Evolution Schematic 06.13.07: Vince McMahon (Version 2.0) [Part 1]
Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 06.13.2007
I knew this column concept would come back to bite me in the butt.
Overview
Today is a very sad day for the Professional Wrestling world. Today we mourn as something very important has been taken away from us.
"Yeah, the dignity of the business by this stupid an-"
Quiet you! No, today, we mourn the death of Vincent Kennedy McMahon. And to truly understand why we are mourning, we must, however hard it is, try and review and understand the career, the life, of the now former top guy in the industry. For Vince is dead, just like Triple H was named Hunter as a kid, just like how Scotty Flamingo was Raven parodying Tommy Dreamer, just like how Trish Stratus used to be Christian's slut, Vince McMahon is dead.
Presumably.
He was The Man, regardless of what others might say (see: Flair, Ric, and Vader). And thus, it is harder to explain his career than it is with most people's in that he didn't have one simple drive. There is no one aspect of character that explains his entire career, his entire run from start to finish. Sure, you can easily say that he was foremost a businessman. He did what's best for the company, in his eyes. He's been dead wrong at times, but at the time, it was what he thought was best. But that's not a drive, that's a method. It's what he's done, but not why.
The typical, basic answer is megalomania. Vince was egotistical and got off on power. But that's slightly off kilter. Vince had, on many occasions, willingly given up power. He's reduced his power a surprisingly high number of times. So while that's a part of his make up, it's not the major aspect. So let's refocus. He didn't get off on power, but what if he got off on something else?
Manipulation?
Every single act Vince has done; be it for the furthering of the company, to help a favored employee or just for his own personal enjoyment, has been very manipulative. That's not the same as getting off on power, as some of his best and probably most enjoyable acts were from a weak position. No, it's the manipulation he enjoyed. Whether it is in the boardroom, the ring or the announcing table, he loved to alter people's lives, careers and destinies. And in the process, he's created the single greatest Wrestling Company in history.
Except at the end, when he went nuts. But then that happens to a lot of old folks.
Origins- Screw Orton, the business was really in his blood.
Vincent Kennedy McMahon Junior was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut by his mother. He and his brother did not have a ‘happy childhood'. Without his father around, and with a parade of ‘step-dads' around, Vince did not get the experience of living in a normal household. His family situations that occurred over time were obviously a consequence of this. But when Vince was about 12, he finally met his birth father, Vince Sr. The two immediately hit it off, and formed a bond, over wrestling and Vince Sr's company, the World Wide Wrestling Federation, or WWWF.
But Vince Sr wasn't happy with this. He was able to see the damage that had been done to Vince Jr by his absence, and didn't want the same to happy to Vince's kids, thus proving that in some ways, Vince Sr was a visionary. So Vince Jr went to military school. This was Vince's first chance to begin and manipulate others. This was the first time he was in a position to influence others.
He was then caught, and became the first cadet in history to be court marshaled. He was not convicted however, the first of several lucky breaks he would have. This had an impact on his life, and he must have sworn to himself to not let it happen again. He would not try to overly manipulate others until he was in a position where he was sure he could get away with it.
Once he was out of school, he spotted the mind that was inside one Linda Edwards' head, and made sure to snare it. One marriage later, and Vince was ready to enter the business he would one day become synonymous with. But as what? Sure, he could have come in as part of the board, as an owner/boss. He could have been brought in as a commissioner, or as some other important role running the company. Heck, with a step up in his training regime, he could have come in as a wrestler. But these were all either not manipulative enough, they didn't excite Vince, or they were too risky, they were too likely to blow up in his face. So he took a job that would allow him to manipulate thousands, millions of people at the same time, and still remain fairly safe and secure.
Debut- "12HeGotHimNoHeDidn't!
Vince Jr joined the WWWF as an announcer. This was the perfect job for him, as he was able to stay away from the dangers of being the boss, of being in a position of real power, but was able to manipulate thousands, millions of people every week. After all, he was there at the forefront of the company, his voice was heard by everyone watching the show. And thus whatever he said, the fans heard. Giving Vince lots of time to hone his speaking and manipulative skills.
So fast forward a couple of years. In 1979, the second W was dropped, and it was now the World Wrestling Federation. Then in 1982, Vince Jr took the next step.
Phase 2- That's Mister McMahon to you.
