A WWE Ruthless Aggression Era Gimmick Designed To Entertain Only Vince McMahon
Mia Walsh
Published Mar 27, 2026
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WWE’s Ruthless Aggression Era was in many ways the perfect follow-up to the successful Attitude Era, with the acquired WCW wrestlers coupled with the rising new breed in talent bolstering the roster with star power. With Vince McMahon in control of WWE though, the Ruthless Aggression Era didn’t come without its weird and wacky moments and characters too, much like every other era of WWE. One of the most memorable and unique gimmicks came in the form of The Spirit Squad - a group of five male cheerleaders who became lackeys for the boss during his feud with the reformed D-Generation X.
Vince McMahon Has A Weird Sense Of Humor
WWE’s creative team have had one hell of a job over the last few decades. Despite there being many heads at the table and perhaps a lot of promising ideas over the years, everything has had to go through Vince McMahon, with this seeing The Chairman disregard ideas, ignore his wrestlers, and come up with things completely opposite to what fans wanted to see. He is a truly bizarre individual who is also renowned for having a unique sense of humor.
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Fans of WWE over the years will have seen the use of slapstick humor, childish jokes, adult jokes, the birth of a literal hand, and many other things as well. McMahon is also known to find pushing people into swimming pools hilarious, and once orchestrated a fake arrest on Jonathon Coachman all in the name of humor. It should perhaps be of so surprise then that the Spirit Squad was his very own idea and brainchild, as he believed a group of male cheerleaders to not only be funny, but to be a heat magnet as well.
McMahon pitched the idea himself to the members of the Spirit Squad, with former member Kenny Dykstra revealing in an interview with ESPN that he thought it was a rib. “McMahon turned and said, ‘Guys, this is my idea. It’s gonna work because I’m telling you it will work. I want cheerleaders. Male cheerleaders. There’s nothing that gets more heat than male cheerleaders.’ I kinda looked at the other guys out of the corner of my eye like, 'Is this a joke? This is a good joke. You went all the way out to get Vince in on this?’”
Vince McMahon Used The Spirit Squad As Entertainment
Despite all the elements involved suggesting that this gimmick would be a complete failure, those involved did a tremendous job at getting over as a heel act. The dedication to their roles was top notch, and they quickly became a regular part of WWE TV, especially when McMahon worked with the group himself on-screen. With this being his idea, it is unsurprising that McMahon wanted to be in and among the fun and shenanigans with the faction.
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The group may have been involved with the likes of Shawn Michaels and Triple H, but the group’s main purpose was to entertain McMahon, or at least that is what Arn Anderson believed, who worked backstage in WWE for many years, so would have a better idea than most on topics like this. On his podcast (h/t WrestlingNews.co) Anderson discussed The Spirit Squad. “I wasn’t much of a Spirit Squad fan and the whole concept. Nick Nemeth survived it, Dolph Ziggler. The rest of the guys, who were all good guys, but just the whole concept. I think it was just Vince entertaining himself because he can. That’s the problem with billionaires sometimes. They do things that entertain themselves when it's not in the other people’s best interest, but, I guess they’re billionaires. They can do what they want.” Thankfully though, Vince McMahon’s bored billionaire tendencies led him to the Spirit Squad, rather than being a part of something like Squid Game.
Overall, the Spirit Squad were a fairly short-lived group, used mostly as punching bags and childish comedy skits (including being on the receiving end of green gunk and feces), though they would win the World Tag Team Championship, defending it whilst utilizing the freebird rule. They would also surprisingly main event a PPV, taking on Triple H and Shawn Michaels of D-Generation X at the Vengeance show in 2006. The ending of their group was notable too, and it pretty much summed up what Vince McMahon likely thought of them overall. In the conclusion to their feud with DX, they were all put into a crate and sent back off in the mail to OVW, WWE’s developmental system at the time. Vince McMahon’s tendency of using WWE as his own personal entertainment has happened many times over the years, with the Spirit Squad being a more notable example.
