10 Iconic Wrestling Moments That Weren't Meant To Happen
3. Steve Austin's Crimson Mask
WrestleMania 13. Rosemont, Illinois. March 23, 1997.
Steve Austin, seconds away from passing out in the throes of Bret Hart's Sharpshooter, let out one last howl of agony. His intra-match babyface turn almost complete, the crimson mask plastered all over his face acted as an outward symbol of his inner fortitude. The image is now lionised, in parallel with Hulk Hogan slamming André The Giant a decade prior, in how it showcases the precise genesis point of a wrestling megastar. That perfect ending did not, however, appear in the original script; the idea to circumvent the blade ban was a Bret Hart ad-lib.
McMahon, just one year earlier, had written to Ted Turner and demonised him for re-implementing the blade on his "wrasslin'" programming (that, brilliantly, was Vince's term, not ours). "This encouraged practice of self mutilation is disgusting, violent, potentially infectious and completely contradictory in every way to your testimony before Congress in June of 1993 and contrary to your 1995 participation of "Voices against Violence,"" he wrote.
Of course, McMahon would rather be rich than be known as a hypocrite; when WCW bowed to corporate pressure and outlawed the blade, Vince, not beholden to sponsors at the dawn of the Attitude Era, encouraged card-wide blading a year later in order to provide a more violent, alternative product.