He bought the company from his father, who was retiring. Heading his company of Titan Sports, he bought the WWF with borrowed money and borrowed time. And he quickly changed the company to what he wanted the company to be. He had watched his father work, and thought he could improve on what his father did. He probably didn't like the risk involved, but for the WWF to do what he wanted, he'd have to take control. He focused more on the promotion of the company, leaving the running of the talent and such up to the president, Hisashi Shinma. Vince knew a fair bit about the wrestlers, after all he called their matches all the time, but they were temperamental and egotistical. Better to let someone else be the front man for them while he quietly ran the show and called the matches.
Which is not to say he didn't let Shinma do all the work. Vince was the driving force behind the signing of Hulk Hogan. And when Hogan won the world title of the Iron Sheik, Vince put the substantial powers of marketing behind Hogan, and saw his company grow rapidly. A change of the WWF President, with Jack Tunney taking over the job in 84, didn't deter Vince. The WWF was growing, but Vince decided to risk it all on a giant roll of the dice.
Phase 2b- "The Wrestling Extravaganza Of All Time, Wrestlemania!"
This was not shown on PPV, since that did not exist. Rather, it was shown in theaters via a special Closed Circuit set-up. Regardless of the show's quality, whatever opinion about it you hold, it very nearly made a profit, but more importantly it got the WWF name around the whole country, making the WWF name synonymous with Wrestling, and getting the headlines. The headlines were important, since they piqued interest, and that got Hulk Hogan and the rest of the stars of the WWF a chance to entertain, and that lead to the WWF getting a truly national reach.
With the WWF rolling with the Hogan banner, it allowed Vince to start buying out, or in some cases shutting out the smaller regional players. Companies that Vince Sr had done business with back when the WWWF was part of the NWA were swallowed up or spit out by the WWF. By the time Wrestlemania III rolled around, with it's dream main event of Andre vs. Hogan and one of the greatest matches in history with Steamboat vs. Savage on the under card, the WWF was making a healthy profit, and was quickly becoming unstoppable.
It had its shows on cable, it's once a month "Saturday Main Event" which pre-empted Saturday Night Live on NBC, the WWF was going well. Of course, Vince was happy on one level, but on another, a simmering rage began to boil. He was doing all the work, his marketing was making Hulk Hogan a household name. Sure, the money was great, but Hogan wasn't quite as thankful as Vince would like. Hogan was charismatic and talented in the ring, but Vince knew that it was his marketing skills, his manipulation skills that made ‘Hulkamania'. He could have made ‘JYD-Mania', ‘Pipermania', ‘Savagemania', hell, even ‘Steamboatmania' if he really wanted to. But as long as Hulk was in the WWF and making money, he was willing to put that aside. He focused on building Hulk up in the eyes of America and the world, and raking in the cash. And, of course, raising his children.
Again, it was a simple arrangement. Vince ran the promotion and the ‘business' side of the company, getting more shows on the new fangled Pay Per View market (this is a rare case of Vince missing the boat on something. As probably the sole man who was utilizing PPV on any major scale, there was an opportunity for Vince to get a bit of cash together, and buy out the rights to the system. Confusion abounds as to how close he got, but the chance was there. Vince, focused more on building the WWF up at the time, did not choose to do this. Considering the other off-shoots Vince would try later on, and how many PPVs there are today, it's scary to think of the manipulative powers Vince would have had in his lifetime if he had chosen to go that route). Vince ran the promotion and the business, Jack Tunney ran the wrestlers and the talent in general. And it worked. The Rock N Roll Wrestling period for the WWF was one of its most profitable and successful for the company.
But all too soon, it began to slow down. Hogan, despite more merchandising and promotion and manipulation behind him, was no longer as popular as he once was, and this began to affect his in ring performance. And Vince was seemingly wary of taking another big risk in, say, turning his powers and machinery behind Bret Hart and/or Shawn Michaels and making them the main stars, two men who were not like Hogan, one who wasn't as charismatic and another who more egotistical than Hogan, if that was possible. But Vince was sure that another Hogan would soon present himself, soon after Hogan left.
But then disaster struck when one Vince's biggest rivals made a phone call, and changed the path of Professional Wrestling.
The call was to Dr George Zahorian, and the rival was the US Government.
Phase 3- The U.S. Department of Justice screwed the U.S. Department of Justice.
