What an angle. In the WWF Lawler was the heel commentator/part-time wrestler but in Memphis the face. In Memphis Vince was the heel. And unless you were a fan who watched both products, you never knew. Love it.
I knew about the WWF wrestlers having matches in the USWA from reading the results in the NY Daily News and reading about some of the matches in various wrestling magazines in 1993. But I never knew Vince himself also showed up down there so it was cool to discover that part back when I first saw popculturestu's videos and was great to see the matches I only read about after many years. A big thanks to popculturestu for preserving these.
Daniel Ryan Plus he got people to hate him big time. Easily one of the best heels in history. And to top it all off, he rubbed his success into wrestlers faces, which made him an even better heel. Oh yeah by the way, a classic line, "YOU'RE FIRED!" Best corporate heel of all time hands down.
He became a cartoon super villain right around "the greater power" angle in 1999. But this Vince, along with his Mr. McMahon character from late 1997 to around late 1998, was perhaps the greatest heel of all time.
No matter what he does in his bedroom LOL Vincent Kennedy is just a true BAD ASS 4 Life! BTW I gave this BAD ASS comment the 100 thumb up my wrestling brother!
This is shocking in a good way. I never knew the McMahon heel character existed long before 1998. And it's so funny how these developmental/partner promotions not only served for wrestlers to practice before getting to WWF/WWE but it also allowed Vince to practice being a heel. RUclips is a great thing. Without RUclips I would not have known any of this
Wonder what Verne Gagne would have thought seeing Vince with the the belt that once represented his company around his waist. That belt was originally the AWA belt
I'm not sure if this was the literal same belt, the Snowman stole the USWA World Championship belt in 1990 and I don't think they ever got it back so this would be a replica.
This feels like what Tony Kahn is trying to do on impact, but Vince just had so much more chemistry with the camera by this point that Tony can’t compare
Wow! The Mr. Mcmahon character YEARS before its time. The birth of "evil" Mr. McMahon primarily started around '98 during the attitude era, but that promo was like a lost footage of the Mr. Mcmahon character. VERY COOL!
Interesting, Cause Vince would still act like the good old baby face announcer on WWE tv, even while this feud was going on, but then when he would come down to Memphis, he would become this AMAZING HEEL! Great Stuff!!!!!! 👍👍 🙌
This was EPIC at the time & still is!!! I remember watching this on USWA waaaaayyyyy back in the 90s!! Used to love how WWF guys would be on there and it was like an underground thing that was never talked about on WWF tv, you had be of a fan base that was on it/in the know!
Excellent! RUclips is a godsend for these fan-submitted VHS conversions of rare pro wrestling footage. Footage that will never see the light of day. Thanks again.
The match results were posted in the sports section of the NY Daily News up here and I remember wrestling magazines having articles about them too but it was nice back when I finally got to see these firsthand thanks to them being preserved. But one thing I didn't know till I saw these back when I first did was that McMahon was involved since the newspapers & magazines never disclosed that.
Well Dave, McMahon is sporting a light blue suit with red and blue details on the left side of his suit jacket (I am assuming that's both a dark blue handkerchief and the signature red WWF block logo). He is... A can of Pepsi (Sorry, we ran out of Coke)
My God, thank you for posting this!! I knew Jerry Lawler was always the top face in the USWA but I had no idea that most of the WWF/E guys came down and played heels. Much less Vince McMahon. It's like you said, it was taboo for McMahon to mention other companies at that time. Very cool and interestng.
wow i never knew this even existed!...i'm fron the NYC area and we didn't get many USWA telecasts and i had no idea Vince had the invasion angle and the Mr. Mcmahon character working back then....very eerie and cool promo!
@dondonisio That's the old AWA World Belt. Lawler kept it it when Verne didn't pay him for SuperClash 3. Lawler had Reggie Parks make a Unified belt, but Eddie The Snowman Crawford walked off with it rather then drop it back to Lawler, so the AWA belt made it's return. It's now owned by Dave Millican.
