Biggest mistake Vince Mcmahon ever made

[JenksIX]

Bowing to the whim of guys like Orton and Cena (the guys on top, who want to stay on top) and firing the likes of Mr Kennedy/Anderson and Bryan Danielson because of it. If WWE is going to be PG and drastically restrict the art form of wrestling ... then it seems Kennedy and Danielson are better off.

I would just like to be able to tune into WWE once again and actually have a vested interest in a character like I did with Bret Hart, The Rock, and Sting as I grew up.

Now I'm suppose to like a guy who calls himself a Marine, that never served a day in his life (though he played one "supposedly" in a movie) who salutes the crowd... who was a freestyling gimmick known as the Dr. of Thugenomics before that. And a guy who pretends to be a snake that use to pound the ring really hard but he threw out his shoulder doing that ... so now he lightly taps the ring

McMahon continues to make mistakes because he is further investing in Cena/Orton and there is no potential to see any new guys elevate above them anytime soon. Orton is a 10 year maineventer at least in the future while Cena is 5 years atleast and both will own the beginning and ending storylines of every show with the slight appearance from Edge/Jericho. Wrestlemania 27, Orton and Cena will make just over a million dollars for that night while we watch good young stars lose their pushes or have their storylines ruined before their eyes because WWE does not want to upstage Cena/ Orton (who will singlehandedly destroy Nexus and anyone else in there way.)

 

[enterkey]

In My Humble Opinion was the revival and watering down of a wrestling mainstay that would have succeeded fine on it's own had it not been for poor management and that was the brainchild of one Paul Heyman, I am talking about ECW (or as us rabid fans used to call it simply E,C,dub). The purchasing/revival/watering down of this is hands down one of his biggest because it took away all of the fun that ECW fans knew, loved, and expected at an ECW event. Furthermore, calling ECW Style matches as "Extreme Rules" matches when they weren't even "extreme" enough? Give me a break! If you want an extreme match, Look at matches like the historic Sandman/Tommy Dreamer match where even the ropes weren't ropes but barbed wire! Also, look at matches where Team 3D (The Dudleys) would put people through tables that were stacked 3 or occasionally 4 high, and occasionally on fire! That was the rabidness that ECW Fans knew and loved and that is the ECW that will always be remembered. not a watered down "brand" version under WWE's banner.

To be fair the first few months of WWECW had a lot of great extreme rules matches before it became severely watered down. I'd say that between ECW One Night Stand 2 and December to Dismember it held a solid product and produced good-great shows every week granted I was never a fan of the original ECW, hell I had never even heard of it until the night the ECW superstars came out, destroyed the WWF superstars, and created "The Alliance" with WCW in the Invasion angle. Regardless the WWECW brand wasn't a complete disaster, it helped create a few great stars, gave a few of the older wrestlers another chance at success, and allowed van Dam to have his first and only World title. As for the purchasing of it the company had gone completely bankrupt and, as in the case with WCW, Vince would have been a fool not to buy it for the video rights alone.

Now drafting The Sandman to Raw that was a huge mistake, they had nothing for him to do besides wrestle in the occasional singapore cane on a pole match and fail to do anything in the ring while when he was on ECW he used the shit out of the cane and had people marking out left and right.

 

[Reddannihilation]

The potential list for this is endless, buying WCW and ECW, BURYING WCW and ECW, booking Fake-Rosie and Fake-Donald in a match, his constant decisions to humiliate Jim Ross, December to Dismember, the Owen Hart incident, Montreal, booking himself to win the ECW championship, he's done a lot of things that have damaged wrestling. But buying out his competition and then jobbing out their stars (which is the worse aspect) to feed his ego was probably the thing I disliked the most.

 

[enterkey]

The potential list for this is endless, buying WCW and ECW, BURYING WCW and ECW, booking Fake-Rosie and Fake-Donald in a match, his constant decisions to humiliate Jim Ross, December to Dismember, the Owen Hart incident, Montreal, booking himself to win the ECW championship, he's done a lot of things that have damaged wrestling. But buying out his competition and then jobbing out their stars (which is the worse aspect) to feed his ego was probably the thing I disliked the most.

