Everything has been done in wrestling, and overdone. The Ebeneezer Scrooge of wrestling was something that Vince wanted to do for himself should he ever were to become a wrestler but that wasn't thinkable when he took over the company. It had never been done before that. So in comes Ted who is already a really great and accomplished wrestler, and Vince goes out of his way for him to live the gimmick. Travelling everywhere in limos, giving Ted wads of bills to hand out $100 tips at every restaurant he ate at, watches, jewels, glitz; it was all on McMahon's dollar, but Ted was told to do it as if it were his. What a life.
The "character" fit the mold of the cartoony world wrestling presented at the time of an arrogant rich snob that looked down on those of less fortune and laughed like a madman about money that he obsessed over and that was it. That's the character in a nutshell and Ted filled in the rest. A living breathing evil uncle of Richie Rich. JBL on the other hand, was an actual self-made stock market hustler that went from rags to riches. There was a little bit more tangible depth to his character for being from Texas, being outwardly racist towards Mexican's at the border instead of just subtlely implying racism it with a manservant, and even better, he didn't have to resort to buying the championship. He fucking won it in a very gratuitously bloody contest and held onto it for an entire year via shenanigan defences, a record at the time. And that entire reign came about because Layfield bet Vince money that he could double whatever amount of cash he gave him on the stock markets and Vince took the bet and JBL came through.
