Biggest mistake Vince Mcmahon ever made

[TCBT]

XFL. Hands down. He NEVER recovered ANYTHING from that.

Owen's death has been beaten to death, so I won't say anything about that except that blaming Vince for that is unfair. If he purposedly wanted to kill Owen, then you can say that was his biggest mistake. Accidents happen. Placing blame does nothing but anger those emotionally involved in the tragedy.

I almost considered releasing Hall and Nash, which led to the nWo, but in hindsight, the WWE put the wheels in motion for the Attitude Era a year or so later, so I can't necessarily say it was the WORST mistake.

I NEVER have and NEVER will consider "the PG Era" the biggest mistake. NEVER. There's absolutely no way. I'm an adult with a wife and a business, and what's best for business is best for my family. Vince did what's best for business and that's that. Either learn to like it (or find something TO like) and move on or watch the bloodfest, ****efest, assholefest that is TNA. They're definately NOT pg, and guess what? Their product has suffered tremendously (business-wise and entertainment-wise) since trying desperately to push a hard PG-14.

 

[The Brain]

I have to comment on those saying letting Hall and Nash go to WCW was a mistake. What do you suggest Vince should have done? Hall and Nash were offered guaranteed big money contracts that involved far less travel. Vince was simply not in a position to compete with that offer at that time.

 

[enterkey]

I have to comment on those saying letting Hall and Nash go to WCW was a mistake. What do you suggest Vince should have done? Hall and Nash were offered guaranteed big money contracts that involved far less travel. Vince was simply not in a position to compete with that offer at that time.

Also in WCW Hall and Nash seemed to crash and burn, Hall moreso than Nash obviously with all of the substance abuse problems and rehab that went with it. If he had kept them along who knows, maybe Nash would have helped book the company into oblivion as he did later on in WCW. Seriously this guy decided that he was the best choice to end the white hot Goldberg's undefeated streak instead of using it to lift up some younger talent. When Nash nearly killed the big show with his jack knife powerbomb back in WCW that should have been a big indicator for him to retire.

 

[Canadian-BadAss]

Nash would have never been on the creative team in WWF if he was still an active wrestler. there was WCW's big mistake, but thats another topic for another forum.

 

[That Don Guy]

While things like the WBF and the XFL were blunders (Vince should have realized that no "real" football fans (in the USA, anyway) want to watch football outside of "football season" (a lesson both the USFL and WLAF learned the hard way), and any wrestling carryovers would leave the second they realized there would be no wrestling storylines involved), I think the biggest mistake was to get the WTBS Saturday evening timeslot and turn it into another "squashes from house shows" show like Championship Wrestling and WWF Superstars.

-- Don

 

[HBKevin]

I completely agree with what everyone else has said about Owen's death. Besides that, I think one of Vinnie Mac's biggest mistakes over the years has been not burying the hatchet with 'Macho Man' Randy Savage. I mean come ON, if he doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame, then who does?

Yes. It's absurd that Macho isn't in there. It's the kind of thing where someone who hasn't seen the list before thinks it's a mistake on the website. I mean, Macho Man, one half of the 80s Mega Powers with Hogan, Macho Madness and Hulkamania? One of the first main eventers in American pro wrestling to combine an aerial assault with mat wrestling? I've heard the rumors about him having sex with Stephanie as a teenager, but who knows if that's true. I've never seen a thorough explanation for this omission, except for the possible Stephanie scandal. It couldn't be for some sort of business betrayal issue, since obviously Hogan jumped ship too. And I haven't heard of him pulling a stunt like Warrior did with threatening to no-show a big event.

 

[TristanCross]

There's too many to count.

1) Buying WCW, thus ending competition and making McMahon VERY lazy in how the show is now run.

2) Relaunching a new, dumbed down version of ECW, insulting the true ECW fan-base (read the book Hardcore History), December to Dismember, and abusing Paul Heyman to the point of tears.

3) Exalting crappy wrestlers like John Cena and diminishing the real talent like Matt Hardy, Carlito, Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, etc.

4) Destroying the Diva division by recruiting a bunch of ugly ****es who drench themselves in makeup to look hot, who can't wrestle.