For some reason, Vince wasn't liked by several key figures of the US government. Maybe they were Ric Flair fans. For whatever reason, once they had some evidence that Vince was a drug dealer (it was a shame that adultery was not a crime, or they would have been able to arrest Vince and lock him up for years) they immediately booked him and put him on trial. But after several months of stress and muck-raking, Vince was finally acquitted of the charges, and was able to return to his company in time for SummerSlam 94. But there was a bigger, more dangerous threat to deal with now.
Ted F'n Turner.
Phase 4- "Vince, I'm in the ‘Rassling Business." "Congratulations. I'm in the Entertainment Business."
We have to backtrack a bit here. Vince McMahon and Ted Turner were not strangers to one another. They had done business together, back when Vince was first taking control of the WWF and Ted Turner needed shows for his fledgling TBS Cable Network. But the two never really liked each other. And that was bad, since Ted had a fondness/loyalty to Wrestling. It had helped him out many times. So when CNN took off and Ted became a billionaire, one of his first purchases was Jim Crockett Promotions. A quick rename, and World Championship Wrestling was formed, and the above phone conversation occurred.
Ted Turner quickly set up a similar set up to the one Vince had running. Ted hired a series of Executives to run WCW (Jim Herd, Kip Allen Frey, Bill Watts) until he found Eric Bischoff. But unlike Vince, who personally took control of the promotions and left his president to run the wrestlers, Turner rather gave Eric Bischoff full control of the company, and merely gave the money and support of Turner broadcasting to Eric as he needed it. Eric made several changes to WCW, but the most important was that while Vince was having problems with the US Government, Eric hired away several key stars. Hogan, Savage, hell, even Okerland and Heenan ‘just for the hell of it'. WCW began to gain on the WWF, especially with the Turner Empire behind it. But Vince was soon back in control, and had to choose his new Hogan, had to work out who would become the focus for the merchandising, who would be the man Vince's manipulation would focus on.
Lex Luger seemed a good choice, but his inability to get the job done in the big match environment was a massive handicap not even Vince, with his massive manipulation skills, was able to overcome. So when in doubt, go with the champ. Yokozuna was good enough for a temporary main star while Vince looked for the next Hogan, since Yoko instilled fear in the fans, plus the typical "He's a Foreigner! Boo!" mentality that permeated (and still does permeate) wrestling. And it seemed logical to go with the guy who did end up beating Yoko, turn him into Hogan V2.0. So when Bret Hart beat Yoko, Vince could build the company around…oops, he lost to Backlund. Well, Backlund's interesting, he could be marketed right, like Yoko, and…oops, Diesel just beat Backlund in…9 seconds? Ding Ding Ding, we have a winner!
Phase 5- Actually, no we don't.
Alas, for whatever reason, Diesel did not catch on as well as Hogan did. Vince tried his hardest, but Diesel was too laid back, too cool for his own good. He just lacked ‘it', whatever ‘it' was. It's the one thing that not even Vince could create. He could build on it, manipulate it, use it to build an empire, but he couldn't just invent it. Bret Hart managed to beat Diesel for the title almost a year after winning it. But Bret was never really Vince's choice. Despite the loyalty that he showed Vince over the years, Vince just felt that Bret Hart never had the real X factor needed for Vince to build the company around. But Shawn Michaels? Sure, he was egotistical and prone to quit the company on a whim, but he had ‘it' in abundance. So Vince pushed the smaller but still impressive merchandising juggernaut behind Shawn Michaels.
But then over in WCW, where Kevin Nash and Scott Hall had invaded, the two men hooked up with Hulk Hogan and formed the New World Order. And Vince McMahon's destiny, for the first time, seemed out of his hands. It seemed that Vince and the WWF's future would be determined by what WCW, how well they went, or more accurately how badly would they screw up. This was totally unacceptable to Vince. So he fought back. But to do so, he would have to take control of the whole thing. But Vince suddenly telling everyone he's in command? That'd be a shock, and might even turn people off, thinking that Vince had been lying to them all these years. He hadn't of course, but he would have to wait and find the best time to do so, and to do it gently, to manipulate the fans to accepting it. And a certain redneck gave him it.
Phase 6- ‘And quite frankly, well, I just don't give a damm!'
