10 Times WWE Narrowly Avoided Disaster
7. The Hiring Of Vince Russo (General)
1995 was a significantly worse year for the WWF than 1996, but Shawn Michaels endured a terrible WWF Title reign in terms of business, a fact only obscured by the unprecedented failure of Diesel in the top spot.
In 1995, the company was perilously close to the brink; business was in the sh*tter, RAW often played out in front of high school gyms, and fans were entirely unenthused about the pushed acts, who ranged from virtually immobile to woefully unconvincing. WWF fared better critically a year later, but the fans were still not interested to any appreciable, needle-moving extent. The March 3, 1997 "live" RAW emanated from Berlin, Germany, or an industrial dystopia, for how bleak it looked.
The worst thing about the show is that it was headlined by a classic pure wrestling peacock battle between Owen Hart and the British Bulldog, which drew an all-time bad rating. It was the distillation of unglamorous, dimly-lit wrasslin' - and it failed spectacularly, allowing an ambitious, enterprising Vince Russo to grow in influence.
The show's failure was proof of concept for his low-brow, zeitgest-y new vision, which virtually, ultimately saved the WWF from the slaughter to WCW Nitro.
Wrestling failed. That's why sports entertainment will never die :'(