5) Putting stupid matches on PPVs like WrestleMania (Big Show vs. Akebono, Umaga vs. Bobby Lashley, Batista vs. Umaga, Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero, Floyd Mayweather vs. Big Show).

6) Letting great talent go (Elijah Burke, etc.)

7) Letting every match be the same...not giving the superstars the chance to write their own matches (I miss ECW...)

8) Letting Smackdown live as a mediocre crap-fest.

There's so much more...

 

[The Brain]

There's too many to count.

1) Buying WCW, thus ending competition and making McMahon VERY lazy in how the show is now run.

2) Relaunching a new, dumbed down version of ECW, insulting the true ECW fan-base (read the book Hardcore History), December to Dismember, and abusing Paul Heyman to the point of tears.

3) Exalting crappy wrestlers like John Cena and diminishing the real talent like Matt Hardy, Carlito, Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, etc.

4) Destroying the Diva division by recruiting a bunch of ugly ****es who drench themselves in makeup to look hot, who can't wrestle.

5) Putting stupid matches on PPVs like WrestleMania (Big Show vs. Akebono, Umaga vs. Bobby Lashley, Batista vs. Umaga, Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero, Floyd Mayweather vs. Big Show).

6) Letting great talent go (Elijah Burke, etc.)

7) Letting every match be the same...not giving the superstars the chance to write their own matches (I miss ECW...)

8) Letting Smackdown live as a mediocre crap-fest.

There's so much more...

The thread is about Vince’s BIGGEST mistake. Since you listed eight different things I assume you think they are close to equal to being his biggest mistake. Either that or your point is Vince has made many mistakes, but you failed to list which was his biggest. Let me examine some of your points.

1. Once again, buying WCW was not a mistake. WCW was dying and no one was going to save it. As I’ve stated before Vince bought it mostly for the video library which he has greatly profited from. If he hadn’t bought WCW we wouldn’t have Classics on Demand or most of the dvd releases over the past nine years. Also he bought it for a ridiculously low price. You’re suggesting he should have let that opportunity pass him by?

2. You may have an argument here, but I would hardly call ECW his biggest mistake. ECW fans should just hold on to their memories because it can not be recreated.

3. Here we go again with Cena. Cena draws a lot of money for WWE so I don’t see how he is a mistake. Matt Hardy, Carlito, Shelton Benjamin, and Charlie Haas were mid card wrestlers. There’s nothing wrong with being a mid carder as wrestling will always need them. Face it; those guys just aren’t main eventers.

4. The divas division isn’t as good as it was six or seven years ago, but there never were high expectations for the division. Unless you feel the divas division has the potential to be a real cash cow for Vince it really can’t be called his biggest mistake.

5. I don’t like some of the ppv matches either, but I have to take exception. Lashley vs. Umaga was a huge money match. Sure it was because of Vince and Trump, but it was huge nonetheless. Mayweather was pretty big too. WrestleMania is more successful every year having a few garbage matches isn’t really a big mistake.

6. You might have a point here if you expand upon it. Nothing against Burke, but you’ll need better examples.

7. This is your most valid argument. I agree this is a mistake.

8. You may have an argument here, but this is a result of the brand extension. That’s another whole discussion.

Once again we have someone who is confusing his own personal disagreements with mistakes.

 

[LongLiveTheStreak]

The PG era is Vince's biggest mistake ever. I read an article on one of these sites and it said that under the PG(pretty gay) era, Wrestlemania 25 and 26 did not sell out.If McMahon isnt selling out Mania anymore, the PG era needs to end now.

 

[Canadian Knight]

I think his biggest mistake was either the weightlifting league in the eighties or was that nineties? Or how about XFL? I have no idea how long the weightlifting thing lasted but the XFL lasted what one season?

The weightlifting thing I have no idea what they did with it and never grabbed my attention and never attracted attention up here. It probably would have been like watching big men that wrestled but without the wrestling.

The XFL was supposed to reinvent football. Now I dont know if the numbers have dropped or decreased in watching NFL but creating another football league was not something people would want, even if it was maybe edgier. He should have bought or created his own team in the NFL (that way if it worked then maybe create another league).