True, Lawler won it from Curt Hennig and never lost it cause Verne Gagne didn't pay him 4 Super Clash III so he kept tha belt and it became their belt in the USWA.
What made this angle so real was that most fans in the Memphis area really hated Vince for destroying the local promotions. So their hate for him was real and the character he played was mostly real too.
The Lawler-McMahon role reversal in the USWA-WWF storyline in 1993 is very similar to the Lawler-Kaufman role reversal in Mid South in the early 80s where Andy Kaufman played the heel in Memphis as he challenged, wrestled and pinned women but after being piledriven a bunch of times by Lawler who was avenging the women, the 2 appeared on that infamous David Letterman episode and Kaufman, who was a big star in Taxi at the time, took a face role and was cheered by the audience whereas Lawler was booed and only got booed more after the infamous slap he gave Kaufman and Kaufman's tirade against him. It was a case of Lawler sticking to what worked in the past.
We used to get USWA on syndication here in Philly, and I remember freaking out when I first saw Vince cut a heel promo. At the time I wouldn't have thought Vince had a bad bone in his body.
They had a match at King of the Ring '94. I would love if it there was a match in USWA, but I'm pretty sure Piper was fully out of wrestling until 1994 when he returned at KOTR.
Lawler co-owned the territory. He was pushed on top because there was no danger of him leaving his own business . But he was also on top because he consistently drew in Memphis for 20 years
Of course, Vince would call it the "United Championship." No way the head of the WWF would recognize a regional promotion's title as a "Unified World Title."
@AmericanNohbuddy Zbyszko's belt was different. It had a lot more added pieces as well as a logo plate and a tip at the end. This belt that Lawler kept only had the text plate and top piece as added pieces. Zbyszko's had the text plate, top piece, the leaf, and the eagles on the sideplates all added. Reggie Parks found the eagles at a flea market and thought they'd look good on a belt. Because of those eagles, Zbyszko's belt is impossible to make an accurate copy.
One major reason is that pretty much everything was pre-taped back then. Obviously we have pre-taped back stage promos (which are still done during the show so there's still less time) but much of what we see is delivered live. Your point still stand that they fine tune wrestlers way too much, trying to cram them into their prefabricated vision rather than letting them create their own personas.
So Bischoff technically wasn't the first Heel Boss....it was actually done prior in 1993....so after Montreal Screwjob he pulled his evil persona out of his dresser drawer and had an epic feud with Stone Cold
Snowman never returned the USWA Unified World title so Jerry Lawler used the old AWA World title. He never returned the AWA belt back Verne Gagne over not getting paid for Super Clash 3. Kind of weird to see Vince wearing Verne's belt.
This was a "well if you can't beat them, join them" deal. Make no mistake that Vince McMahon always had a bad feeling toward Memphis because the WWF just could not outrank them for many years. Even during the first big boom period in the 80s Memphis fans rejected the WWF not even putting 2,000 fans in the Coliseum for WWF shows during that period.
That wouldn't be the last piece of gold Vince would have around his waist as a former WWF and ECW Champion that he later became. His delivery here is great but I still love the over the top "YOUR FIREEEEEEEED!" Mr. McMahon as well.
I was lucky to be allot of tade trading during the 80 and 90's .. this would become one of my prized possessions. 2 horse of Vince as a heel in Memphis. I think those that saw this realized that THIS Vince is what the fans needed. A mere 4 years , and with some tweaks he's on WWF main TV.
Primarily because THIS Vince McMahon had a legitimate hatred for Jerry Jarrett and Memphis Wrestling: the only territory he couldn't kill and the only city the WWF couldn't own (the WWF couldn't draw a dime in Memphis until they teamed up with the USWA in 1993.)
Amazing! I've been a wrestling fan for...forever and I had NO IDEA about this cross promotion deal. Wow. How did WWE mess up the WCW invasion storyline?!
Wow, it's amazing to see this stuff for the first time. I guess this is where, "Mr. McMahon" sowed his heel oats, and then a few years later used it in WWF.
