10 Best Booking Decisions In Wrestling History
5. The Montreal Screwjob
Vince McMahon could have strapped up Steve Austin in late 1997. Or Ken Shamrock. Bret Hart was willing to do business with the pair of them, and he had plentiful time after Survivor Series to do it.
Vince didn't have to screw Bret Hart and incur the wrath of the locker room by throwing away his longest-standing relationship with a talent beloved by most of "the boys".
He did, listening (separately) to Jim Cornette and Triple H. McMahon, as he so often did, said "F*ck 'em". He knew that the locker room would get over it. He also knew that it wasn't quite Austin's time, and also the value of a transitional champion. (He also really, really liked Shawn Michaels.)
The word "decision" is applied a bit more loosely here. Vince didn't dream up his feud with Steve Austin before he rang for the bell - like the sack of evil, narcisstic trash that he is, he thought he was the babyface - but in binning off Bret, he binned off both a genius and an antiquated approach to his business. Bret was the last, fraying moral fibre, and once that was torn, Vince stormed ahead with the Attitude Era and made more money than ever.
If he didn't know the exact repercussions of the butterfly effect, he knew the direction of the flight and followed it.