The Rewind - Vince McMahon Vs. Shane McMahon (Wrestlemania X7)
Due to the suspected 'death' of Vince McMahon, I would like to dedicate this week's Rewind to the befallen chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment. In perhaps his most memorable match, with his encounter against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 22 coming in at an incredibly close second in my books, we see father battle son in a Street Fight in front of over 60,000 people in the Houston Astrodome.
Over the months leading up to this confrontation, Vince McMahon had completely lost his mind? again. He had divorced his wife Linda and had her put into care where she sat in a wheelchair, constantly sedated under medication. During this time, Vince took the liberty to fire Mick Foley as Commissioner and acquaint himself with the sexy Trish Stratus to the chagrin of his daughter Stephanie who took part in a popularity contest of sorts against Stratus, vying for the attention of her father. Her brother and Vince's only son Shane however, was disgusted with the way his mother Linda was being treated and was out to put a stop to his father's cold hearted actions. After a physical exchange between father and son, Shane came out to the ring saying that he'd sat back for years "watching his father do whatever he wanted to do to whomever he wanted to do it" and challenged his father to a match at Wrestlemania.
Vince whole-heartedly accepted, signing the paperwork at ringside before Triple H would enter the ring, assisting Vince in handing out a beating to the Boy Wonder. As an incapacitated Shane sat in the middle of the ring, Vince got in his face, screaming at him "I will never forgive your mother for giving birth to you!" Upon this, Shane decided to hit Vince where it really hurt. As the greatest rivalry in the history of professional wrestling came to a close with the demise of World Championship Wrestling, Vince had announced that he had decided to purchase the fledgling organisation and that he would sign the final paperwork at Wrestlemania. Shane had other ideas however as he would appear on what would be the final episode of Monday Nitro to announce that he had beaten his father to the punch and had purchased WCW just one week before the two were scheduled to meet at Wrestlemania.
Vince would go into this match, whilst having plenty of tricks up his sleeve, at a disadvantage when close personal friend of Linda McMahon and a recent victim of Vince's evil power trip, Mick Foley, was announced as the match's special guest referee. Both McMahons made the trip to Houston with fire in their bellies and revenge on their mind as Stephanie would accompany her father out to the ring wearing a jumpsuit saying 'Daddy's Girl' on what a sign in the crowd would declare as 'Family Night 04-01-01'. The match would open with Vince slapping Shane in the face before the two would exchange some strike based offence before Stephanie would enter the ring, slapping Shane in the face. The two male McMahons would go to the outside of the ring, bringing into the equation all sorts of foreign objects, leaving Vince down and out on the Spanish announce table.
Shane took to the top turnbuckle and in trademark Shane 'O Mac style, flew from the top rope and through the announce table at Stephanie quickly removed her father from it as Shane was in mid air. With Shane buried in the remains of the announce table, Trish Stratus appeared; walking a wheelchair bound Linda McMahon down the entrance ramp. As Trish wheeled Linda to the side of the ring, she went up to Vince as if to check if he was ok before winding up and slapping him across the face, triggering Stephanie to go to town on Trish, inevitably landing these two in cat fight in the centre of the ring. When Mick Foley intervened, in an attempt to end the brawl, at risk of turning this Street Fight into a 'slapfest' Stephanie belted Mick across the face causing both he and Miss Stratus to chase Stephanie back up the entrance ramp to the gorilla position.
As Vince rose to his feet, he looked Linda in the eyes, calling her a b—h before Mick Foley would once again get involved, backing Vince up away from his wife and began pushing Linda's wheelchair away from the ring. Vince didn't take kindly to this and commandeered a steel chair which he hit Foley across the head with from behind before hitting him again, knocking him to the floor. To chants of "asshole" from the crowd, Vince grabbed Linda out of her wheelchair and rolled her into the ring, propping her up on a steel chair so that she was sitting in the corner of the ring, forced to watch Vince slam steel trash can after steel trash can in to Shane's skull. As Vince prepared to hit Shane with the last trash can at his disposal with Shane getting to his knees after being almost unconscious on the mat, Linda rose from her seat in a conscious state, setting off a roar amongst the 60,000 strong Texans. Upon seeing this, Shane looked up at his father in a state of shock, pointing behind his old man as if to suggest that he should turn around and take a look at what's going on. Vince turned around, only to be horrified that his thought-to-be sedated wife was now on her feet, staring him in the eye before she would take the liberty of kicking 'ol Vinnie Mac right in his famous "grapefruits".
Mick Foley then rolled into the ring, opening up a can of whoopass on Mr. McMahon, leaving him senseless in the corner of the ring. In a moment of glory and undoubtedly a 'Wrestlemania moment', Shane grabbed one of the unscathed trash cans laying the middle of the ring and propped it up against the chest of a semi-conscious, defenceless Vince before hobbling his way to the opposite turnbuckle and leaping to the top rope. As a hush came over the Houston crowd who were wondering what the hell Shane was gonna do, he made a 'Van Terminator'-like leap of faith that would travel the entire distance of the ring, kicking the trash can that was hugged against Vince directly into the Chairman's cold heart. Mick Foley came in for the three count and thus was the curtain call, at least for that night of what J.R. would call a McMahon "civil war".
The Outlaw's Opinion
When asked the question as to whether Vince McMahon deserves our appreciation, the overwhelming response that Vince is an asshole and deserves no respect or appreciation makes him eligible for just that. Regardless of whether McMahon is a good person on the outside of a WWE arena or not, he deserves appreciation for being such an asshole inside one. He will forever live as one of the best heals of all time, if not the best, and without a good heal, namely that of McMahon, such heroes and legends that we know today such as Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Undertaker may never have been just that if they didn't have a wanker character like McMahon to oppose. It's for the same reasons that Triple H, who, on television has known no bounds as to the extremities of the heinous acts he has performed, has gained the respect of many a wrestling fan? not because he's a good person but rather because in the past has been such an excellent bad guy that is so easy to hate and oppose, that people respect this man's ability to be a good wrestler and a good entertainer.
There is often a misconception which hails the 'faces' in the wrestling business as the legends of the sport when really, if any of you have seen the piss-weak attempts at being a bad guy that have flooded the sport over the years, being a believable and effective bad guy is just as, if not more challenging than making the fans fall in love with you? especially when they hate you because you're a prick, not because you suck. Vince McMahon deserves just as great an accolade for making Steve Austin look like a hero as he does for evolving the wrestling business into the spectacle it has become. In an ode to Shane 'O Mac, he has displayed similar passion to that of his father, not because of any image he has developed in the eyes of the fans but because of the sacrifices he makes in the middle of the ring.
Shane has put his body through more hell than some of the toughest superstars to walk through the curtain? I mean, falling from the Titantron at Summerslam 2000, leaping off the top of the Titantron at Judgement Day '01 to hit the Big Show with a leg drop and who could forget when he was suplexed by Kurt Angle time after time into glass that wouldn't break until finally, Angle smashed him head-first through the glass pane. He does it for the fans and he does it out of respect for his family's legacy. Why should we appreciate and respect the McMahons? Because without them, quite simply put, wrestling would suck.