@linkmand There's one problem here, the unification was between the AWA & World Class titles. World Class would change their name within a few months after Jerry Jarrett bought the promotion (but not the World Class name). The unification fell apart when Lawler quit working for Gagne after not getting paid for SuperClash 3 and Lawler was stripped of the AWA World Title. So Lawler was left with the World Class Title, which became nothing more then a title defended only in Memphis.
I know this is basically who he is in real life but I didn’t really know he was a wrestling heel before the official birth of the Mr. McMahon character four years later. I guess this is some sort of a prototype for the character.
That's actually the AWA Championship Belt. So Vince McMahon is wearing the AWA Championship on USWA television. Because fuck logic, but damn it was good tv.
Yes, Jarrett booked for them but Vince had the impression that "well if he's done this good down there..." mentality. Vince has also made no bones about the fact that he hates Southern wrestling ('wrasslin' as Vince says) in general for reasons I've never figured out. Either way, this set up was never about respect but about necessity.
What an angle. In the WWF Lawler was the heel commentator/part-time wrestler but in Memphis the face. In Memphis Vince was the heel. And unless you were a fan who watched both products, you never knew. Love it.
I knew about the WWF wrestlers having matches in the USWA from reading the results in the NY Daily News and reading about some of the matches in various wrestling magazines in 1993. But I never knew Vince himself also showed up down there so it was cool to discover that part back when I first saw popculturestu's videos and was great to see the matches I only read about after many years.
A big thanks to popculturestu for preserving these.
is it safe to say Mr.McMahon is one of the best heels in wrestling history?
IS the best heel in wrestling history.
Absolutely. The brilliance was that EVERYONE could relate to it-everyone has had a boss they wanted to smack.
Daniel Ryan Plus he got people to hate him big time. Easily one of the best heels in history. And to top it all off, he rubbed his success into wrestlers faces, which made him an even better heel. Oh yeah by the way, a classic line, "YOU'RE FIRED!" Best corporate heel of all time hands down.
He became a cartoon super villain right around "the greater power" angle in 1999. But this Vince, along with his Mr. McMahon character from late 1997 to around late 1998, was perhaps the greatest heel of all time.
yeah but not as good as Dr D David Schultz
The low video quality makes McMahon look that much more sinister. Especially his eyes.
His true form!
No matter what he does in his bedroom LOL Vincent Kennedy is just a true BAD ASS 4 Life! BTW I gave this BAD ASS comment the 100 thumb up my wrestling brother!
Oh my god! The Present day Vince would fire this Vince for saying "championship BELT!" Blasphemy!
Fred Robinson To Vince, that “belt” wasn’t worthy enough to be called a “title”.
Experiment Eight the same Guy who Booked Himself as ECW Champion.
@@experimenteight4550 Exactly
Heel Vince years before Mr. McMahon debuted.
I'd say this was the official launching pad for the Mr. McMahon character, even though that didn't officially debut until 1997.
This is shocking in a good way. I never knew the McMahon heel character existed long before 1998. And it's so funny how these developmental/partner promotions not only served for wrestlers to practice before getting to WWF/WWE but it also allowed Vince to practice being a heel. RUclips is a great thing. Without RUclips I would not have known any of this
Wonder what Verne Gagne would have thought seeing Vince with the the belt that once represented his company around his waist. That belt was originally the AWA belt
That WAS the AWA belt... FACTS!!
Somebody knows his wrestling history.
Team belt AWA
I'm not sure if this was the literal same belt, the Snowman stole the USWA World Championship belt in 1990 and I don't think they ever got it back so this would be a replica.
@@robfinlay5489 i think snowman stole the actual belt that had Unified World Champion on it. It looked kinda like the wccw belt
This feels like what Tony Kahn is trying to do on impact, but Vince just had so much more chemistry with the camera by this point that Tony can’t compare
True
Tony needs to stay off camera
Tony Khan should be a wrestler indeed
The precursor to the evil Mr McMahon
Wow! The Mr. Mcmahon character YEARS before its time. The birth of "evil" Mr. McMahon primarily started around '98 during the attitude era, but that promo was like a lost footage of the Mr. Mcmahon character. VERY COOL!
