EVERYTHING Vince McMahon Gave Up On In 2020 (So Far)
"Up against a machine too strong. Greedy politicians buying souls from us are puppets."
WWE has a bit of a problem building new stars, and that problem is named Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Get in good with the guy, and a wrestler can be pushed to the moon but annoy or, worse, bore him, and they won't even be wished luck in their future endeavours anymore.
This article was originally intended to be a light-hearted look at how Vince can't look beyond his own whims or an immediate profit to a long-term plan anymore. It would've seen the terrible crimes (can't speak in a Southern accent/didn't get over despite being booked to constantly lose in irredeemable ways) that wrestlers committed to get into his bad books. Remember when Titus O'Neil was suspended for gently nudging Vince? That kind of thing.
This was the plan until the world got turned upside down. Since March, WWE's year has been a whirlwind of bad news, controversies, and other shenanigans, onscreen and off. This means the tone is almost certainly going to be something of a rollercoaster as we take a look at all the things Vince McMahon got tired of in the first half of 2020...
14. Ricochet
After being targeted by Brock Lesnar, Ricochet had gotten a modicum of revenge by helping Drew McIntyre eliminate him during the Royal Rumble, and was booked the face the monster Super ShowDown. Fans had no illusions that he'd win a match against Vince's favourite slab of beef, but it was never about him winning.
As lazy as he tends to be, Lesnar can have some absolutely fantastic matches when sharing the ring with people like Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, Finn Balor, and Seth Rollins. There was no way that someone like Ricochet wouldn't be able to show his unique skillset against The Beast. Fans could already see him frustrating Brock by landing on his feet from killer moves like the F5 and suplex city. It could have been awesome, and the video packages leading into the Saudi show led us to believe that we'd be seeing that version of Ricochet.
Unfortunately, Vince got sick of Ricochet not getting over with the crowd after being booked to lose every match. Seeing that as laziness, he punished him and the crowd by not letting him get a single offensive move in before Lesnar destroyed him in under 3 minutes.