Vince McMahon's 10 Biggest Failures

In the U.S., Black Friday is recognized for retailers offering huge discounts and deals at insanely early hours so customers can stock up on Christmas gifts.

In pro wrestling, Black Saturday is recognized as a day of mourning, when fans tuned in for gritty, realistic competition between NWA stalwarts like Ric Flair and Harley Race and instead, found cartoonish characters like George “The Animal” Steele and Jesse “The Body” Ventura representing sports entertainment.

Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) had presented World Championship Wrestling on Superstation WTBS for over a decade, a two-hour show consisting of in-studio matches and promos on Saturday nights. As part of McMahon’s national expansion, that time slot and television visibility was crucial for pushing the WWF, so he made an offer to station owner and future adversary Ted Turner, who declined. Undeterred, McMahon made successful offers to three of GCW’s owners: the Brisco Brothers and Jim Barnett. That left McMahon in control and able to replace the traditional NWA studio matches with clips of WWF buffoonery.

Viewers immediately backlashed against McMahon, demanding that the station bring back their cherished wrasslin’. A year later, McMahon sold the timeslot to Jim Crockett and World Championship Wrestling returned to its old home.