8 Desperately Weird Vince McMahon Promotional Tactics

6. Intelligence Thankfully No Longer Insulted

The WWF had gone through a strong tonal shift through 1996 and 1997. But just in case you weren’t able to pick up on that yourself with scantily clad women, extreme violence and lots of characters telling you to “suck it”, Vince McMahon went through the effort of letting you know on-air that wrestling had changed.

On the December 15, 1997 episode of Raw, Vince greeted viewers by breaking the fourth wall and telling us that things were changing in the WWF. He said the audience was tired of having their intelligence insulted (some things still never change), and that Raw was comparable to shows like King of the Hill and Seinfeld, which is borderline delusional. I mean, Seinfeld’s brilliant satire is leagues away from “I choppy choppy your pee pee.” But I digress.

Of course, since this was in the middle of the Monday Night Wars, he found time to take a shot at Hogan in his announcement. It was a weird thing to do, and sadly his big changes weren't permanent. Strangely, he never went back to TV years later to announce that the days of characters like bull fighters, ballroom dancers and leprechauns would be coming to his product.