Most significant political move in professional wrestling history....

Politics plays a massive part in pro wrestling but what move changed the landscape/direction of the business more than anything???

I would've said the introduction of the Wellness Policy.

Who knows how many lives that will save in the years to come when wrestlers retire. Look at Edge. Could've easily gone on for a few more years if he was allowed to use steroids. His spinal stenosis could've been treated by epidual steroid injections and oral steroids.

By no means am I saying this forced the issue for Edge to retire and that the WWE did not show consideration and responsibility for their workers, but had Edge had the option of steroid treatment available, then maybe he wouldn't have retired.

Yes it will see top talent lose their jobs or spots in the company in years to come, but the lives it will change for better is im-measurable.

Also this has strengthened the WWE's position as a 'clean' entity that takes care of it's workers and prohibits the use of drugs to it's followers.

I wouldn't class the Wellness policy as a pro-wrestling political move. Yes, it was a result of political pressure from the US Congress after the Chris Benoit incident but when it comes to pro wrestling, I'd class a political move as a wrestler/s using their influence or currying favour with someone with power to further their own career or derail another wrestler's career.


That's why I voted for Shawn Michaels losing his smile, which was a result of him simply not wanting to drop the WWF title to Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 13. Not only did it deprive us of a potential classic (although we as fans didn't do too badly with the WWF's plan B of Bret Hart v Steve Austin) but it went a long way to hastening the Hitman's departure from the WWF at the end of 1997.


The plan was for Hart to win the title from Michaels at WM 13 then drop the belt back to HBK at a later date, whereby Bret would finally endorse Shawn as champion and take a back seat. If this had happened I don't think things would have escalated as far as they did between the two over the summer, because they wouldn't have been in direct competition any more and HBK would finally have the had the validation of the Hitman that he so desperately wanted.


If things had gone according to plan we might never have had the Montreal Screwjob.

It would have to be McMahon buying up the territories and turning professiional wrestling mainstream with the help of Hulk Hogan. It hard to imagine any of those other things happening without McMahon owning nearly everything, and if they did they would have had much less impact. I think it's fair to say I wouldn't be into wrestling if it wasn't for this particular politcal move - or certainly less likely.

liverbnz wrote:It would have to be McMahon buying up the territories and turning professiional wrestling mainstream with the help of Hulk Hogan. It hard to imagine any of those other things happening without McMahon owning nearly everything, and if they did they would have had much less impact. I think it's fair to say I wouldn't be into wrestling if it wasn't for this particular politcal move - or certainly less likely.

Could it not be argued though with the advent on cable television that wrestling had to come out of the territories to survive in the modern world??? If it wasn't McMahon it would probably been another promotor

I voted for McMahon buying the territories. It was a close winner against him buying WCW, but at the end of the day, either the WWF or WCW would have eventually went out of business, and the product would have ended up pretty much what we have today.

Ask any wrestler who was around in the 70's and 80's and they'll all say that McMahon buying the territories was the biggest thing to ever happen. It changed the game completely, and made Vince his fortune.

Brady12 wrote:

liverbnz wrote:It would have to be McMahon buying up the territories and turning professiional wrestling mainstream with the help of Hulk Hogan. It hard to imagine any of those other things happening without McMahon owning nearly everything, and if they did they would have had much less impact. I think it's fair to say I wouldn't be into wrestling if it wasn't for this particular politcal move - or certainly less likely.

Could it not be argued though with the advent on cable television that wrestling had to come out of the territories to survive in the modern world??? If it wasn't McMahon it would probably been another promotor

It certainly could be argued as basically it had to happen or wrestling would have probably died a slow and painful death. It would be great to look into that alternate universe to see what wrestling would have been like if say the Harts had of bought up the territories, but unfortunately we can't. McMahon still had to get a few decisions right before WWF came to be the global phenomenon.

vince buys wcw

Surprised no one went for the curtain call... Perhaps the single most definitive moment when Kayfabe was broken. Which led to Scott Hall & Kevin Nash leaving WWF & sparking the brief rise of WCW leading the wrestling industry which inadvertently set off the whole attitude era

And in regards to the Curtain Call - HHH was supposed to win the KOTR in 96 - however after his part in this his push was given to a certain Steve Austin...and as they say the rest is history

I think even if HHH would have won the 96 KOTR, Austin still would have got the push he got.

Obviously his Austin 3:16 speech would not have occurred, but Austin did not really take off until his fued with Bret at Survivor Series, which I believe Austin was chosen by Bret as his opponent.

He more than likely would have have went on to win the 97 KOTR.

Can someone explain to me the Shawn Michaels loses his smile thing please? I have no idea what it refers to.

Electric Demon wrote:Can someone explain to me the Shawn Michaels loses his smile thing please? I have no idea what it refers to.

Really?

nasisillmatic wrote:

Electric Demon wrote:Can someone explain to me the Shawn Michaels loses his smile thing please? I have no idea what it refers to.

Really?

Thanks. Helpful.

Anyone else?

your not the only one demon i dont have a clue either

Basically, he refused to drop the belt to Bret so to stop Vince making him do it he gave the 'lost my smile' speech, basically saying how unhappy he was.

