In the mid-90s, WCW and WWE began to go head-to-head in the Monday Night Wars.
The two promotions competed for fan attention and wrestlers with the likes of Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall jumping to WCW during the early days of the war.
"You're stealing. You know, that's -- that's not the right way to do business," Vince McMahon said on "Mr. McMahon."
Eric Bischoff, who was the President of WCW and helped bring talent to WCW, commented, "Eh, stealing is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? It's funny because immediately, Vince went into sympathetic babyface mode. He started whining like a little schoolgirl with that. 'Big bad billionaire Ted's trying to run us out of business. Big bad billionaire Ted is trying to hurt this small little family-run business. They raided our talent.' Vince did the exact same thing to Verne Gagne and the AWA and other territories. He literally went into those territories and offered their talent better deals."
Asked if what Ted and Bischoff were doing was similar to what Vince did, Vince replied, "No. Again, Ted's philosophy was 'Let's go hurt. I'm gonna hurt my competitor.' That's not mine. I wanna go compete."
Asked if he hurt his competitors, Vince said, "Sure, I did. Some would think it might be hypocritical for me to say, 'Uh, okay, I don't hurt someone else. I just do what's best for me.' Yet, when someone comes after me, I don't think they have the right. Sure, they have the right. Again, what I say a lot of times is totally different than what I think. The public doesn't understand that sometimes As a businessman, you have to throw things out there. It's not really the way you feel, but it controls thought process by doing that."
WWE would end up winning the Monday Night Wars as Vince purchased WCW in 2001.
All six episodes of "Mr McMahon" are now streaming on Netflix.
Janel Grant, a former WWE employee, filed a lawsuit in January against Vince McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis. The lawsuit accuses McMahon of sexual assault and sex trafficking. On May 30, Grant agreed to pause the lawsuit for six months while the federal investigation continued against McMahon, who resigned from TKO/WWE following the lawsuit being filed.
Victim Resources:
National Sexual Assault Hotline
Hours: Available 24 hours
1-800-656-4673