By Montreal are you referring to the Montreal Screwjob that acted as a catalyst for the Attitude era, the debatable golden age of wrestling, and created the mega heel onscreen character of Vince McMahon without which Stone Cold Steve Austin would not have been able to feud with and quite possibly would not have turned him into the phenomenon that hurled the WWF past WCW and made Vince McMahon into a legit billionaire? Sounds like a huge fucking mistake to me

 

[Hazardous]

well i agree with what everyone has said (besides buying out WCW and ECW, smart moves, just used badly) i think the WORST one, was the one that never made it to air because it was THAT bad, far beyond faking his own death, worse than having sex with dead girls, or "killing" torri wilsons dad from too much sex, and that was his idea to have an insest story where steph's baby was his. that is by far the sickest and worst idea ever, they would had SO many complaints about that one, and i think thats the reason why it was something that even in the height of risky shit goin on (edge/Lita sex show anyone? she was actually naked under there) that it was too horrible even for WWE to do. just the face that Vince wanted to do it, is in my opinion the worst thing he has ever said/done.

 

[Canadian-BadAss]

would have to be his faith in people, by taking Verbal contracts, instead of written ones. Vince was screwed on a lot of talent going to WCW due to his "he gave his word" crap. this is not only a huge mistake on a personal level, but a huge mistake on a business level.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Betting the farm on Brock was a big mistake... letting the Rock walk without a contract for at least one live appearance a year for 10 years was a massive mistake...

Vince creates stars and then lets them go without any guarantee they'll ever be back... its a massive mistake that he keeps repeating...

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I don't see how anyone can pick anything other than the tragic Owen Hart incident at Over The Edge.

Other suggestions, such as the mistakes made when purchasing WCW, or in not pushing/pushing the wrong guys pale in comparison when a mistake of Vince's ended up costing a family man his life.

There was no need to do the entrance from the ceiling, Owen clearly didnt want to do it and didnt feel comfortable or safe with the idea. It is not entirely Vince's fault that the machinery was faulty, but more safety checks should definitely have been made. His big mistake came in not listening to his employee, who clearly had such big reservations about doing the stunt. In an industry where people can refuse to lose a match, and refuse to put over an opponent, to force/pressurise someone in to doing such a risky stunt which wouldnt have really added much to the show is easily Vince McMahons biggest mistake, and I bet he regrets it to this very day.

RIP Owen

 

[Ferbian]

Off the top of my head I'd say the biggest mistake was the WBF. Taking professional bodybuilding and putting a pro wrestling spin on it? Nobody wanted to see that and it bombed. At least people were excited and curious about the XFL at first. NBC thougth it was a good idea too. I can't imagine why Vince thought anyone would get into the WBF. I'm not sure how much money he ended up losing on that, but it was just a bad idea in general.

^ This people.

Vince McMahon doing the WBF thing. Sure it was a decent decision at first. There was the right mindset behind it. But the fact that he was caught with all these talents. Especially Hulk Hogan of all people doing steroids.

The steroid case that followed this killed a lot of popularity for Vince McMahon during that period. The amount of fans that tuned in started to fall. And it hurt Vince's business which was felt throughout the most of the 90's even in the period where Shawn and Bret were champions.

Hell it hurt so bad that when WCW had Hulk Hogan come over it didn't improve their ratings massively neither. People just stopped believing in Hogan in that period of time. Until he turned heel and formed NWO.

 

[mayankeagle]

Don't blame Vince for Owen Hart, guys. There have been other cases as well when wrestlers have dealt with heights. For example, everyone must be remembering Shawn Michaels' entrance before his famed one-hour iron match against Bret Hart at Wrestlemania - he was also brought down from a height. Similarly, in 1993, after the casket match between Undertaker and Yokozuna in which some 10 heels came and beat up Undertaker to put him in the casket, there was a body which was raised from behind the casket in the smoke (it was not Taker since he was too heavy but it was some other wrestler dressed as him). At those points, luckily nothing went wrong and hence the wrestlers did not deal with any injury. In the case of Owen, unfortunately the rope/ belt gave way and broke. That's not Vince's fault but its the fault of the technician who was in-charge of making that set-up and ensuring that it doesn't fail/ break. It also perhaps doesn't have anything to do with whether Owen had fear of heights or not because the belt would've given way to anyone as heavy as (or heavier than Owen).

As far as Vince's decision to continue the PPV goes - don't forget that this was not just about the fans who were present as spectators but the PPV would've also had TV audience. Owen Hart's fall was not shown on TV, and those who were watching the PPV on TV from home didn't know about it, perhaps. It was only after he was taken to the hospital and declared dead that JR made the announcement on the PPV for the TV audience that Owen Hart has passed away, and it is for real. Vince perhaps let the show continue regardless of what the wrestlers and the live spectators wanted because of the TV audience who didn't have a complete clue earlier as to what had happened.

