10 REAL Backstage Wrestling Fights You Didn't Know About
2. Vince McMahon Vs. Harley Race
Vince McMahon was a lot of things.
The short version is that he was an "evil genius", but a more accurate way of putting it is "Excellent wrestling promoter about a fifth of the time, also evil". An inveterate liar and monstrous hypocrite, he was also a toddler who threw tantrums when somebody else played his own game better than he did. Signing expensive stars and encouraging his talent to blade is only allowed when he does it.
He did have balls the size of grapefruits. His way of romanticising his ego and sociopathy was in fact accurate.
In an incredible story, Vince McMahon tried to persuade Harley Race into no-showing Starrcade 1983. He recognised that Jim Crockett Promotions was the most difficult obstacle in his quest to monopolise the North American wrestling industry. Rendering the NWA World Heavyweight title a sham and unifying the "real" version with his WWF Title would have accelerated his plan, but Race was having none of it. He'd have stepped on his own member by burying the NWA, since he owned a percentage of the Central States promotion, but actual principles in an industry lacking entirely in them informed his decision.
Vince did not take kindly to it, attempting - and this was incredible, since he was a cosplaying bodybuilder and Race was one of the toughest men in wrestling history - a double leg takedown. He didn't get his own way, and acted like a literal child. Race calmly put Vince in a position of helpless peril and let him go.