10 Dick Moves Promoters Used To Improve Wrestlers' Performances
1. Screwing Bret Hart
Vince McMahon may have totally destroyed one of the decade's biggest stars when he screwed Bret Hart at Survivor Series 1997, but he made himself an even bigger one in the process and freed space for a hungry younger roster to occupy. It was, by far, the most commercially stupendous bit of sh*thousery in the history of the industry.
Few saw a way out for him post-Montreal too. The sky had been falling on WWE for years as an insurgent WCW ran rampant, but in finally finding the perfect villainous foil for Stone Cold Steve Austin as he inadvertently had, the sky was again the limit for the man that discovered new heights in the industry a full decade earlier.
Relatively peaceful protests such as that of Mick Foley (returned to work a week later) and Rick Rude (switched to WCW but didn't move the needle as he jumped) were about the extent of the associated drama once the dust had settled and McMahon's literal black eye healed. His business was in rude health, his mind unaffected by a decision that had broken others and his body never more prepared to be donated to the cause of getting his new stars over.
Even when he was an utter, utter b*stard, McMahon backdoored into brilliance.