Once Jack Tunney quit the WWF, Vince got some interim presidents in, Gorilla Monsoon, Roddy Piper before he headed off to WCW, Monsoon again. But eventually, Vince put Sergeant Slaughter into the WWF Commissioner's position, and allowed him to run the company. Slaughter, alas, was overwhelmed by The Hart Foundation, DX and Stone Cold Steve Austin. It was this last man that Vince really had a problem with. Sure, he was a merchandising machine, ‘Austin 3:16' shirts were selling like crazy. But the guy just didn't respect anyone or anything. At least Shawn was able to be controlled, you could lead him round by the title belt. But Austin didn't listen to anyone or anything. And when Austin hurt his neck, he went on a Stunning rampage, stunning anyone and everyone who got in his way. Jim Ross, Lawler, Slaughter, refs, Mick Foley, The Hart Foundation, anyone within reach. And so a defining moment in Vince's life came on September 22nd 1997. Austin had violated a restraining order put in place by Owen Hart, attacking Owen after Owen had won a match in the IC title tourney to crown a new champ after Austin was stripped of the belt. Austin then got into a pull apart with a bunch of New York cops. Vince McMahon then got into the ring, and held the cops off. Vince tried to reason with Austin. He tried to show Austin that this was pointless, he had to learn to work ‘within the system'. Austin responded with the above quote and Stunned Vince.
Apart from a couple of altercations (A misplaced wooden chair wielded by Roddy Piper the most well known) no-one had ever touched McMahon. He was the boss, overall. He was also an announcer, he was thought to be off limits. But Austin didn't care. And that scared Vince. McMahon was used to being able to manipulate his employees and the fans. But this guy wasn't able to be manipulated. That was dangerous. But for now, he was injured and thus not a direct threat. Vince's neck would heal. He would have his time with Austin. But there was a much more pressing issue to deal with.
Phase 7- Montreal.
Bret Hart decided to leave for WCW. Vince knew this, and was working around it. Problem is, Bret Hart was still WWF champ. Now, tradition stated that if he was still the champ when he left, Bret should give the belt up, he should vacate it. Vince had gotten an assurance from Bret that he would, but Vince was nervous. Bret was fighting a guy he hated, Shawn Michaels, in Canada. Home field advantage, hatred, last match…Shawn might win the match, and all would be ok. But he might not. Bret might still be WWF champ when he appeared on Nitro. And if Alundra Blayze/Madusa could drop the WWF Women's Title belt into a garbage can on Nitro, what would stop Bret doing that to the WWF World Title? That would be totally unacceptable. So Survivor Series 97 rolled around. Michael Cole interviewed Vince McMahon, and for the first time, McMahon flat out admitted that he was in charge overall (this was not mentioned beyond veiled ‘He'll be fired now' statements after Austin stunned Vince the first time). Vince also stated that the match would happen. Vince was within his rights to cancel the match, strip Bret and have it done. But no, the match would happen. Also happening that night was Owen losing the IC belt to Austin, which on one level was good for McMahon, since Austin hated WCW more than the WWF and thus wouldn't go anywhere, but bad since it gave Austin gold. And then the main event began. Bret and Shawn brawled all over the arena at first, fighting for a good 5 or so minutes before the match began in the ring. But then Bret took control, and began working on Shawn's leg. And Vince saw it all flash before his eyes. He could probably see Bret with the belt the very next night on Nitro, with spray paint, or a sledgehammer, or a garbage can, maybe fire. So when Vince saw his chance, he yelled at Earl Hebner, then the time keeper when Shawn managed to get a weak Sharpshooter on Bret. And…
Vince took that step between subtle manipulations and out-right meddling. He had to, he had no choice. He had to make sure that Bret didn't leave that arena still the champ. And so he had to do what he had to do.
Phase 7b- I said, that's Mister F'n McMahon to you.
And one week later, Vince gave a famous interview with JR. You might of heard of it, it included a rather famous 3 word phrase. What was it…ah yes. "Bret Screwed Bret". That was the defining moment. People, in their hearts, might have understood, hell, even agreed with Vince's actions. But to blame them ON Bret? That was crossing the line. So now Vince was getting booed. Well, fine then. Doesn't matter. After all, Vince had more important things to handle.
See, when Vince screwed Bret, he took the first step, he realized that he was able to directly influence the company and get away with it. There was no backlash (apart from a few disgruntled employees and the fans, but who cares about them?). And that was good, since Vince would need to use all his power to stop Steve Austin. Rather then slowing down after getting back, Austin was even more angry and disruptive. Vince would have to stop him before he ruined the company. And Vince could do it now. He wouldn't have to settle for mild manipulation. He could go all out and manipulate like mad. He must have been very very happy, despite all outward anger. Especially since he had seeming permission from the world to take a firm hand on Austin, he could do what needed to be done.
