10 Times Wrestling History Repeated Itself
2. McMahon, Part Three: Stolen Belts And Screwjobs
Part of the reason that Vince McMahon panicked so badly at the thought of Bret The Hitman Hart leaving the WWF with the WWF championship in 1997 was because he'd already been through it on a smaller scale before: two years earlier, WWF women's champion Alundra Blayze had skipped to WCW while still holding McMahons belt, and been persuaded by Eric Bischoff to drop it in the trash on live television. He'd let Blayze go without dropping the belt first - he wouldnt make that mistake again, but it was Bischoff's cavalier ruthlessness that was the problem.
McMahon had, of course, conveniently forgotten that he'd done exactly the same thing himself four years earlier with Ric Flair, taking advantage of WCW boss Jim Herd's stupid decision to let the NWA world champion go while he was still holding the belt, and parading the NWA/WCW world title belt around WWF television while promoting the arrival of Flair on his programming. His paranoia over having Hart and Bischoff do to him what Blayze and Bischoff had done to him (and what he'd done to Jim Herd with Flair) led him to the events of the Montreal Screwjob, where he made damn sure that Hart would do what was right for the WWF.
Ironically, it was Montreal that would help save his business: he parlayed his sudden personal notoriety into the creation of the evil boss, Mr. McMahon, and the subsequent feuds with new rebel star Stone Cold Steve Austin caused a sharp upturn in trade, one that eventually saw him come out on top as WCW faltered and failed. He didn't learn his lesson about looking after his champions, though two years later, Jeff Jarrett managed to hold up the WWF for hundreds of thousands of dollars after his contract expired shortly before he was due to make a highly publicised and promoted Intercontinental title defence against Chyna.
His hand forced, he used the money hed squeezed out of McMahon to help him set up a little NWA promotion he could be the main event star of: one he decided to call Total Nonstop Action