10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Bobby Lashley
3. Mr. McMahon's Worst PPV Match
Mr. McMahon's in-ring hit ratio is absurd.
His match with Steve Austin, at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre pay-per-view in 1999, was something of a mission statement: by taking an horrific spine-first bump from the wall of the steel cage to the announce desk, McMahon announced to the world that he would compensate for his age and inexperience with pure, balls-to-the-wall insanity and catharsis.
His Greatest Hits followed a similar template. His work at WrestleMania X-Seven was so camp in its brilliance that Linda McMahon was as over as anybody else in the stadium. Veering from sadist (Vs. Stephanie McMahon) to masochist (vs. Shawn Michaels) with hilarious aplomb, Vince was great value on the PPV platform. Against Bobby Lashley, a typically well laid-out match did not provide fans with that one iconic moment - that blood-plastered look of evil rising from the ring apron, the WrestleMania X callback ladder spot, the catatonia-relieving kick to the balls. It was a more transparent and cynical version of the big dumb genuine fun we'd come to expect.
The mid-2000s Lashley, thrust into a position beyond his experience level, did not even benefit from WWE's smoke and mirrors magic.