Phase 7c- Beeper 3:16
First step- Get gold off Austin. It was only the IC belt, but it was the principal of the thing. Any gold on Austin was a liability. What if a talk show wanted a guest, a WWF Champion, and Shawn Michaels didn't want to do it? They'd go "Well, you've got another belt, the Intercontinental, right? Well, let's have him on then." And that would be disastrous. It was bad enough that Austin was on the roster, but to represent the WWF? Oh Hell No. So Vince set up a match at the D-Generation X PPV between Austin and Rocky Maivia, who was everything Vince wanted in a champion, for the IC title. But Austin won the match. However the next night on Raw, Vince was able to point out that the original referee was knocked out by a misplaced Stone Cold Stunner, and ordered a rematch. Austin refused, and handed the IC title over to Rocky, since Austin had ‘bigger fish to fry'. Rocky admired his new belt, and then was Stunned.
Mister McMahon, as he was now insisting on being called, could not stop Austin entering the Royal Rumble. Vince could offer anyone who could take Austin out before the match a nice little bonus (not that most of them needed it. Austin in the weeks leading up to the match went on a Stunning rampage, hitting the Stunner on practically everyone in the Rumble, including causing a massive brawl at the attempted live drawing of Rumble entry). Austin used his smarts to avoid everyone until he entered the Rumble. He eliminated 7 men on his way to victory, finishing the match by Stunning Rocky one more time and then tossing him out of the ring decisively. As Austin celebrated, ‘Iron' Mike Tyson, a guest of McMahon, was seen to be a big ‘Cold Stoned' fan.
This was important, since in a couple of weeks Vince had Tyson in the ring for a major announcement regarding Wrestlemania XIV. But then Austin sauntered out, insulted Tyson, Tyson shoved Austin and all hell broke loose. Vince was particularly upset, since Austin ‘ruined everything, dammit'. But after Tyson was announced to be the special guest enforcer for the world title match at WM, and he joined DX, Vince's anger faded away, since there was no way Austin could win, Shawn's bad back or not.
But then Austin went and won, thanks to Tyson revealing that he was a member of Class of 3:16. So the next Raw, Vince decided to try again. After all, Shawn was able to be led by the title belt, Austin's life had worked up to winning the belt, so maybe he would change and be leadable as well. So Vince gave Austin a new belt, and a choice. Do things the easy way and be flexible, or the hard way, which we didn't need to go into. Austin chose the hard way the, well, hard way by Stunning Vince. But between then and the next week, Vince stepped up the pressure, and managed to, it seemed, get through to Austin. Austin appeared in a suit, and seemed ready to work to be the kind of Champ Vince wanted. It was of course just a ruse, and allowed Austin a chance to nail Vince in the balls and get a shot of Vince bowing to Steve. So then the next week, things came to a head when Austin challenged Vince to a world title match. Vince agreed. Throughout Raw, we saw Brisco and Patterson, Vince's ‘Stooges', giving him helpful tips and pointers about how to counter the Stunner (when Austin kicks you in the gut, you grab the leg and turn it into a trip or perhaps a Dragon Screw). So the main event rolled around, and Vince taunted Austin about how Austin claimed he could beat Vince with one arm tied behind his back.
Cue the rope.
So Austin (with a hand tied behind his back) vs. McMahon was getting underway, when Dude Love appeared from nowhere and attacked Austin. Vince had found his solider. Rocky was too busy defending his IC title, so Vince needed someone to take out Austin. And Foley, while in the Dude Love mindset, being a former friend/partner of Steve and easily manipulated with promises of girls and gold and wealth and girls, was the man chosen. McMahon changed Dude into his vision of a proper WWF Champion, or as close as you could get with the material available. And for the first time they met, at Unforgiven 98, Dude got the win!
Sure, it was via DQ, but the fact that he got the win meant that he could get a rematch next month at Over The Edge. But only if Foley could prove his worth. See, Foley, after Unforgiven, didn't want to dress up in the Dude Love gear, and dance with hookers. He just wanted another chance at the belt. So Vince gave him a chance. If Foley could beat, no, destroy Terry Funk, his best friend and idol, then he'd get his rematch. Vince was in classic form here, playing Foley like a fiddle. Foley beat Funk, and then Vince came out, all smiles, with the Dude Love gear and Dudettes. And Foley danced with them. So the rematch was set for Over The Edge, but Vince wanted to ensure that there was no chance in hell that Austin would walk away with the belt. So he made Patterson special guest ring announcer, and Brisco special guest time keeper. And then, since the ref in the Unforgiven match was so easily knocked out, a special guest referee was needed. His name?