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

For all those saying buying his competition!! That was clever..why wouldn't he do it, also WCW had gone so low, it had lost its tv rights, Vince kept it alive, gave those wrestlers contracts(although some never made it all the way), we got to see our favourite WCW stars competing in the WWE ring...

And for some who said, kept WCW and ECW alive and make seperate brands?? r u friggin kidding me???

Mistakes now, he shouldn't have continued Over the Edge after Owens death...however I wouldn't blame Vince to much, the Blue Blazer as you know, tried the stunts before the ppv on Heat, and worked out well, it was just unlucky what happenned...

And about those people saying PG era!! how is that his biggest mistake?? it worked well in the 80's and 90's, and its doing okay now...

 

[STINGER71]

NOT SIGNING STING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sting v Undertaker would have been a great matchup. Since the hall of fame will be in Atlanta this yr it would have been great for Sting to be inducted into the hall of fame. Sting said the reason he did not make the jump to the E was he was worried how he would have been used. Wish they (E) could sign Sting to a short contract, work a deal with the Undertaker and play it up till WRESTLEMANIA, maybe tease Sting being in the rafters of the areanas, vinnettes working, him appearing and disapearing. That would have been great too see but I also know that Sting likes the lax schedule he has now so he be with his family and also tend to his Ministry of the Gospel. VKM please try to put STING in the HOF!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dum Dum Dudley]

NOT SIGNING STING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sting v Undertaker would have been a great matchup. Since the hall of fame will be in Atlanta this yr it would have been great for Sting to be inducted into the hall of fame. Sting said the reason he did not make the jump to the E was he was worried how he would have been used.

If Sting didn't wanna come to the WWE then you can't really class that as Vince's mistake. That would be like saying if I failed to have a threesome with Megan Fox and Cheryl Cole then i had made a huge mistake. The ball was never really in either of our courts.
I think the biggest mistake Vince made was probably continuing the PPV after Owen's fall as opposed to the stunt itself. As many posters have pointed out, they test ran it before HEAT and had previous experience with HBK at WM 12. A lot of people say it was an unnecessary risk, but isn't that the case with all risks. Did Shane O'Mac really need to jump 70ft on to Steve Blackman at Summerslam? Did Jeff Hardy need to do all the stunts he did during his time with the company? All of them were designed to add to the character. We were supposed to believe that Hardy was a daredevil just like we were supposed to believe The Blue Blazer was a superhero and that the Godfather was really a pimp.

 

[Davi323]

Gonna take some flack for this...but Owen's death wasn't a mistake by Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon wanted him to do the stunt, but ultimately, Owen could have refused. It may have cost him his job with the WWF (doubtful), but he could have held his ground. It was a terrible accident, to be sure...but to say that Vince "forced" him to do it is inaccurate. Owen Hart ultimately had control over whether he got in that harness or not. When it all comes down to it, we are all responsible for our own actions, not someone else. Owen Hart had the choice, and chose to still attempt it. If you firmly believe something is wrong, you have to stick to that belief, regardless of the potential consequences.

 

[The Brain]

Gonna take some flack for this...but Owen's death wasn't a mistake by Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon wanted him to do the stunt, but ultimately, Owen could have refused. It may have cost him his job with the WWF (doubtful), but he could have held his ground. It was a terrible accident, to be sure...but to say that Vince "forced" him to do it is inaccurate. Owen Hart ultimately had control over whether he got in that harness or not. When it all comes down to it, we are all responsible for our own actions, not someone else. Owen Hart had the choice, and chose to still attempt it. If you firmly believe something is wrong, you have to stick to that belief, regardless of the potential consequences.

I'll back you up on that. Vince doesn't make anyone do anything they're uncomfortable with. He may encourage them or try to convince them, but he doesn't force them. HBK was nervous about the WM12 entrance. Vince went up and did it himself to assure HBK it was safe. I don't know what kind of communication Owen had with Vince that night, but I'm sure if Owen expressed such a genuine concern he could have gotten out of it. It's not like it was even such a big part of the show.

It's not fair to call what happened to Owen a mistake. It was a freak accident. There is a difference. If I got sideswiped by a guy who runs a red light that doesn't mean I made a mistake by deciding to drive my car that day.

 

[XgringolocoX]

The willful destruction of the territories. No it wasn't ALL Vince's fault, but I believe he was the main driving force behind them going out. He truely fucked his own business when he took away the greatest method of obtaining quality wrestlers.
To those argueing not keeping WCW and/or ECW as viable independant shows I agree. I feel that is all under the same umbrella.
In his effort to knockout the competition and be the biggest and best he screwed the building of future stars....and hey guess what? He got none today!!!!