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

Right now all that's coming to my mind is the PG era.

I'm not fussed that we don't have chair shots to the head anymore or hardcore matches/street fights on TV, or Divas being objectified and exposing themselves all the time.

What i do oppose is when they try to show an scene of violence but tone it down sooooooo much that it just look lame. Some of the reasons they give are also really stupid and contradictory.

Take Bryan Danielsons release for example. Apparently the whole 'choking Justin Roberts' spot caused massive issues for WWE and violated the PG code, because, and i paraphrase, 'it's easily imitatable and we don't want kids to start choking each other'.

But apparently it's ok to show 8 guys bashing the fuck out of 1 guy for about 5 minutes, several times a month, ya know, because that's not imitatable is it? There's no way kids are going to group up and start imitating the Nexus lot jumping and bashing people at random over and over again, is there?

And the whole 'no blood' rule is probably the worst. I'm not saying i miss blood or think it's neccessary to include it in matches, but that doesn't make it acceptable to stop a match mid way through because someone got a 2cm cut above their eye brow. People bleed for god's sake! It's a fact of life! When footballers get busted, do the NFL make the cameras go black and white or have random shots of the crowd, or stop the whole football game?

So why does Vince McMahon feel the need to pretend that people don't bleed? That this 'sport' where people 'beat each other up to the point that they can't kick out of a pin' isn't dangerous enough to cause you to draw blood.

Fuck man, PAPER can make you bleed when you're not paying attention, so why do they keep trying to hide it so much when the guys in the ring are supposed to be fighting each other?

The PG era does have it's merits though. They've certainly put a LOT more thought into writing decent storylines now, far better than some of the shit we saw them churn out in '06 and '07, and with the exception of HBK/Jericho and Taker/Edge, most of '08 as well.

But the whole 'can't do imitatable violence' and 'no blood' thing really does piss me off to no end, personally. I'm surprised Mark Madden hasn't written a column on how ******ed those two rules are, considering he loves to shit on Dixie for her stupidity.

 

[Hazardous]

while i dont agree that PG is the BIGGEST mistake, only due to the ratings have not taken too big a hit, and TNA is not PG and their numbers have gone no where (good job Russo, killing another company) i do have nothing against the stop the match due to blood thing. the reason they do that now is because they're not cutting them self anymore, so if they ARE bleeding, it's due to something going wrong. when CM Punk cut himself on Rey's knee brace at the PPV, he was losing a bit of blood, so yes, they stopped the match to check him out. they do it in boxing and MMA also. no they don't stop an NFL game when someone is cut, but he does come off the field and replaced. they didn't pan away from cena on RAW when he was cut, because it was just a small one. but if he was busted open to the extent of say.. HHH or HBK in the hell in a cell against vince/shane/big slow. then yes, they're going to bring someone out to look at him. Unless you only just started watching wrestling in the mid 90's, then you have seen PG format before. before DX, it was PG. before the NWO, WCW was PG also. yes it was hugely popular, and we tuned in each week to see what sick and twisted shit they would do to each other, be it barbwire bat, flaming table, thumb tacks, the list goes on. my only issue with it now, is now that they took out the shock value of the attitude era, make it more about match quality. 80% of the promo's these days suck hardcore ass. so since almost NO one can cut a decent one anymore (compared to Stone Cold, the Rock, hell even Vinny Mac himself) make the matches the quality that most of the HBK vs.. (insert name here) matches were. anyone remember HBK vs Rey on smackdown? now i have made it very clear that i am NOT a Rey Mysterio fan. but any match he had against HBK was always so athletic. edge of your seat PPV quality match. expand on your superstars move list a little more, and have some really epic matches, instead of the snore fest that was Raw this past week (Orton/Edge aside) and i doubt many people would complain as much about PG anymore.

so YES the PG era has some flaws, but the reasoning behind it is valid. not only to attract a new audience, and maybe some positive P.R for once, but also to save your stars body's a little more so we have the chance to see more of them. no reason for someone like say.. Evan Bourne to have to pull a Mankind and go jump off a cage or something, just to excite people.

