10 Times WWE Attempted To Use A Real Life Situation To Their Advantage (And Failed)
3. Bret Hart Vs Vince McMahon
The first time the real life dynamic between Bret Hart and Vince McMahon permeated wrestling, it was dynamite. The controversy of the Montreal Screwjob was used to turn Vince into the business’ greatest ever heel, and the rest was history.
Hart left WWE under a dark cloud, but everyone eventually comes back, and when he did, there was surely easy money to be made pitting him against the chairman. Somehow, though, they bungled it. Bret vs Vince should have been the simplest story to tell - the Hitman returns, gets his revenge on his former boss, everyone goes home happy.
Instead, it became unnecessarily complex. There was a needless storyline involving the rest of the Hart family backstabbing Bret, then another turn on top of that. Most egregiously, the match went on for over 11 minutes, and involved Bret working over Vince in his usual technical style before eventually slapping on the sharpshooter.
No one wanted to see this. We just needed Bret to return, kick Vince’s head in, and celebrate with his family. Instead, they made a potentially red hot angle surprisingly boring.