10 Most Shocking WWE Revelations Ever
Secrets and lies of the WWE Superstars...
Eric Bischoff didn't just have an ace up his sleeve from the moment he convinced Hulk Hogan to turn heel and be the vaunted "third man" alongside Scott Hall and Kevin Nash in July 1996. He had four.
A winning hand for the ages, there was absolutely no topping this on the other side. Things were great on the surface - Stone Cold Steve Austin had, just weeks earlier, cut a promo that would inadvertently transform the organisation, whilst Champion Shawn Michaels was having matches that transcended it, but heel Hulk Hogan moved the earth beneath wrestling's feet. It was a bombshell unlike anything on the North American scene since Hogan himself stood front-and-centre of Vince McMahon's national expansion a decade earlier.
That was the grim irony at play. Eric Bischoff might have cribbed a little from the New Japan/UWFi invasion angle, but the reveal was pure, unfiltered Sports Entertainment. It took weeks for Hogan, with careful coaching by Hall and Nash, to make it all a little realer. The worker knew how to work better than most. After all, he'd done all his best training at the place most famed for its thrills, spills, and spine-tingling shocks.
Who needs reality anyway? If pro wrestling really is the best form of escapist entertainment, then at least let there be spectacular drama in the escape routes...
10. Vince McMahon Is The Greater Power
Undermining months of tension between Vince McMahon and The Undertaker just to find a brand new way for The Chairman to screw with Stone Cold Steve Austin, the plot-holes were written off for the good of the shock when McMahon outed himself as the Greater/Higher Power in an Attitude Era swerve turn for the ages.
It was, of course, utterly absurd. McMahon callously throwing Stephanie and Linda McMahon into the waiting arms of the demonic 'Deadman' was par for the course, but the countless weeks his internal struggles with Shane couldn't possibly have been written off as "part of the plan" were washed aside in order for WWE to arrive at the next checkpoint in the Austin angle.
This part of the hand was played well - 'The Rattlesnake' was shown his identity one week earlier but was given a storyline reason to keep schtum when he was given the keys to the entire company. All sound storyline reasoning for Stone Cold and The McMahons to go to war in a ladder match for the lot. Amidst a lot of silliness, the thrilling tension around the angle held it aloft as one of the company's best ever reveals.