So what's Vince's biggest mistake?

Simple enough, just what is Vince’s biggest mistake? A few contenders...

John Cena’s Superman push? For a guy spearheading the company, he has possibly the worst all-round moveset, an embarrassing gimmick, remains possibly the only man ever to make both Trips and Shawn Michaels submit – in consecutive Mania main events – as well as movies, CD’s and Christ knows what else. Imagine what could have been if Vince had actually given this kind of push to someone who could wrestle…

Bobby Lashley – see the above for Cena, but remove the promo skills and love for the business. Lashley is built like a brick shithouse, got the biggest push I can ever remember for a rookie (excluding Brock Lesnar), but had very little in-ring talent, got a place in the most talked about celebrity involvement match in years, before having an almighty strop and walking out. Again, if Vince had given this much attention to someone who could wrestle…

The reborn ECW – One Night Stand had done very well for 2 years, as a one-off PPV, booked without the help of Vince. The Rise & Fall of ECW DVD sells incredibly well. Vince restarts the brand, hires a load of former ECW talent, Sabu, Sandman, Balls Mahoney, moves Kurt Angle and RVD to the brand to launch it. Hopes are high this could be something special… within weeks, ECDub fans from back in the day are heartbroken. Vince’s ECW is something else, something shite compared to the original. We get served up the worst WWE PPV of all-time, December to Dismember which also has the lowest buy-rate in WWE history. An Extreme Elimination Chamber, that barely used weapons. CM Punk making his headlining debut, jobbed out very quickly. Now it’s a training ground for the new guys, seen as a demotion by the old guys who wind up on it. Even the few fans who chant ‘ECDub!’ seem embarrassed to do it.

WCW and the Invasion angle – described on another thread, the biggest let-down of a storyline I can remember. When Lance Storm fires the opening shot, instead of the likes of Hogan, Nash, Goldberg initial hopes were dashed. Add in ECW before Vince killed that off too (see above), and it turns into a 4 way McMahon feud rather than a battle for the supreme wrestling company, and this could have been the yardstick for future storylines, rather than an angle we talk about today as a massive disappointment.

Abandoning drug testing in 1996/1997 – following his famous court case for steroid distribution, Vince re-introduced drug testing to show Congress he was trying to clean up his company. Very quickly, the roided-up monsters like British Bulldog, and the Ultimate Warrior were fired. Smaller guys, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels got pushes. Then slowly the roids started to be spotted again, Bulldog was rehired, guys with drug problems started to get hired, and then by 2005, virtually every superstar on the roster had a huge physique, even the jobbers like Rob Conway and Slyvan Grenier. Then WWE have 2 big names die – Eddie Guerrero from heart failure, Chris Benoit (well, we all know what he did). The latter of the 2 exposed the WWE’s drug testing as a shambles, Benoit apparently passed all his drug tests as he was prescribed the steroids by a dodgy doctor. The ultimate question is if Vince hadn’t stopped testing back in the 90’s, would Eddie still be around today? Benoit is a slightly different case, his actions have been attributed to brain damage but certainly other guys like Crush, Bulldog, would they have been ‘forced’ to stop taking drugs?

The Hall of Fame – started in the mid 90’s, guys like Andre the Giant were inducted. Then it disappeared for 10 years. Then restarted in 2005 (or 2004, I forget which), the likes of Hogan, Roddy Piper, Austin have been inducted. These are all fair enough. However, the selections are also Vince’s personal choice, meaning the guys he likes go in, the guys he doesn’t won’t. This means there are obviously some very deserving inductees each year, no-one can argue that Austin, Bret Hart, Bobby Heenan don’t deserve their place. But Koko B. Ware? A man who was routinely upstaged by a parrot? Randy Savage should be in there, but isn’t, for rumoured reasons. Rocky Johnson is only in there as Vince wanted The Rock to make a Wrestlemania appearance. And the number of inductees going in each year (usually 7 or 8) means that ultimately, WWE will run out of genuine people who can go in. The Class of 2018, headed by Batista, anyone? You know it will happen.

Feel free to chuck in your own ideas…

Not a wrestling related one, but the XFL was a big mistake for Vince. His attempt at an American football league was a flop. Initially it got pretty high ratings, but by the end of the season they had gotten ridiculously low and it wasn't picked up for a second season. Some of the problems were that the players were basically NFL rejects, they tended to have very low scoring games, and had all sorts of new complicated rules (some of them good, some of them terrible). Oh and the X in XFL doesn't actually stand for anything.

And the short-lived World Bodybuilding Federation, back in 1993, the reason Lex Luger was hired to host it. Why the hell did Vinnie Mac think the world wanted to see roided-up freaks like that without the wrestlign side to keep us entertained?

The InVasion angle for me, total balls.

How about allowing his daughter to marry one of the talent?

Only one of those strike me as his biggest failures. Cena while untalented, was a draw everywhere he was booked.
Lashley wasn't around for long enough to be considered a big mistake
ECW isn't a failure at all, as it allows for young talent to be showcased, something every wrestling company needs.
The invasion angle worse than it could have been, but it was never going to include the people you named. When vince bought WCW, he didn't get the contracts with it, which resulted in any big name being unwilling to sign until they would come in as stars, and not eventual jobbers.
Finally the hall of fame, if nothing else, means a night of tv that they can sell adds for.

failure to drug test is easily the worst thing on that list.

id say the invasion

for me vinces biggest mistake was overpushing cena.if i worked for the wwe id be embarresed to say cena is our top man.

Vince's biggest mistake has been allowing his kids (and a certain son in law) to "help" him run the ship!!

Brandon Buchanan wrote:

Vince's biggest mistake has been allowing his kids (and a certain son in law) to "help" him run the ship!!

I disagree with this, it seems that when Triple H (and Shawn Michaels) is involved in the booking it's better. Steph has been behind the push of Jericho, Vince is out of touch with what the fans want. I for one can't wait for Steph and Trips to get into power, which I asume it will be with Shane taking the business side of it.

i read somewhere that shane is responsible for the pushes for the biggest guys such as batista while steph as you say like to push guys like jericho

invincibleILeak wrote:

I disagree with this, it seems that when Triple H (and Shawn Michaels) is involved in the booking it's better. Steph has been behind the push of Jericho, Vince is out of touch with what the fans want. I for one can't wait for Steph and Trips to get into power, which I asume it will be with Shane taking the business side of it.

I guess we'll agree to disagree on it then as I think that WWE has been piss poor for far too long!

What I will say is that Michaels booked perfectly and it wasn't a dig at him at all! However, I am failing to see how H's were great for anyone other than himself!

I actually liked HHH 10 years ago but he can't do it anymore and everyone and their dog knew that he should have put Orton over at 'Mania - I don't buy in to this bull that the good guy has to go over at Mania either - Austin at WM17 for example!.

It just smacked of the kind of booking that I have came to expect from the WWE - far too quick in their jump to the pay off from a feud! Don't even get me started on how often tey swap the belt round!!

Ok, I'm started... now we have a situation where they take the belt off Orton and put it on someone who is either a) genuinely injured or b) pretending to be for *other reasons* 8)

Absolutely ridiculous!!