10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 1995
9. Vince McMahon GAVE UP HIS POSITION AS BOOKER
...for about a fortnight.
Triple H was not the first man to take full creative reins from Vince McMahon; in 1995, with the actual business not faring well at all, Vince deemed it necessary to remove himself from the "weeds". Vince also thought that the WWF needed a fresh, innovative direction.
That's not true; he opted to bring in Bill Watts, who, despite masterminding episodic television with his incredible Mid-South Wrestling programme in the early to mid 1980s, had failed dismally at WCW with his out-of-touch disciplinarian approach three years prior to getting the WWF gig. It would be harsh to state that the failure reward culture of 2000s wrestling creative dated back to '95, however, since the one thing Watts did was actually great.
Amid dismal ratings, the WWF drew inspiration from Melrose Place and its water-cooler cliffhangers; amusingly, given that he'd likely have hated the show, Watts was the best person to apply that directive.
In October '95, he booked a heavy heat angle atypical of that era in which the Undertaker, Diesel and Shawn Michaels were annihilated by a gang of assorted heels, their fates - even 'Taker's! - left undecided. You'd have to tune in next week, with a lurching sense of dread, to find out.
Or not: Vince, aghast, re-cut the taped episode. Dok Hendrix provided a medical update on Undertaker. Broken ribs? Serious head injury?
No: the wind had been taken out of his sails!