 

[Moltz23]

i dont like the "pg era" but i can live with it, what i do not like about this Pg era is the divas...this was something i generally most looked forward to, u know the random bikini contests, random sex scandals in the back, sexy outfits while they wrestle, even though trish stratus is gone theres still some sexy diva potential back there, how many people can honestly say they dont wanna see layla and maryse go at it in a thanksgiving gravy match

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

Are you people kidding me – Owen Hart, Hellwig, the exploding limousine? All of that, and every other failed angle or firing/hiring he's ever performed absolutely pales in comparison to buying the only competition the industry really had at the time when he acquired the WCW and it's trademarks back in 2001.

There hasn't been anything that damaging to the wrestling industry since –*not Ric Flair coming out of retirement to wrestle Hogan in TNA, not the PG era or even John Cena.

Buying WCW – his competition – monopolized the industry and subsequently left him with nothing to base his writing off of. Things grew stale rather quickly, and the industry has yet to really bounce back from that.

People have already torn this up but I figure, hey, you're an easy enough target so I can come in and wipe my feet on the door mat of your terrible argument. I know you're all TNA Mod and Impact Players and Real Wrestling is Dead, Long Live Real Wrestling and down with WWE and everything, but the fact of the matter is that this was in no way a bad decision on Vince's part. Ignoring the fact that so many other posters have pointed out, WCW was dead and buried long before Vince actually bought it. He just put that company out of it's misery. But even if you don't support that. Even if you think that someone else should have bought it and saved it, we're ignoring the fact that it was a smart business decision of all levels.

Vince is not only thumbing his nose at the people that almost put him out of business 5 years earlier, he's also buying their souls. Vince got everything, all the tape libraries, all of the name right and a few handy wrestlers here and there. The amount of money that old footage makes the WWE in terms of DVD's and WWE on demand would be ridinkydonky. It was a good decision and in no way his worst, especially when we're considering, oh I don't know, the loss of a human life in Owen Hart.

 

[TristanCross]

The thread is about Vince’s BIGGEST mistake. Since you listed eight different things I assume you think they are close to equal to being his biggest mistake. Either that or your point is Vince has made many mistakes, but you failed to list which was his biggest. Let me examine some of your points.

I believe all those things were on par with each other in terms of their weight.

Once again we have someone who is confusing his own personal disagreements with mistakes.

Uh, once again we have someone who is not understanding that this can be applied to anything. I can disagree with everything that everyone is saying here and I can also say, "Well, you're just saying what you disagree with". I believe these things are mistakes. Perhaps you don't. Perhaps some do. But in reality, this whole thing is just a matter of opinion. It's like politics. Some people think what Obama is doing is wrong and it's a mistake. Some think those people are out of their minds, and that Obama is doing good. It's all a matter of opinion. So, to call me out for stating my opinions is like saying I'm breathing.

 

[harrythem]

but when the thread is called VINCE'S BIGGEST MISTAKE, it's intended to mean just one mistake, not a list of them. I'm sure we could all name a few things but, the whole basis for it was to pick one above the others. If you can't pick just one then surely there's no point in posting, as it goes against the whole point of things.

I've found many things he's done I wouldn't have but, apart from ignoring the developmental territories, I can't think of any that have such damaging repercussions for the future of the business.

 

[Megatron]

Having Khali win the title during the summer of 07. I'm not a Khali hater, per se, but you can't expect the GREAT KHALI to carry your brand as champion. Even if it's the B-Brand. I know Edge and Taker were down, but Batista should've got it or Kane should've had a small run with the title, until he were to get a program with say Taker. Didn't like the call there one bit. Especially since he didn't look the greatest as champion either. At SS vs Batista? DQ'd. Then iirc he lost the title the next month in a TT with Rey and Batista. Just plain garbage.

Others include: Not getting Goldberg, Hogan, Hall, Nash, Sting, etc. for the Alliance storyline, having Kane take off the mask, not letting Heyman take WWECW the way he wanted it.

Probably a few more I could think of, but that's off the top of my head.

