10 Smartest Decisions In Wrestling History
5. The Genius Caveat
In 1996, the Outsiders of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall debuted on - or "invaded" WCW Nitro.
The idea was genius on a creative level, but a business headache. WCW leaned on the idea that the duo were still contracted by the WWF - Hall spoke in the exact same Razor Ramon cadence years a few short years after WCW was sued for the exact same thing - which triggered Jerry McDevitt into action. There's an hilarious subplot to that, incidentally: "How dare you use our plagiarised Universal Pictures property without our consent!"
WCW settled the lawsuit, one of the terms of which underlined Vince McMahon's prescience or delusion or both, since he is an arms-out, strutting paradox: were WCW to ever liquidate, the WWF only had to match any incoming offer to secure its assets.
Ultimately, it didn't even come to that: Fusient Ventures were prepared to pay much more than what Vince eventually paid for it (approx $4M), but after Time Warner Executive Jamie Zellner cancelled Nitro, and a prospective TV deal fell through, Vince used his over-powered hand to throw pennies a few feet away from the toes of AOL Time Warner, who had no choice but to scurry towards them.