Vince McMahon Was At His Most Evil On Smackdown In 2003
The character of Mr. McMahon has done plenty of evil deeds during his on-screen career, there are almost too many to list. In the year 2003 however, Vince McMahon outdid himself and became one of the evilest, sick, twisted individuals WWE has ever seen.
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Vince Was The Worst Of The Worst
For starters, the guy was jacked out of his mind, he was in the best shape of his life at almost 60 years old. This was Vince at his most “video game boss” mode and at this point, he was beyond crazy! His greatest competition in WCW was gone, so Vince was just a bored billionaire playing around with his employees' lives just because he could. Creatively speaking, this was the Mr. McMahon character at its most bold and most heinous. It could be argued this was one of the evilest characters in wrestling history.
McMahon’s descent into madness started in his feud with Hulk Hogan. The feud was one of the most heated and personal of both men’s careers, playing off their incredible history which gave the feud an added intensity that culminated at Wrestlemania XIX. McMahon claimed Hulkamania was dead and that he hated Hogan for leaving WWE for WCW and for testifying against him in the steroid trial in the 90s.
The struggle with Hogan put Vince McMahon in the crosshairs of his daughter Stephanie McMahon, the Smackdown General Manager at the time. The rivalry with his own daughter would put Mr. McMahon on the road to his most villainous incarnation ever.
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Father vs. Daughter
It started when Stephanie began making decisions as General Manager that Mr. McMahon was not happy with. She played against Mr. McMahon by hiring Mr. America (Hulk Hogan in a mask) after Vince had just fired him. She also hired one-legged wrestler Zach Gowen, much to the ire of the Chairman. Mr. McMahon saw Gowen as a charity case, looking down on him as a dreamer who would never be a success in WWE. Mr. McMahon thought Gowen was taking the easy road en route to becoming a star in WWE, using his handicap as leverage to make the fans feel sorry for him in order to become a pro wrestler.
Mr. McMahon went to great lengths to make an example of Gowen, unleashing Brock Lesner on him time and time again. One week, Lesnar would dump Gowen down a flight of stairs, the next he would F-5 him into the ring post in front of his onlooking mother. Trying to humiliate Gowen further, McMahon said he would give Gowen a WWE contract if he would join the Kiss My Ass Club. This lead to a match between Gowen and Mr. McMahon at Vengeance 2003. McMahon dominated the match and ultimately won, overpowering Gowen, humiliating the one-legged wrestler.
During this time, Mr. McMahon also took a mistress, openly cheating on his wife Linda with Sable. To add to the real-life icky-ness, Sable had previously sued WWE for sexual harassment after quitting the company in 1999. This was eventually settled out of court but upon her return, McMahon immediately put her into a storyline where she had to make out with him. It was very creepy.
Stephanie refused to go along with her father’s insanity and started feuding with Sable, which made Mr. McMahon put his own daughter in some extremely dangerous situations. Stephanie was put in a match against A-Train, with the big man demolishing her as Mr. McMahon looked on vindictively. Mr. McMahon made Stephanie team with Zach Gowen in a match against the Big Show, with McMahon proclaiming it as the first-ever “real” handicap match as a result of Gowen’s leg. Yikes.
After months of making his daughter’s life hell, Stephanie still refused to go along with her father’s crazy demands, making Mr. McMahon snap and make his most reprehensible match of all time: Stephanie McMahon vs. Mr. McMahon in an I Quit Match with Stephanie’s job on the line.
This match is Vince at his most evil. He was outstandingly merciless in the assault of his own daughter. Vince didn’t hold back in his strikes on Stephanie, pummelling his own daughter over and over again and even choked her out with a steel pipe. Vince won the match when his wife Linda threw in the towel for Stephanie.
Mr. McMahon enjoyed the greatest heel heat since his rivalry with Stone Cold Steve Austin and it was absolutely deserved. Never before and never since had Mr. McMahon been as evil as he was in 2003.
