7. Triple H Marries Stephanie McMahon, 25th October 2003
In 2002 the WWF renamed itself WWE due to a legal dispute from the World Wildlife Fund. It was another factor in the perception of the company as no longer "cool". Ratings fell and pretty much kept falling until hitting a steady status quo. For the first time ever, Vince was neither here nor there. He wasn't unsuccessful as he had been in the early 90's but he wasn't successful as he had been in the late 90's either. The industry had changed so much. Hogan and Austin had came and gone, with fans now as invested in the backstage real stories as the storylines on television. It was a different beast entirely from the 1980s vision that McMahon had built. I personally don't think he really knew what to do next. One man who did have the energy and ideas on how to take the business forward was Paul 'Triple H' Levesque. He had long been a creative cog in the WWF since forming a friendship with Vince as part of Shawn Michaels kliq. His influence only became bigger after he fell in love with and married Vince's daughter Stephanie McMahon. The couple were wildly ambitious, and fully confident in their ideas for the industry. Hunter set about dictating television content direction, identifying to Vince the next generation of WWF stars. His position became wholly controversial. Some people seen him as the guy who got with the boss's daughter in order to advance his own interests. True enough, Hunter suddenly became the most decorated Champion in the company around 2002-2005. He did however bring on a wave of future main eventers. Stephanie meanwhile helped to pioneer the WWE business toward new avenues of revenue. Despite the controversial transfer of power from Vince to Stephanie and Hunter, which began in 2003, there have been many positives. The corporation as a whole has really solidified its broader operations. The fact is that Levesque has brought on numerous top stars and instilled a history to pro wrestling at the same time as developing the future generations. Stephanie meanwhile is one of the most respected corporate businesswomen under the age of 40 in North America. For better or for worse, the WWE became the Vince, Hunter and Stephanie show in 2003.
