8 Times WWE Tried (And Failed) To Recreate Their Past Success

What’s sad about this retread is that it’s the restart of a feud that had blown off only a few months prior. Of course, in Vince Russo land, that’s several decades. Steve Austin and Vince McMahon had the hottest feud of 1998, and before Austin moved on to feud with Rock for the WWF title, he and McMahon blew off their feud in a cage at St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in February 1999.

From there, Austin feuded with the Corporation as a whole, and eventually, the merger between the Corporation and the Undertaker’s Ministry of Darkness. Vince would turn face during this time, as the Ministry kidnapped his daughter and generally made his life a living hell. It came to the point where he was begging Austin for his help.

As it turned out, The Undertaker was actually working for a “higher power,” and the question became who that higher power was. The reveal of who it was is one of wrestling’s most iconic and stupid moments of all time.

You can hear it in JR’s voice. That is not the sound of someone who’s like “Darn! They took us for a ride!” It’s a frustrated, jaded cry of “...Really? That’s the best you’ve got?” So yes, the Austin/McMahon feud was sparked once again... and it lasted for like a month and a half. Admittedly, the program yielded some fun Attitude Era wackiness, such as Austin briefly becoming CEO, a handicap ladder match at King of the Ring, and a wild first blood match at Fully Loaded. But just as abruptly as it was reignited, the feud was stopped when at Fully Loaded, the stipulation was that if Austin won, Vince McMahon would have to leave TV forever. Austin did win, and McMahon disappeared... and then came back a month or so later. But by then, he was a face again and in conflict with Triple H, while Austin was phasing out of the company due to his neck problems.

Vince’s reveal as the higher power was utterly pointless, and it shows how even at their most successful times, WWE are always prone to not leaving well enough alone, trying to recreate magic that can’t be done artificially.