10 Wrestlers So Good They Changed Vince McMahon's Mind
Vince McMahon didn't see any life in the Dead Man.
It is said that in WWE, you will forever remain the person you were on your first day, which is both unreasonable and unfortunate, given Vince McMahon's famous caprice. Sometimes it's worse than even that: a talent will forever remain the person Vince McMahon perceives them as with no real basis in anything.
Take Luke Harper. Well, nobody can take him, because WWE, having no use for his services, would still prefer to simply exile him, rather than allow the competition to help him make a living.
But consider Luke Harper.
Some years ago, Vince McMahon decided he should speak in a southern states accent. Ignore the fact that Vince hates the southern accent - let's not turn a migraine into a headache - and that such an idea was arbitrary. Vince remembers to this day. He remembers this, and not the existence of Mojo Rawley, who occupies the same building as him most weeks, and whom he pushes, a bit, and then ignores.
Vince doesn't change his mind on talent, even though he changes it over literally f*cking everything else. His mind is so impenetrable that a sneeze, an involuntary biological function, cannot escape it.
Incredibly, some performers have changed it...
10. AJ Styles
Vince McMahon doesn't personally scout prospective talent using his New Japan World subscription.
He doesn't think to himself, man, I wish I could get that Hirohito Tanahashi guy, that's a decent physique for them. The scouting process is conducted down in NXT, and the signees head to Orlando to star before braving the hostile environment of the main roster. Triple H basically admitted last year that Vince doesn't watch NXT. "I did the Iggy," Vince said, when asked if he watched NXT UK.
AJ Styles was the exception, of course - he bypassed NXT - but not because Vince McMahon saw in him a future WWE Heavyweight Champion. AJ was a top star in New Japan with vast experience working in the US; that, combined with his age and how much WWE wanted him, accounted for his Royal Rumble debut, the huge reception to which Vince considered a "fluke", AJ told Dirtfork last year.
Vince told AJ he had several - countless - great hands. He needed "a pitbull".
An appearance on Miz TV reversed AJ's fortunes. He performed with such a confidence and ferocity - "I was ready to eat this guy’s lunch" - that Vince, deeply impressed, waved away creative's pitches for Roman Reigns' post-WrestleMania 32 programme.
"We're going with AJ Styles," former writer Jimmy Jacobs recounted to Fightful.
It was a superb decision on Vince's part; AJ's explosive style meshed beautifully with Roman's, resulting in a superb series so great that Styles captured the big one in under a year.