/wiki/The Corporationcreator
The Corporation was aPower Stable inWorld Wrestling Entertainment led by WWE owner/chairmanVince McMahon. The group represented Vince's corporate empire and its purpose was to enforce his authority and punish those who defied it, such asStone Cold Steve Austin andD Generation X.
The group was formed at Survivor Series 1998 when Vince not only screwed Austin, butMankind, whom had been loyal to Vince for several months, out of the WWE championship in a tournament. Vince and his corporate stooges Sgt. Slaughter,Big Bossman,Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco, were joined byVince's son Shane (who screwed Austin out of the tournament after pretending to be his ally) and his new"Corporate Champion",The Rock (who Vince "feuded" with heading into the event, and who won the WWE title in a remake of theMontreal Screwjob). They were later joined by Ken Shamrock,Shawn Michaels (who replaced Sgt Slaughter), Test,Kane,Chyna,The Big Show,Triple H, and theMean Street Posse. The goal was to create a "corporate image" for WWE which was being threatened by the likes of Austin, Mankind, and DX. They would also later feud withthe Ministry of Darkness.
Things started to fall apart for the Corporation in 1999. Despite Vince's efforts to keep the title off of Austin (even fighting Austin one on one in a steel cage), Austin would win the title back at Wrestlemania XV. A few members also left such as HBK ("fired" by Vince),Kane (after being backstabbed by Chyna), and Big Show (who Vince slapped, leading to Show punching him out). To make matters worse, the Ministry was constantly threatening Vince's daughterStephanie during this time, and Vince shifted his focus away from hisArch Enemy Austin in order to protect her. Shane would thenturn against Vince and take over the Corporation. Other members such as Shamrock, Test, Patterson, Brisco, and finally The Rock would leave the Corporation, leaving only Shane, Triple H, Chyna, Big Bossman, and the Mean Street Posse. Shane would then reveal he was in cahoots withThe Undertaker all along and the Corporation would merge with the Ministry Of Darkness to form the Corporate Ministry. Both Shane and Undertaker had been taking their orders from a mysterious"Higher Power", who eventually revealed himself to be none other thanVince McMahonhimself, crossing theMoral Event Horizon for masterminding his own daughter's kidnapping just to get the WWE title off of Austin. The Corporate Ministry, and thus the Corporation in general, would finally collapse after Austin retained his title at Fully Loaded 1999, which as a result Vince was "banished" from WWE (he came back a couple of months later of course).
The Corporation would use "No Chance In Hell" as it's theme music following the 1999 Royal Rumble (which the song debuted as the PPV's them), and it would later exclusively become Vince's theme. After it merged with theMinistry of Darkness their theme became aDark Reprise of "No Chance in Hell".
Not to be confused with the now-defunct comedy website of the same name.
The Corporation provides examples of the following tropes:
- Arch Enemy:Stone Cold Steve Austin,Mick Foley, andD Generation X all together and separately fought the Corporation at the same time.
- Bad Boss: Vince and Shane McMahon.
- Big Bad:Vince McMahon
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Being a90's heel stable this goes without saying.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Vince, of course, but Shane was weaving toward it. Also Shawn Michaels, in his commissioner role.
- The Dragon: Shane was Vince's second-in-command, howeverThe Rock was the "Corporate Champion".
- Dragon Ascendant: SeeThe Starscream below.
- Dragon-in-Chief:The Rock sort of became this after Vince, The Corporation'sBig Bad, was kicked out, and the group was forced to merge with theMinistry of Darkness to form the Corporate Ministry after Rock was also kicked out. Then it was subverted, as the Corporate Ministry became a powerful group itself, and it would be revealed that Shane was in cahoots withThe Undertaker all alongand that Vince was the "Greater Power" they were taking their orders from the whole time, thus the merger was actually part of their plan. It was only when Vince, theBig Bad, was "banished" byStone Cold Steve Austin that the group finally collapsed for good.
- Evil Overlord:Vince McMahon
- Face Heel Turn: The Rock (who's turn kicked the Corporation into high gear, to be precise), Shane McMahon[1] Chyna, Triple H, & Ken Shamrock.
- Five-Bad Band:
- Heel Face Turn:Shawn Michaels, Kane,The Big Show,The Stooges, Ken Shamrock, Test, andThe Rock.Subverted withVince McMahon, as he wasthe mastermind behind the Corporate Ministry.
- Hijacked By Vince McMahon: The Corporation turned againstVince McMahon and it was shortly revealed that Shane was in league withThe Undertaker and had been taking orders from the same "Greater Power". Said Greater Power turned out to be Vince himself, meaning he was still the leader of The Corporation the whole time
- Knight Templar
- Overlord, Jr.: Shane McMahon
- Power Stable:
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Mean Street Posse, Shane'sUpper Class Twit friends from Greenwich.
- The Man Is Sticking It to the Man: When Vince assembled a stable known as "The Union" to go up against the Corporate Ministry, despite that he was still in charge of the WWF.Vince was also the "Higher Power" controlling the Corporate Ministry, so he was "sticking it to himself" in more ways than one until he revealed this fact and his true goal, causing the Union to collapse
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them: The primary gimmick of the stable.
- Shocking Swerve: Was created in the wake of Survivor Series 1998, which had Vince and then-face Rock pull aMontreal Screwjob onMick Foley, who was Vince'sMorality Pet at the time.
- The Starscream: Shaneturned out NOT to be this as he was still taking orders fromVince, aka The Greater Power
- Those Two Bad Guys: The Stooges, Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco, who were two former high-class wrestlers who got to act like absolute buffoons.
- Villain Team-Up: Once Vince and Rock left the stable, Shane had to merge with theMinistry of Darkness to keep the Corporation from completely dissolving,though the real reason was becauseVince McMahon was the Greater Power controlling both stables all along.
- ↑Prior to aligning with the Corporation, he had been helping a recently-fired Stone Cold out.