Mister McMahon.
So in the weeks leading up to the event, McMahon did everything to beat up Austin. He set up a tag match and did not inform Austin as to whom his opponents were (D'Lo and The Rock) and who his partner would be (Vince himself). This lead to a beat down. Then the next week, it was a handicap match, with Austin vs. Patterson and Brisco with Sergeant Slaughter as the special ref. Slaughter then attacked Austin at the start of the match, McMahon getting into the Commissioner's head. This lead to a beat down after Vince dressed up as a fan and attacked Steve, allowing Dude to regain the advantage and beat down Austin. The next week however was a win for Austin, as he had Vince and his stooges arrested after they bragged about how they had ‘assaulted' Steve. So the PPV rolled around, and despite all that occurred, Brisco, Patterson and Vince were all there, ready to screw Austin over.
But Austin responded by bring out The Undertaker to watch his back. And this was important, since Taker was able to stop all of Vince's plans dead in their tracks. The match ended with Vince's own hand counting the pinfall on Dude, although Vince was unconscious at the time. On the next Raw, Vince publicly fired Dude Love for failing to get the job done. But he rehired Mankind later on that night when Mankind helped Kane get a win over Austin. This led to two matches at the next PPV, Mankind vs. Taker Hell In A Cell and Austin vs. Kane for the world title, First Blood match. Vince didn't have to manipulate Kane as such, since that was Bearer's job. He just had to manipulate Bearer. And he did so, very expertly.
Then came King Of The Ring. Vince warned the fans in attendance that they would see Austin lose the belt that night. But Vince was momentarily distracted when Mick Foley was thrown off the top of the Cell. Vince didn't want anyone to die or be seriously injured, he just wanted to remove people from the spotlight. And besides, Foley could be useful for a second go round if Kane failed. But after Foley got back up, Vince went back to plotting. He tried to help Kane by lowering the cell again, hoping to give Kane a big, easy thing to make Austin bleed on. But in the end, it was Taker who did it, ‘going' for Mankind at the same time as Austin, Foley dropped, and Austin's chair hit his own head, busting him wide open and costing him the belt. And Vince was a happy man. Austin no longer had the title!
Phase 8- Happy Days Are Here-
Then the next night on Raw, Austin asked for a rematch, Kane gave him one, and Austin got his belt back.
Phase 9- DAMMIT!
So set up a #1 contenders match for the World Title match at SummerSlam. Kane vs. Undertaker vs. Mankind. But when it was time for the match, Taker was nowhere to be seen. After getting the ring announcer to insult Taker (who Vince was still pissed off at since Over The Edge), the match was changed to a 1 on 1 between Mankind and Kane, who were both there. Mick refused to fight his good friend Kane, but Kane seemed happy to, sandwiching Foley's head between a steel chair and the steel steps. A Tombstone later, and Kane won the shot. Except that the mask came off, and we found that Taker had dressed up as Kane, and thus would get the shot. Vince didn't care, since by this point anyone would be better than Austin. But Vince wanted to make sure that Taker and Austin would have a brawl, rather than a ‘fair, scientific match'. So he set up a tag match at Fully Loaded between Taker and Austin vs. Kane and Mankind. After Kane and Mankind won the tag belts, it was made into a title shot. And at Fully Loaded, Taker and Austin won the belts.
But a couple of weeks later, in a historic match (since it had the European, Intercontinental, World and Tag champs all involved in it), Austin and Taker lost the belts back to Mankind and Kane (also involved were The New Age Outlaws and The IC champ The Rock and his partner the Euro champ D'Lo) after Kane chokeslamed Taker? One chokeslam? That was all Austin needed to distrust Taker, since he wasn't a trusting man to begin with.
