10 Smartest Decisions In Wrestling History
8. ...And Then Forces Them Out Of The Market
Vince wasn't content to merely dominate the competition. He had to destroy it outright.
One of his less successful ploys remains the most infamous. It's almost the quintessential McMahon story of balls and entitlement. According to Harley Race, speaking to Power Slam magazine several years ago, Vince tried to convince him to sign with the WWF as NWA World Heavyweight Champion, thus delegitimising what was a very credible title and casting his successor as a paper holder. Race, principled, refused. McMahon, furious, attempted to take down one of the toughest men to ever step into a ring. It ended as you'd have expected it to.
He couldn't damage the title, but he did damage the promotion.
Vince wasn't the only promoter to recognise the riches that the pay-per-view model offered. But the smash success of WrestleMania III afforded him significant leverage in the emerging market, which he used to thwart Starrcade '87. He instructed his providers that he would withdraw WrestleMania IV, if they also carried the NWA event in tandem with Survivor Series, which was created solely for this purpose. Faced with a stark choice, only a handful of providers took the short-term gain. If you can label it that: only 20,000 homes purchased Chi-Town heat.
On SmackDown years later, in 2003, the Mr. McMahon character defeated Zach Gowen in an arm-wrestling contest by kicking his one leg out from under him. That doubles as a neat, and cruel, visual metaphor for his ugly strategy.