10 Best Things To Come From The WWE's Worst Moments
9. Creative Gambles In 1996
More is always more in WWE and money is always money to Vince McMahon. These are the ways in which the man became a millionaire then a billionaire because of his machine. It's just a shame he lost sight of how to restart it.
In 2020, the company's landscape is dictated by whimsy. Some of it works well, stadium shows tend to sell solidly and television networks still buzz around the product. But flies are attracted to sh*t. That same broken system actively alienates an abused audience at times, even if it knows what crumbs to offer to keep it coming back.
None of this was applicable in 1996. Gates, ratings and buyrates were still in sloth-like recovery from the a*se completely falling out years earlier, and WCW gradually took control on Monday Nights. McMahon's wrestling show just had to become a good wrestling show.
Steve Austin wasn't pushed after his King Of The Ring win but he forced his personality through enough on screen to get the Survivor Series match with Bret Hart that would make him. Brian Pillman's chaotic personality dropped a stick of dynamite on stale and stoic segments. Raw tried everything, from the atrocious (fake Razor Ramon and Diesel, the return of the Ultimate Warrior) to the awesome (Shawn Michaels the superworker, Mankind unleashing a different type of darkness on The Undertaker, the sudden and sharp rise of Sid).
Cody boasted on about the wrestling buffet when billionaire Tony Khan launched AEW. 1996 had the budget of Joe Exotic's Thanksgiving cookout, but the punters were just as pleased with it.