10 Toxic Real-Life Wrestling Relationships
8. Vince McMahon & Ted Turner
The rivalry that in-part came to define mainstream professional wrestling in the 1990s, Ted Turner's phone call to Vince McMahon after acquiring Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988 relit a fire that had lay dormant since a failed attempt from McMahon to broadcast WWF on Turner's Superstation in 1984.
The duo came together on a day that would latterly be known as 'Black Saturday', as Turner begrudgingly welcomed Vince's WWF product into the slot that had screened Georgia Championship Wrestling for the previous 12 years.
GCW loyalists were in complete shock when their regular dose of professional wrestling was interrupted by the grand purveyor or Sports Entertainment, despite Billionaire Ted's flat rejection of the idea in 1983.
The clean-cut, cartoonish, family friendly style Vince McMahon Jr offered after buying the World Wrestling Federation from his father didn't remotely jive with Turner's core audience, but Vince had taken controlling ownership of the territory after buying out the company's shares from Jim Barnett and the Brisco Brothers.
The show predictably tanked, leading an enraged Turner to load his network with additional wrestling programming more attuned to his audience. It comfortably outperformed Vince's product, so he went a step further.
Acquiring Jim Crockett's formative 'World Championship Wrestling' NWA affiliate, he infamously let McMahon know 'I'm in the rasslin' business'. The words stuck in McMahon's throat until the day he bought the virtually Turner-less WCW in 2001.