10 Seedy WWE Stories Vince McMahon Wants You To Forget
2. NOTHING'S Changed! (1995)
With 'Excellence Of Execution' Bret Hart and later excellent-at-being-naturally-big Diesel, Vince McMahon at least selected WWE Champions that were theoretically going to get him in less trouble than former top star Hulk Hogan following his trial victory in 1994. It became rather rapidly apparent how quickly old habits were returning though...if they'd even ever left.
Gym fanatics (and past and future known steroid users) Davey Boy Smith and Lex Luger were paired together in a relationship Jim Ross later noted contributed to Luger's unravelling relationship with the organisation. Bulldog was partying hard enough to be one of the closest to Shawn Michaels as he infamously took a nightclub sh*tkicking that shelved him for several months, all in keeping with a company delivering increasingly smaller payoffs to talent whist expecting them to work an even more intense schedule to make up the deficit.
A documentary trailer entitled "The Real Maxx Payne" splices together a number of clips of the knackered crew during a 1995 European Tour. Striking for how little non-kayfabe content made it into the wider public sphere at the time, the full footage was never released, though some candid moments capture the critical and chemical realities of life at the time.