 

[goodlay]

For me it's Owen, and it's not even close. Yeah, Vince has done a lot of stupid shit in his past and stuff to feed his ego, but this decision cost a man his life. Owen said time and time again that he wasn't comfortable coming down from the rafters and Vince forced him to do it. Owen's family wasn't comfortable with it either. Well Vince didn't care, because it's entertainment and he wanted Owen to entertain the WWE fans.

I think the Owen incident really made Vince step back and think about what he was doing.

People are saying WCW, but regardless of Vince buying it or not, WCW was already dead. It had been dead since 2000. It was like an old person on life support, it was just waiting to die.

 

[osborne79]

id say his biggest mistake is the fact that he is now pushing guys too hard too early withyout giving the fans a choice in who they want to succeed look at rety he succeded because of the fans and look at sheamus or micintyre they are being upshed and fans are being forced into liking them and accepting them which is worng for the company

 

[kapone21]

in wrestling terms....vince should have turned hogan heel. it still is the biggest heel turn in wrestling history. vince wont drop the ball with cena heel turn, if it happens.

 

[d_henderson1810]

Scrap Smackdown? Are you a ******? If you did that and moved everyone to RAW along with making it a 3-Hr Show Every Week you still wouldn't get everyone on the Roster on the Show each week. The Brand Extension has worked wonderfully because guys like Jack Swagger,CM Punk,Drew Mcintyre,Kofi Kingston,Evan Bourne,The Miz,John Morrison,R-Truth,Ted Dibiase,Cody Rhodes among others have all gotten their chance because of RAW & Smackdown being Seperate Brands. Hell even the NXT Season 1 Guys have gotten a Push because of being on a Seperate Show. If u had just one Brand alot of the guys would not be Pushed.

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My idea for the 3-hour Raw would be to spend the majority of the time building for the next PPV. So, anyone who is going to feature on the next PPV will appear every week until then. So, you will get some mid-carders on, when they have an upcoming PPV match.

Besides, 3-hours a week would allow more time to fit things in. Also, if they dropped some of the comedy and guest host skits, you would use your time better and use that time to (a) feature more superstars or (b) have longer matches.

 

[mikenance]

Not convincing or making an offer to keep the Rock. It seems since we lost Rock and Austin the company is going in downhill spiral. I think Cena will be the next one to go straight to Hollywood. Even if the Rock didn't want to wrestle he could have him take over for Lawler. He would be wild as a commentator. Same goes for Austin. Austin would be throwing microphones.

 

[Bobizzle]

Im really surprized no one mentioned this.

What about Eddie Guerrero?

Vince should of fired him. Many knew Eddie was addicted to pain killers. Vince could of done more to help him. Same with Benoit. Neither should of been competing in their conditions.

 

[The Idiot]

How can people say the Owen incident was Vince's biggest mistake? It was an accident...nothing more nothing less. The limo explosion...that was just a bad storyline. The XFL? It failed but it was soon forgotten about. Buying out WCW? Seriously? How is buying a company that almost put you out of business a BAD thing?

I think Vince's biggest mistake (at least in my opinion) was the brand split. I understand wanting to build stars and thinking about the future...but I think it has hurt his company. Nobody took the brand split seriously...because I don't think Vince took it seriously. Limited feuds and more titles watered down the company. The draft was interesting the first couple years...but it never really mattered. Guys flip flopped between brands all the time. It always felt like two different shows...not two different brands. Just like Nitro and Thunder, or Raw and Heat. Not WCW and WWF...which is what I think Vince had in mind...but nobody bought that BS.

I'm happy to hear the rumor about titles finally unifying and hopefully the unification of Raw and Smackdown into a 3 hour Monday night Raw will follow...different matches, different feuds with championships that actually mean something. They can still have the secondary show to build stars...which is why they can bring back Heat on Sundays. Will also give them a promoting tool on Sundays before a PPV to get people to buy. UFC does this with the Preliminary fights on SPIKE and it works.

But like I said...it wasn't Vince's idea of the brand split that was bad...it was his execution. He thought he had more "superstars" than he actually did...and that there would be enough to run 2 "brands"...but it wasn't the case.