Number 7. A Giant Who, Let's Face It, Can't Wrestle.
03:14The Undertaker could have been forgiven for punching McMahon in the plums, and not just because
03:18he was booked against himself in 1994, because one year earlier, the WWF wheeled out Giant Gonzalez
03:25in the world's worst onesie and forced Taker to try and work with somebody who didn't know how to sell
03:30at all. But Taker's nightmares were far from over when Gonzalez flocked and left the biz,
03:35because the WWE's inherent need to lumber him with giants who simply cannot wrestle has been
03:39there for all to see since the dawn of time. And so, The Great Khali marched onto screens in,
03:44you guessed it, 2006. Seriously, this video might as well be renamed as the 10 worst moment from WWE's
03:502006. Now, to be fair, The Great Khali wasn't quite as bad as Gonzalez, but he was hardly somebody
03:54that Undertaker was going to have killer matches with. Worse still, the presentation was almost
03:59identical to how one giant had debuted at the 1993 Royal Rumble. So much for learning from past
04:04errors, right? Number 6. A Minis Division
04:07Now, wrestling has always had this crude fascination with what you'd term as a freak show
04:12elements. And that stretches right back to the medium's carny days and isn't WWE exclusive,
04:16but they are no stranger to promoting a circus-like feel. Now, this isn't always a negative. In fact,
04:22variety and showmanship are good things and should be encouraged. But the dreaded Minis Division
04:27definitely was an exception. In 1997, the WWF began promoting Mexican Minis like El Torito,
04:33Tarantula, Mosaic, Nova, and the most famous of the lot, Max Mini. Now, here's where it gets strange.
04:39They never treated these wrestlers as real wrestlers, and instead the company presented them
04:43like children. And they'd go one step further than that idea in 2005 when launching the juniors
04:49division. Ah yes, that classic tactic to make SmackDown more appeasing to sponsors. The old
04:54classic. Laughing at little people. Brilliant. Everything from the way that the announcers
04:59giggled throughout the matches to the play school font used for the division made a mockery of these
05:04dudes. And that is not cool. Number 5. A Totally Useless International Bawble
05:09So in the past, Vince McMahon has seen it fit to promote more than two international
05:13baubles that meant precisely nothing all to viewers worldwide, and even seemed to forget
05:18that they existed a few weeks after they were won. Braun Strowman's greatest Royal Rumble
05:22championship belt, the OC's Tag Team World Cup, and the Undertaker's 2-8 trophy were all utterly
05:27useless. And it'll irk some fans that only Shane McMahon's WWE World Cup trinket had any sort of
05:33constructive character use when the promotion returned to the United States. This phoned-in method
05:38of adding value to international shows didn't start when WWE struck a deal with Saudi Arabia
05:42either. Back in the mid-to-late 90s, the company also ran a tournament for the Kuwait Cup, and they
05:47were as thrilling and impactful on main TV as they sound.
05:50Number 4. Brand Invading Wild Cards
05:53WWE's commentators made a big deal out of the fact that Fox had exploited the bold new brand-to-brand
05:59invitational rules when Charlotte Flair recently popped up on SmackDown. According to the guidelines,
06:04certain wrestlers can appear up to four times per year on rival brands. That sounds eerily like
06:092019's awful wildcard rule. The wildcards failed before and they will fail again, but they will
06:14only ever leave when WWE gets bored of them. There's no way that they'll stick to the four times per
06:19year format, just like they squished the previous shake-up attempt by changing how the wildcard trick
06:24worked. And this idea will also be forgotten about within months. It's baffling to see the creative
06:28team pretend brand-to-brand invitational means something different to wildcard as well. They really should
06:33have just come out and admitted that TV is really stale right now, and explained away this haphazard
06:38booking style as beneficial to the shows during the current climate.
06:41Number 3. A Definitive Brand Split
06:44Of course, conceding that things might not be a thriller minute isn't something that WWE feel
06:48comfortable doing. And that's fine, because there are always ways to make Raw and SmackDown feel like
06:53must-see uniquely identifiable and totally different weekly delights. For example, the brand extension
06:58slash split, which hasn't worked twice. Both brands split started out so promisingly in 2002
07:04and 2016. Vince McMahon seemed dead set on properly promoting each major show as competitive rating
07:09seekers that would drive each other on. Unfortunately, he got in his own way and cross-pollinated to the
07:14point that the entire premise lacked serious credibility within months. 2002's first go-around
07:19needed to teach McMahon what to do if he ever tried to divide his top shows again. But rather than learn
07:24what not to do, he bashed his head against the wall and repeated the same mistakes 14 years on,
07:29then decreed that fans didn't really want a definitive split anyway. Okay.
07:32Number 2. The End Of Mr. McMahon
07:34I Can't Be On TV If I'm Dead, Pal
07:37That line, one Vince reportedly told Bruce Pritchard many moons ago, is why he penned himself to be blown
07:42up in a fiery limousine explosion in 2007. To McMahon, it made sense that he'd go out in such an
07:47unambiguous blaze of glory, because then he'd never be able to return. Because he was apparently sick of
07:52playing his Mr. McMahon character anyway. Around 12 months later, Vince was back on Raw shifting
07:57millions of dollars to fans in some overhyped giveaway that didn't draw the ratings that he
08:01thought it would. So, seeking the publicity such a stunt would surely draw, McMahon killed his
08:05on-screen persona off again by having a piece of the staging fall on top of him. Nobody bought it.
08:11The punishing law of diminishing returns was in effect, especially when Vince had survived the
08:15previous year's limo blast, which is one he couldn't use to disappear due to a very real Chris
08:19Benoit tragedy and was back on TV within six months.
08:231. The XFL
08:24So Vince McMahon has given so much to pro wrestling, and it's a shame that owning one juggernaut just
08:29isn't enough for him. Rather than being content with the empire that he built in the mid-1980s,
08:34Vince wanted to expand to other avenues and prove himself as a promoter who can thrive in real-world
08:39sports. That's why he tried to push the XFL as the NFL alternative twice. 2001's defeat was a harsh
08:46and brutal lesson that sent Vince away to lick his wounds. The XFL lost millions and led to a
08:51thorough roasting in the mainstream press for those lining up to bash this wrestling guy for
08:55thinking that he could hack it in pro football. Stick to the fake stuff was very much the prevailing
08:59message from the anti-WWE revelers.
09:02By 2018, McMahon was back for another shot, though. With the brand new XFL launched in 2020,
09:07things initially seemed hopeful. The first week delivered solid football and benefited from doing
09:11away from the WWE razzmatazza before, but sadly, because thanks to the big vid, it directly affected
09:17the XFL, and Vince's league filed for bankruptcy in mid-April. Ah, well, at least we'll have the
09:23memories, right? So what's next, Vince? IcoPro2K22? Yeah, let's get on it, mate.
09:27And there we go, my friends. Those were the 10 times WWE tried the same failure twice. I hope that
09:31you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section below.
09:35As always, I've been Jules. You can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJWithAZero,
09:39and it'd be lovely to see you over there, my friends. But before I go, I just want to say
09:43one thing. As I said in the opening of this video, it is okay to make mistakes. We are all human. We
09:47are all fallible. But as long as you're trying to learn from your mistakes and forgiving yourself
09:51for mistakes that you made in the past, that will allow you to go on and live a healthier and happier
09:54life. And at the end of the day, that is all I want for you, because you are a massive ledge and
09:58you deserve all the best things, all right? Now go out there and absolutely smash it. As always,
10:03I've been Jules. You have been awesome. Never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
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