The Corporation

The Corporation was a Power Stable in World Wrestling Entertainment led by WWE owner/chairman Vince McMahon. The group represented Vince's corporate empire and its purpose was to enforce his authority and punish those who defied it, such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and D Generation X.

The group was formed at Survivor Series 1998 when Vince not only screwed Austin, but Mankind, 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 by Vince'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 the Montreal Screwjob). They were later joined by Ken Shamrock, Shawn Michaels (who replaced Sgt Slaughter), Test, Kane, Chyna, The Big Show, Triple H, and the Mean 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 with the 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 daughter Stephanie during this time, and Vince shifted his focus away from his Arch Enemy Austin in order to protect her. Shane would then turn 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 with The 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 than Vince McMahon himself, crossing the Moral 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 the Ministry of Darkness their theme became a Dark Reprise of "No Chance in Hell".

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Tropes:

• Arch Enemy: Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and D 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 a 90'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, however The Rock was the "Corporate Champion".
• Dragon Ascendant: See The Starscream below.
• Dragon-in-Chief: The Rock sort of became this after Vince, The Corporation's Big Bad, was kicked out, and the group was forced to merge with the Ministry 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 with The Undertaker all along and 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, the Big Bad, was "banished" by Stone 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 Chyna, Triple H, & Ken Shamrock.
• Five-Bad Band:
  • The Big Bad: Vince McMahon directly as well as behind-the-scenes as the "Greater Power"
  • Co-Dragons: The Rock, Triple H
  • The Evil Genius: Big Bossman, Shane McMahon
  • The Brute: Ken Shamrock, Test, Kane, The Big Show
  • The Dark Chick: Chyna, The Stooges, The Mean Street Posse
• Heel Face Turn: Shawn Michaels, Kane, The Big Show, The Stooges, Ken Shamrock, Test, and The Rock. Subverted with Vince McMahon, as he was the mastermind behind the Corporate Ministry.
• Hijacked By Vince McMahon: The Corporation turned against Vince McMahon and it was shortly revealed that Shane was in league with The 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:
  • The Champion: The Rock
  • The Heir Apparent: Ken Shamrock, later Triple H
    • Though one of Shane's In-Series Nicknames was "The Heir Apparent".
  • The Enforcer: The Big Boss Man, Chyna
  • The Muscle: The Big Show, Test, Kane
  • The Tagalong Kid: The Stooges and the Posse
  • The Manager: Vince, Shane, Shawn Michaels
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Mean Street Posse, Shane's Upperclass 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 a Montreal Screwjob on Mick Foley, who was Vince's Morality Pet at the time.
• The Starscream: Shane turned out NOT to be this as he was still taking orders from Vince, 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 the Ministry of Darkness to keep the Corporation from completely dissolving, though the real reason was because Vince McMahon was the Greater Power controlling both stables all along.