 

[HBKevin]

Gonna take some flack for this...but Owen's death wasn't a mistake by Vince McMahon.

It was his choice, that's true. But from what I've read, the harness equipment used was outdated and possibly defective. It was only a freak accident if the equipment and procedures were all in good condition. If not, it was criminal negligence, i.e. wrongful death.

From Wikipedia: "In the weeks that followed, much attention was focused on the harness Hart used that night, especially on the "quick release" trigger and safety latches. When someone is lowered from the rafters in a harness, there are backup latches that must be latched for safety purposes. These backups may take some time to unlatch, which would have made Hart's stunt difficult to perform smoothly. Therefore, it was apparently decided that it was more important not to have the safety backups, because it would be easier for Hart to unlatch himself.[51]"

 

[justice]

Letting Jeff Hardy go, and not making him want to stay. When packaged properly, he is hands down the most popular superstar in WWE, more than Cena and even Orton now. If Jeff was still in WWE, and given a long title run, his merchandise would of doubled Cena's, IMO, this is his biggest financial mistake

 

[HBKevin]

Letting Jeff Hardy go, and not making him want to stay. When packaged properly, he is hands down the most popular superstar in WWE, more than Cena and even Orton now. If Jeff was still in WWE, and given a long title run, his merchandise would of doubled Cena's, IMO, this is his biggest financial mistake

Hardy was reaching a crazy level of popularity last year, but the fact is he's a drug addict and unreliable. Sort of like Scott Hall Jr. (except Hall's drug is alcohol). I wish he'd been able to clean up but the wrestling lifestyle isn't very good for trying to rehabilitate.

 

[Intransigent_Antagonist]

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you Justice. To coin a phrase "Jeff Hardy screwed Jeff Hardy", his continuing problems with drugs and a messy personal life outside the ring are what prompted his departure. What Vince did by canning him was what needed to be done for the WWE's reputation. He was becoming an embarrassment in the media.

Vince's biggest mistake IMO besides The XFL is his tendency to bury exciting,fresh talent in the mid-card in favor of pushing the hell out of boring stale talent at the top. I understand the so called "main eventers" are the ones that generate revenue but I'm sure with a little spit and polish and the right marketing some of the current mid-card guys would be perfect main eventers, but then again maybe I'm like Mickey Rourke "just an old,cynical washed up piece of meat"
Tell me though how many of you haven't stifled a yawn when Chris Jericho or Edge meandered out.
And one more big mistake Vince made......Vickie Guerrero.....'nuff said.

Ok I understand he probably felt sorry for her after Eddies untimely death, but did he have to jam her in our faces week after miserable week. Sometimes I look at her and think "If this is what Eddie had to put up with no wonder why he drank and did drugs"

 

[HBKevin]

And one more big mistake Vince made......Vickie Guerrero.....'nuff said.

Ok I understand he probably felt sorry for her after Eddies untimely death, but did he have to jam her in our faces week after miserable week. Sometimes I look at her and think "If this is what Eddie had to put up with no wonder why he drank and did drugs"

She was way too overexposed for a while, but she has become a truly great heel authority figure. The excuse me line gets major heat. I think it's respectable how Vince takes care of widows, disabled wrestlers (like Droz), etc. I'm sure if Owen's wife hadn't been so bitter and had accepted it, Vince would've taken care of her too financially.

 

[Midnite Express 2009]

The worse move Vince ever made was not giving Piper the title heading into WrestleMania I. Having Piper as the defending champ taking on the former champ in Hulk Hogan would have been HUGE! More than HUGE! Throwing in Orndorff, Orton, Mr. T., Sunka, Patterson, Ali, and everyone else invloved with it completely made the event seem like they were trying to "protect" Hogan by not allowing him to either defend the title or wrestle for the title on March 31, 1985. WM damn near failed and if it had, THAT tag match would have been the exact reason why (among other things all around, like Alfred Hayes' completely rediculous and hedious commentary). I wish Piper had been champion because he would have been the most entertaining champion before a man named Stone Cold Steve Austin. Six years later he gives the title (in a match where Hogan did the job no less) to The Ultimate Warrior. Really? The Warrior? I understand the reasoning behind it now as I believe people were kinda getting tired of Hogan's crap, but how is it that Jim Helwig can make claim that he indeed held a world title & Roddy Piper can't? Bad, Bad, Bad move...

 

[Rayne]

It's a tough call between allowing Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to walk to WCW, and the XFL.

