1. Vince McMahon Slaps Stone Cold Steve Austin - Raw 1998
Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin battling each other can be pinpointed as the feud that changed the business and launched WWE into the stratosphere. Of course there were a myriad of other factors that led to the WWE exploding in the late 1990s, but only a fool would argue that this storyline wasnt the most significant. And in all the documentaries, highlight reels, and retrospectives of that era one moment is always included without fail and with good reason too the awesome moment a snarling Vince McMahon slaps a cocky and clearly stunned Stone Cold Steve Austin on Raw as two are about to face off in a match. This moment was a huge win for Raw because the build up around it was superb. As a Stone Cold and McMahon face off had been teased for months now, the audience were in shock to realise that they would actually get to see this match come to life, and on television no less, as opposed to a PPV. Of course it didnt happen like that. After Austin had one arm tied behind his back (because he had previously said he could beat McMahon with one arm tied behind his back) Mick Foley as Dude Love stumbled down to the ring and made a fiasco of the whole thing. It wasnt a bad fiasco in fact it was incredibly entertaining. But that moment summed up everything that WWE did right in building that feud over 1998. There was tension, there was amazing pacing, but most importantly of all Vince McMahon was up for it. This wasnt simply a case of a young guy beating up an old guy this was a ripped fifty something year old man, with all the resources and back up he could buy, telling his arch enemy who had nothing but his dominating physical strength and fearless nature, to come at him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rnM4qM3Up4#t=5m0s While people might wax lyrical and be far too nostalgic of the Attitude Era today, this is one moment that undoubtedly the WWE got completely right, and everyone should remember fondly.
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