8 Most Ironic Comeuppances In Wrestling

8. Vince 2.0 Screwed Vince

In the early 1980s, shortly after buying the World Wrestling Federation from his father, Vince McMahon Jnr. began to broaden his horizons. McMahon had a vision for the WWF that would require innovation, a kind of wild recklessness and a ruthless, hardnosed approach to business. Most of all, especially in the respect-driven yet politically charged industry of professional wrestling: he would need to try as hard as possible to screw his rivals into the ground, without fear or favour. That McMahon had all of those qualities in 1982 is now a matter of public record. He pushed the WWF to national expansion, callously stepping on handshake agreements and received wisdom concerning old school territory boundaries. He had WWF programming on syndicated television across the length and breadth of the USA, and toured the same way. He hired the best talent in the country from under the noses of the local, territorial promotions they worked for. He almost ran his own company out of business €“ he certainly ran plenty of others out of business €“ but succeeded in his aim, becoming the chairman of America€™s first national wrestling promotion. Fast forward to 1994, then 1995, and the hotshot new head of World Championship Wrestling is pulling a Vince McMahon €“ ripping up the rulebook, taking risks, signing the biggest stars in the business and ruthlessly going head to head with the opposition. In this case, that meant WWF on Monday nights: Nitro vs. RAW. Eric Bischoff wasn€™t above being underhanded where necessary and often where not, acting just as Vince had a decade earlier, but with one advantage €“ he had a billion-dollar corporation bankrolling the promotion. A dozen years after McMahon had taken his shot and taken down the territories, Bischoff used exactly the same strategy, if not slightly different tactics, to try his best to take McMahon and the WWF down.