Electric Demon wrote:

nasisillmatic wrote:

Electric Demon wrote:Can someone explain to me the Shawn Michaels loses his smile thing please? I have no idea what it refers to.

Really?

Thanks. Helpful.

Anyone else?

Sorry I thought it was said in jest.

HBK won the title from Sid at the Royal Rumble, and the plan was for him to drop it to Bret at WM13. During the next couple of weeks Shawn claimed he had a knee injury and could not compete so had to drop the title on Raw.

Shawn cut one of the most ridiculous promos I've ever seen, were he said he needed to leave for a while and regain his smile because he has lost it. Thus relinquishing the title so he would not have to drop it at WM13.

He then turns up at WM13 to commentate on the Austin v Bret with no signs of an injury and a big fat smile on his face (he must have found it somewhere).

That's basically it but I'll add my own slant on it....

At WM13 the plans were for Shawn to face Bret in a rematch from the year before with Bret scheduled to go over. Michaels a master politician at the time claimed to have a career ending knee injury thus giving up the title & not having to do the job to Bret. In an episode on Raw it was explained in the storyline that Michaels had 'lost his smile' & was leaving wrestling to try get it back... Hart didn't buy Michaels excuse (Shawn was back in the ring with 4 months) & this only fuelled the bad blood between the men. This was also one of the reasons Bret didn't want to lose in Montreal as Shawn had been unwilling to lose to him

Is this around the time Bret went up to Shawn and said he had no problem putting him over and Shawn responded with "I wouldn't do the same for you" line?

What is ironic regarding the HBK smile incident is that a year later he actually had a career ending injury, yet still went to WM14, battled through the pain and put Austin over.

He really did not want to drop that strap to Bret.

liverbnz wrote:Is this around the time Bret went up to Shawn and said he had no problem putting him over and Shawn responded with "I wouldn't do the same for you" line?

According to Bret this was sometime after Summerslam, around about the time they were told they'd be working together at Survivor Series. Or should that be when they were asked by Vince if they could work together.

nasisillmatic wrote:He really did not want to drop that strap to Bret.

Which is really odd considering that Shawn was scheduled to regain the strap from Bret, and have the Hitman endorse him as champion. HBK goes forward as 'The Man' having seen off the previous 'Man' and Bret fades into the background. If you're Shawn Michaels what's not to love about that situation?

Vince doesn't sodomise you as much?

That once Bret got the title he might not be able to get it back?

Maybe he didn't trust him to follow through on the deal, Shawn was very paranoid when it came to Bret Hart.

Crimey wrote:That once Bret got the title he might not be able to get it back?

But this is Shawn Michaels we're talking about, Vince's one true love and golden boy. There's no way in hell Shawn wouldn't have got the belt back.

nasisillmatic wrote:Maybe he didn't trust him to follow through on the deal, Shawn was very paranoid when it came to Bret Hart.

I think Shawn's bitterness towards Bret would not allow for him to lay down and do a job.

If it wasn'd bad enough that Shawn was screwing Sunny who Bret had left his wife for, he also had the Montreal Screwjob.

How Bret ever forgave him is beyond me.

legendkillarV2 wrote:If it wasn'd bad enough that Shawn was screwing Sunny who Bret had left his wife for, he also had the Montreal Screwjob.

How Bret ever forgave him is beyond me.

Is this true.... I thought Shawn was seeing Sunny & Bret just nailed Sunny because Sunny actually prefered Hart

Brady12 wrote:

legendkillarV2 wrote:If it wasn'd bad enough that Shawn was screwing Sunny who Bret had left his wife for, he also had the Montreal Screwjob.

How Bret ever forgave him is beyond me.

Is this true.... I thought Shawn was seeing Sunny & Bret just nailed Sunny because Sunny actually prefered Hart

It is. Shawn in his book said he lost respect for Hart when he was banging her while still with the wife. Sunny then got herself a bit of HBK not long after Bret leaving Mrs Hart.

I knew they both banged her, but I didn't know Bret left his wife for Sunny.

It would be interesting to know the timeline of all this, and whether it occured in the weeks Shawn lost his smile.

Sunny sounds like class.

She set the standards for the modern Divas.

To b fair, it seemed like Bret was banging a different woman in every town he was in. He was very honest about it in his book but it must have been very hard reading for his then wife Julie.

Well Sunny's music was on the money "I know you want me'

He must have went back to his wife because she was with him the night of Survivor Series.

According to wiki, they didn't seperate until May 1998, divorcing 4 years later.



[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Hart]

Bret didn't leave his wife for Sunny, there are strong rumours that they were having an affair but nothing concrete. Sunny's recently done a shoot interview where she supposedly addresses the rumours about her and Bret / Shawn but I haven't seen it so no idea what she says about the whole thing.


Bret doesn't mention having an affair with Sunny in his book (although he admits to having numerous affairs) and Shawn even says in his book that the "Sunny days" comment (which lead to the infamous backstage fight between the two in Hartford) he made about Bret was exposing what he believed to be the affair between Bret and Sunny.