7. The Intercontinental Title Tournament in Rio de Janeiro
Every wrestling fan knows that the first holder of the prestigious WWE Intercontinental Championship was Hall of Famer Pat Patterson, who won the title during a massive tournament in 1979 in Rio de Janeiro. Which is entirely true, if you don’t count the fact that most of it is completely a lie. Pat Patterson was the first Intercontinental Champion, that much is accurate, but the rest of that statement was made up out of whole cloth to give the title more legitimacy. The fact is, Pat Patterson was named champion and given a belt by Vince McMahon and no tournament, in Rio or anywhere else, actually took place. You have to admit, the tournament story is the better one, right? Besides, you only have to look back to Eric Bischoff handing Triple H the inaugural World Heavyweight Championship in 2002 to see how terrible it looks when someone wins at title without actually winning it. They could have saved themselves so much hassle by just having a tournament! Or at least pretending that they did, anyway.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2658783/For-rest-life-I-want-happy-Professional-wrestling-legend-Pat-Patterson-reveals-hes-gay-recently-lost-friend-40-years-heart-attack.html Source: dailymail.co.uk
6. WWF Nearly Went Bankrupt in 1997
Things were not going well for WWF in 1997. WCW was basically kicking their butts in the Monday Night Wars, and were deep in the middle of an 83-week winning streak in the ratings, thanks to the revolutionary nWo angle that was set to peak at Starrcade. Meanwhile, WWE seemed to be losing talent left and right (although they were also bringing in younger, previously under-utilized wrestlers that would eventually form the future of the company, notably a pissed-off midcarder named Steve Austin), and in the fall of that year they revealed what seemed like a mortal blow: Bret Hart, who only a year prior had signed a 20-year contract to remain in WWF for life, was told by Vince McMahon that they couldn’t afford to pay him, therefore they were breaching his contract, and encouraging him to see what WCW would offer him. Years later, WWE maintains that they were close to going out of business in the late ’90s, and had the Attitude Era and Austin not saved them, they might not exist today. However, only months after claiming that they couldn’t afford to pay Hart, WWE reportedly paid 3 million dollars to bring in Mike Tyson for WrestleMania 14. In fact, while WWE was not in great shape in 1997, they were actually bringing in more money thanks to expanding to monthly Pay Per Views for the first time, and probably could have afforded to pay Hart’s contract without missing a beat. In retrospect, it’s more likely that McMahon saw Hart’s old-school attitude as a stumbling block in the path of the Attitude Era, and found a way to move him out of the picture.
http://droptoehold.com/post/37344446706/dx-tyson Source: droptoehold.com