Letting Diesel and Razor Ramon walk- at the time he let them walk- was a huge mistake. Diesel wasn't even six months out of a yearlong title reign, and Razor Ramon was already being discussed in "best not to wear a world title" discussions. As the idiom goes, they put asses in seats, and were doing it at bargain basement prices to the WWF. Vince wouldn't give them more money; WCW would. The WWF essentially shipped two of their top stars to the competition without any kind of upside for them.

Then WCW hit an absolute home run with the nWo angle, partially due to the stigma of WCW being 'invaded' by 'WWF employees'. (Obviously, they never said that, but no one in WCW said a word against that idea either.) In the long run, it worked out for both companies; the Monday Night Wars led to ratings that television executives would sell their blackened little souls to get these days. If WCW hadn't imploded under the weight of their own incompetence, the way we watch professional wrestling could be dramatically different today.

When it comes to money, however, the XFL was above and beyond Vince's biggest mistake. The idea was noble; that there is room in America for another football season. He's not the first person to try it; see- Football, Arena, see- USFL, RFL, SFL, PSFL, NUSFL (too soon on that last one?); and he had the idea that perhaps America might enjoy a more punched up, glitzy, extravagant version of football. When it comes to that, I still don't think he was wrong on the basics.

Vince's mistake was thinking that the particular punched up, glitzy, extravagant product should have WWF levels of zaniness. I remember watching the first game, where on the very first play, an offensive linesman charged through the defense before the snap to clothesline the quarterback, without anyone moving an inch. It could not have been more painfully scripted, and typically, middle America doesn't like their sports with predetermined outcomes. (I don't accuse the XFL of rigging games. I accuse them of giving people every reason with that first play to believe they rigged games.) This was followed by weekly rule changes and promotions which grew more and more bizarre.

 

[crazymike0907]

I gotta agree that 2 of Vince's biggest fuck up's was the XFL & how he handled the WCW angle.

The XFL had the opportunity to be something huge, but instead terribly flopped. Like somebody else mentioned, it never would of competed with the NFL, but there's nothing wrong with fans being able to tune into different versions of the same sport. I kind of enjoyed the XFL, though not as much as the NFL. I owuld of liked to have seen more then 1 season, but isnce that's all it lasted, it was a HUGE flop.

And as far as the WCW angle goes, I agree that Vince buying WCW was a great idea because of all the history & tapes & such, but how he handled the whole WCW/ECW invasion in my idea was just terrible. WCW & ECW never stood a chance! I thought the idea somebody else had on here was a brilliant one. Have RAW be the WWE Show, Smackdown by the WCW show & then the 1 hr ECW show. I think that would of worked really well as WWE fans could tune in to RAW, WCW to Smackdown, and ECW to ECW. You could still do the draft lottery, though I wouldn't have as many people switch at that point. And nobody would leave the ECW brand. They would have to strictly only be ECW guys

 

[sevastra82]

I think Vinces biggest mistake is (putting Owens death aside here, cause it seems to be the obvious answer), would be the way he let his ego get in the way of his better judgement when it came to the purchasing of WCW and ECW.

With WCW, he literally could of kept WCW its own entity (after an invasion angle per say) and had it run seperately from the WWE, which could of possibly tripled his profits. Instead, he had to let his ego get in the way and have almost ALL the WCW stars embarassed on WWE TV, completely killing any and all credibility there. WCW was a failing company, but that didnt mean they didnt have their share of bona-fide talent. Can you imagine the money Vince would make if he kept WCW seperate, with its own wrestlers, storylines, etc? He missed a HUGE opportunity there to cash in big time in my opinion. Instead, he chose to "bury" everything to do with WCW to feed his ego.

As for ECW, It could of been a similar situation as well. He had a very, very passionate group of hardcore wrestling fans in the palm of his hand that would of drove his profits through the roof if done correctly. Instead, once again, he let his ego get in the way and had ECW become a part of the WWE, completely killing it and making it worthless. Vince could of easily, like WCW, kept ECW a seperate entity and catered to its fanbase and experimented with different breeds of wrestlers/entertainment. But nope, he had to make it just like the WWE...watered down and PG. Heck, he could of easily kept ECW the way it was, strike a deal with HBO or some late night station and made is as rated R as you could get. I'd LOVE to see an old ECW with the resources that the WWE had. Can you imagine how great that would of been?

Think about it. Imagine if WCW, WWE, and ECW all where seperate entities, seperate from one another. Bischoff "run" WCW, Heyman "run" ECW, and keep himself on the WWE side of things on camera. No matter which "brand" fans where loyal to, Vince would still rake in all the profits no matter what. 3 brands, 3