41 Most Disgusting Promotional Tactics In Wrestling History RANKED

11. 2023 - TKO Allows Vince McMahon A Position Of Power

While you’d think he’d have lost any semblance of brain matter, taking a look at his last several years of creative output, Vince McMahon remained shrewd. That, or he was very well-advised.

In a power play cynically (though widely) received as extortion, Vince wormed his way back into the big chair. When he stepped down in 2022, it wasn’t a permanent move, even if he withdrew from his day-to-day responsibilities. He held controlling voting power as the company’s majority shareholder and, on December 31, 2022, wrote to the Board via email to declare that, unless allowed back, he would not approve of any company sale nor new media rights deal. To put it more succinctly: he had WWE by the balls, and he had the balls to no-sell a scandal that got worse for him, and would get worse still.

The “strategic alternatives” he spoke of when mounting his power play resulted in the sale of WWE to Endeavor; WWE, together with UFC, fell under the TKO banner.

Vince was back - and he was heartily, despicably endorsed by Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel. This was nothing short of one of the best counterarguments to the system of capitalism.

Vince didn’t interfere as heavily as many expected - or dreaded. He did involve himself at times. He made the call to change the finish to Edge Vs. Finn Bálor at WrestleMania 39 in the former’s favour; Brock Lesnar Vs. Omos was a small gift to himself; he was even in gorilla throughout the Raw after WrestleMania, the most heavily criticised WWE show since the summer of 2022.

The “why” is unclear, though it was probably PR-related. Perhaps Vince knew that Paul Levesque’s run as booker was so well-received that he had to wait for signs of decline to swoop in.

Thankfully, Vince was left with no choice but to vanish forever when the reprehensible details of Janel Grant’s lawsuit were made public.