The ramifications of the Montreal Screwjobs were that the relationships between the employees and the employer did get more blurred. That dynamic did make things pretty intriguing in the short term but really harmed the business in the long term
A case in point was that once Eric Bischoff signed with WWE in 2002 or so, it's not as if people would come in droves to see what type of heat he and Vince might generate. Again, the attitude era was hot, created a facsimile of kayfabe but then crashed in 2001.
WWEs model for success the past 10-15 years is unlike anything quite seen in professional wrestling before it. They now rely on TV contracts, streaming deals, social media promotion, merchandise/content creation, political maneuverability, more international touring and diversity initiatives
Yeah as I said here we are in 2025 with this timeline. I agree with you.
I could even break this down even more since this topic is what would wrestling be like without Vince. I do find it interesting the different types of fans and the changing viewing habits since 1984. There is so much domino effect that has occurred and in due time has Hulk Hogan and Vince Mcmahon's real life current heat with fans by proxy karma for what they did to the wrestling business or getting back their own dose of medicine they did to the original pro wrestling fans?
What do I mean by this? Just look at how everything has turned out. Now this would be a dramatic biopic.
Vince Mcmahon Jr. did a buyout of his father's company. He claims if his father knew what he was going to do the business he would have never sold it to him. On the flip side to that, the opposite is said by some saying his father DID know what he was about to do with the national expansion and it would be better if he broke the old handshake agreements with the fiefdoms.
Regardless whichever side one falls on which story to believe, the result is the same. The raid of the AWA begins and Vince is off to the races with ironically the star his father fired because he wanted him to choose being a pro wrestler instead of a movie star. Now remember that karma thing I said? Who know is on the board of TKO that runs WWE? None other than the movie star The Rock who was passed the torch by that very same Hulk Hogan basically 20 years after the fact Vince Mcmahon fired Hulk Hogan for being a movie star. Hogan was fired in April/May of 1981 and he returned to WWF in 2002 after being let go basically a decade earlier that made it a decade after being fired by Vince Sr.
Now what did I say above? None of the top champs liked Hulk Hogan because they kind of had the same mentality of Vince Mcmahon Sr about him being a movie star. Bruno Sammartino never really gave Hogan the co-sign. This keep in mind as in future years Hogan would be accused of politics and holding talent down, but it is rarely talked about how the champs of Hogan's day never passed the torch to him either. Here is Vince Mcmahon Sr. with Bruno Sammartino. The guy they are still chasing the ghost of recently with Roman Reigns title run in terms of record length. Another irony is that Roman was Vince's last chosen champion and Vince probably tried to chase that ghost to with his father's champion the record of his then company.
During this time Vince Jr was on commentary and learning the nuances of pro wrestling, but perhaps was thinking one day how he would change it to more entertainment based. However, in the early days of WWF he would still use the blueprint of his father. It is interesting that decades later someone in his family would then transform what he created into their own vision with HHH. Unlike his father he was not willing to pass or sell it to family members, but of course the company is totally different now being on Wall Street.
Vince always wanted to keep things private, so he wouldn't lose control. He was able to do this and was forced to after Ted Turner put the competition wheels to him. Turner ended up doing exactly what Vince did to the territories raiding their biggest stars. Bischoff even at one point called him the Verne Gagne of the 90s lol.
I think Vince Mcmahon up until post WM 3 kept a lot of the old school lessons and blueprint from his father. The success of WM 3 and even Big Event in Toronto perhaps made Vince Jr think he knew how to make things even bigger than his dad ever dreamed and went more Walt Disney by 1989 with the production. He wanted to be called the Walt Disney of wrestling anyways.
While this is going on, Vince pisses off all the old timers breaking rules that they all agreed to having to make a living. He already had people like Harley Race and Verne Gagne threatening Hogan lol. That was the first swing at the armor of the WWF and the second was breaking kayfabe in courts. Vince wanted to do real cinema ironically like his son in law now claims WWE as. The bringing in Zeus character that was Hogan's rival in No Holds Barred was next level kayfabe breaking too. However, they were scorching hot in 1989 and things were looking up for Hogan in movies as Vince looked to the future with Ultimate Warrior. The very thing Vince's dad would not have Hogan do his son went to the other limit with it encouraging Hogan into movies and mixing it with pro wrestling.
The irony also comes into play that Vince used the fame of Rocky 3 with Mr. T to help launch WrestleMania. Something his father would most likely not do either as Piper was not too fond of it either being old school. He would end up leaving two years later for Hollywood lol.
Vince also created larger than life athletes where the intrigue would be their size such as Andre The Giant. Even if people would rag wrestling for being fake, the one thing it had was larger than life humans who the average Joe would not be able to step up to to test their "realness." This bubble also burst in 1991 with the Goerge Zahorian news outbreak with the steroid scandal. That was another blow to the business and by this time in 1992 they try to revert back to the era before Hulkamania.
They have guys like Ric Flair, Randy Savage, and Bret Hart become the WWF Champion and even brought back Bob Backlund. The damage was done and they would struggle for years, but something strange happened when Hogan jumped ship to Turner. He turned heel and turned things upside down and eventually get into your post basically. It caught fire as Hogan now shed that same corporate image Vince created for him and fans thought they were now seeing the real Hogan who had lied on national televison over steroid abuse.
Before that Vince tried to make a new corporate champion for the masses and all failed with Diesel and Luger, but Steve Austin who fans knew for real was politicked and fired other places now seemed like their guy. Vince didn't get it at first because he still had the vision for Rocky Maivia which in truth if it was the decade before he probably would have been huge with that presentation.
Everything changed due to Nitro forcing Vince and the characters became more organic with reality of fans reactions and the stories as well such as Canada vs USA. Fast forward that to recent years where Vince became sort of in the position of his father clashing with HHH's vision of NXT for future stars. He tried to prevent the inevitable as his father, but eventually he got the boot creatively and from the company. All the things his father tried to prevent with certain rules all broken by his son some may say is karma coming back to him.
He didn't want his son wrestling or mix wrestlers with executives in relationships. Bret Hart who grew up in the business and had a promoter father says the new wrestlers wrestle more like him than Hogan due to being more pro wrestler traditionally. The same issue guys like Backlund and Harley Race had.
Vince is also seen as a crazy old perverted man in his last days lost all his creative flair as the company he built is kind of back being a NWA style heel heat champ platform. It has all come full circle.
Imagine Vince Sr could see this timeline lol.
"I fired Hulk Hogan for a reason. Now it came back to bite you in the butt son. You broke kayfabe. You made movies. You made the kids get into the business and wrestle. You even wrestled when I vetoed that. You did great, but now my name is not connected to MY CREATION."
"I made the company into a billion dollar entity though dad."
💩