So SummerSlam 98 came up, and Vince was now playing 2 games. One was the well known ‘Get the damm belt of Austin ASAP' and the other was the more general ‘Shape the WWF'. To those ends, he convinced Mankind to go out and single-handedly defend his and Kane's tag belts against the New Age Outlaws. Kane had turned on him pretty much and joined up with Taker. But Vince was able to convince Foley to go out there and become a part of history, and then he could choose his own partner. Foley was destroyed sure, but it was entertaining to seem and that was the point. And then the main event came round, at which Taker just had to beat Austin, right? But no, Taker sent Kane to the back. Taker wanted to ‘win the belt', not just take it. And then Taker goes and loses the match.
Vince was running out of ideas. So he set up one final match. Kane vs. Undertaker vs. Austin at Breakdown. And just to ensure that there would be no controversy, no recourse for Austin, Vince made it that unlike most triple threat matches, Kane or Taker to win the belt had to pin Austin. Austin could pin anyone. This would ensure that Kane and Taker focused on Austin, and that Austin could not complain that he lost the belt without losing. But then it backfired when Kane and Taker hit a double chokeslam and both got the pin. But Vince didn't care, he had got the belt of Austin. To that end, the next night on Raw, he set up a match at Judgment Day, since Kane and Taker didn't prevent Austin from beating Vince up earlier in the show. Kane vs. Undertaker, Austin as the special guest ref. Taker and Kane responded by breaking Vince's ankle (although this was more for the fact that Vince flipped them the double bird, in a rare case of Vince letting his anger get the better of him. That was what he was trying to avoid at the start after all.) Vince, while in the hospital was visited by Mankind, and was witness to the birth of Mr. Socko (which led to Vince giving Mick the WWF Hardcore title as a present/bribe to keep him on side), and was also visited by Steve Austin, and was witness to a catheter enema (which led to Vince having to add a donut inflatable pillow to his wheelchair). And then when Vince turned up at the next event, Austin destroyed one of his cars with cement. So Vince then made another little stipulation to the title match. Austin had to count the fall and award the belt to the new champion or be fired. The match itself ended with all 3 men (and Paul Bearer) brawling, with eventually Austin counting both men out and declaring himself the winner. Vince then fired Austin. At the time, this seemed rather stupid, firing your cash cow. But Vince had a plan…
Phase 10- Bang 3:16
The next night, he had the entire roster in the ring and told them how they should not try to cross the boss. But then Austin appeared on the Titantron. A game of Cat and Mouse began, and ended when Austin was able to catch McMahon. He dragged Vince to the ring at gunpoint. And this must have been terrible for Vince, a man who lived to manipulate, to be publicly humiliated in the middle of the ring. He wet his pants on international television for goodness' sake, it must have been terrible for him. But then Austin gave Vince a letter. Of course, Vince knew what was in the letter. He knew that Shane had rehired Austin. It was Vince's idea after all. They didn't want Austin gone from the WWF, unless he got worse. Better to break Austin down, to beat him down, until he submitted and would become moldable. It would come eventually. So Vince and Shane conspired, they got Austin ‘re-hired' while ‘humiliating' Shane. Austin got a spot in the 14 man tournament to crown a new WWF Champion at Survivor Series, and Vince began to target The Rock, who was very popular and was showing signs of independent thought. Vince set in motion the formation of The Corporation, with Boss Man at first and Shamrock soon to follow, and Survivor Series was set, with the fans expecting Vince to find a way to screw over Austin and Rock, and give Mankind an easy run to the title. Austin beat Big Boss Man in the first round when Boss Man got DQ for beating up Austin with a nightstick to weaken him up, then got a bye straight to the semis when Regal and X-Pac were both counted out. Mankind (complete in Tuxedo to impress Vince) got the challenge of a life time in Dwayne Gill in the first round, then Al Snow in the quarters to fight Austin in the semi. Rock got past Boss Man (replacing an injured HHH) in 4 seconds, then got past Shamrock by intercepting the nightstick as thrown by Boss Man and then using it on Kenny. The first semi, Mankind vs. Austin, picked up where they last left off and brawled all over the arena. But when Austin hit the Stunner, Vince leapt up and pulled the ref out at 2. Shane then ran in, since he had been demoted to ref, counted 2-
And flipped Austin off. Cue beat down.
Mankind gets the pin, and Stage 1 of the plan is a success. The other semi, Rock vs. Undertaker seemed to go according to plan, as Rock was able to advance after Kane (who Vince had been manipulating with threats of going back to the mental home) interfered and chokeslamed him. So the final of the tournament was The Rock vs. Mankind. And Stage 2 was then completed, as they screwed Mick over and Rocky became the Corporate Champion. Vince was happy for once.
