10 Times Vince McMahon Had Nothing To Do With WWE's Massive Success
6. The Rise Of The Degenerate
And, by extension, the Attitude Era.
Vince McMahon was adrift when the great sea change washed over pro wrestling in the mid-1990s. Stuck several decades behind the times, the man who signed off on what would become known as the Attitude Era - with some irony - lacked the grapefruits to immediately proceed with the vision of others. Vince Russo relentlessly campaigned to add an edge to the fading, cartoonish product. Vince initially misunderstood Steve Austin's work, and didn't "get" the comedy aspect of it. D-Generation X pleaded with Vince McMahon to air their increasingly lewd behaviour, despite veteran misgivings, knowing that lowbrow success in the wider entertainment sphere was a natural fit for pro wrestling's call-and-response arena.
Vince rubber-stamped everything, of course, but so much of the dawn of the Attitude Era was a jigsaw puzzle McMahon alone was unable to piece together: the cult success of the violent ECW league, the cross-promotion with ECW, the influence of Brian Pillman, the nWo, the sex sold by Sable - all of this coalesced, eventually, in Vince McMahon's mind's eye.
Revisionist history paints Monday Night Wars Vince McMahon as a cornered animal. Since Rockabilly existed almost a full year after after the nWo, that animal was tranquillised.