10 Times Vince McMahon Cut Off His Nose To Spite His Face

9. The Goldberg Debacle

Vince McMahon
WWE.com

It's hard to fathom why Vince McMahon signed Goldberg to a WWE contract in the first place.

Despite several missteps as a promoter, Vince is definitely no dummy. As a man very fond of a monster push himself, he knew how he should have presented the Goldberg character. Having him go toe to toe with and sell liberally for Chris Jericho in only his second pay per view offering was decidedly not the way to go.

Vince could have had the best of both worlds here. He could have directed his on-air mouthpieces to trash Goldberg and his minor accomplishments in WCW, and ordered him to start from the bottom. With this one easy step, Vince could have crowed for the umpteenth time about his Monday Night Wars victory, and created a logical base from which to replicate Goldberg's undefeated streak. This would also have made his feud with Triple H ten times more interesting. By working his way up the ranks of Evolution within this arc, their first showdown, which should not have been wasted in the Elimination Chamber, would have set the wrestling world alight.

They could have traversed any other route, but Vince seemingly just wasn't willing to.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!