12 Times Vince McMahon's Plans Blew Up In His Face

2. Ignoring The UFC

Vince McMahon has always been loath to consider WWE a wrestling or sports organization, preferring the more nebulous (and often less-accurate) term "entertainment." Even during the height of the Monday Night Wars, McMahon claimed that Disney, not WCW, was his primary competition. McMahon's refusal to acknowledge other brands of wrestling or combat sports has caused him no end of pain over the past decade. In late 2004, UFC was failing, and their last prayer was a reality show where fighters competed for a shot to get into the company. They approached SpikeTV, and the network was interested - but only if cash cow WWE was okay with it. McMahon simply shrugged, told SpikeTV that UFC wasn't their competition, and let the network run with the idea. The Ultimate Fighter aired right after Raw in 2005, and UFC became a smash hit. WWE only aired on SpikeTV through October of that year, but UFC became a fixture on the network. By 2007, the company was in a boom, and by 2010 (and with help from former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar), they were outdrawing WWE on Pay-Per-View at 3:1 rates.