8 Times WWE Purposefully Sabotaged Other Companies

7. Chael Sonnen's UFC 55 Story

It's not only other pro wrestling companies that McMahon has tried to fend off over the years.

On an episode of his podcast in 2016, ex-UFC fighter Chael Sonnen told a story about Vince trying to sabotage the UFC 55 pay-per-view way back in 2005. According to Sonnen's recollection, WWE were unhappy that episodes of The Ultimate Figher were "piggy-backing" on Raw's success. Irate that the show aired straight after his on Spike TV, McMahon told Dana White to stop.

When White refused, McMahon reportedly offered UFC announcer Mile Goldberg $100,000 to no-show the UFC event that weekend. Sonnen claims Goldberg went straight to Dana, told him what was happening and everyone agreed that they must be doing well if Vince McMahon wanted to undermine them.

The interesting subplot here is WWE's interest in hiring Goldberg as an announcer around the same time. Sonnen says UFC immediately gave their play-by-play man a new contract to stave off WWE's advances.