Interesting, Cause Vince would still act like the good old baby face announcer on WWE tv, even while this feud was going on, but then when he would come down to Memphis, he would become this AMAZING HEEL!
Great Stuff!!!!!! 👍👍 🙌
This was EPIC at the time & still is!!! I remember watching this on USWA waaaaayyyyy back in the 90s!! Used to love how WWF guys would be on there and it was like an underground thing that was never talked about on WWF tv, you had be of a fan base that was on it/in the know!
according to the "Legacy of the AWA" DVD, Verne Gagne never paid Lawler for SuperClash III, so he kept the belt.
Vince’s trial run as a heel: the evil Mr. McMahon
Vince botching the word svelte as "slevitt" is the cherry on top this great promo. This is so much better than his Mr. McMahon character.
He did struggle with dyslexia as a kid, but otherwise yea that's a rare fuckup by Vinnie Mac.
Wasn't that the AWA title that Jerry won at Superclash 3 but never returned
Yes because Verne never paid Lawler
Excellent! RUclips is a godsend for these fan-submitted VHS conversions of rare pro wrestling footage. Footage that will never see the light of day.
Thanks again.
The AWA/USWA belt is one of the best designs ever.
Incredible to see heel Mcmahon here, back in the day when only those in Memphis would really know about it.
The match results were posted in the sports section of the NY Daily News up here and I remember wrestling magazines having articles about them too but it was nice back when I finally got to see these firsthand thanks to them being preserved. But one thing I didn't know till I saw these back when I first did was that McMahon was involved since the newspapers & magazines never disclosed that.
That little evil laugh at the end, damn. Well as Vince always says, he who laughs last, laughs loudest.
He sounds like Palpatine!
rare. i thought he started this in 97 but he's been doing this since 93?!?! thanks for the upload
OSW review brought me here
And damn,
It’s just as good as they said,
What Bar is the early evil Mr.McMahon?
A Zero Bar, York Peppermint Patty...and Klondike Bar
Well Dave, McMahon is sporting a light blue suit with red and blue details on the left side of his suit jacket (I am assuming that's both a dark blue handkerchief and the signature red WWF block logo).
He is...
A can of Pepsi (Sorry, we ran out of Coke)
Love that Palpatine cackle at the End 😂
3:03
Proto "mr mcmahon" right here son
My God, thank you for posting this!! I knew Jerry Lawler was always the top face in the USWA but I had no idea that most of the WWF/E guys came down and played heels. Much less Vince McMahon. It's like you said, it was taboo for McMahon to mention other companies at that time. Very cool and interestng.
This reminds me of Tony Khan on impact.
Mr. McMahon before Mr. McMahon
wow i never knew this even existed!...i'm fron the NYC area and we didn't get many USWA telecasts and i had no idea Vince had the invasion angle and the Mr. Mcmahon character working back then....very eerie and cool promo!
@dondonisio
That's the old AWA World Belt. Lawler kept it it when Verne didn't pay him for SuperClash 3. Lawler had Reggie Parks make a Unified belt, but Eddie The Snowman Crawford walked off with it rather then drop it back to Lawler, so the AWA belt made it's return. It's now owned by Dave Millican.
True, Lawler won it from Curt Hennig and never lost it cause Verne Gagne didn't pay him 4 Super Clash III so he kept tha belt and it became their belt in the USWA.
Solomonster podcast brought me here.
me too solomonster podcast is great
me too
+David J (Poyzen) hell yeah
What made this angle so real was that most fans in the Memphis area really hated Vince for destroying the local promotions.
So their hate for him was real and the character he played was mostly real too.
Vince holding the AWA belt is something else
USWA
@@dukevisionarythat version of the uswa title was the AWA belt. Jerry kept it
@@Injectedracing ok gotcha
wow, this is special. thx 4 posting. true classic and never shown in the other us countries. he was "mr mcmahon before it's time
the mr mcmahon character was born
The Lawler-McMahon role reversal in the USWA-WWF storyline in 1993 is very similar to the Lawler-Kaufman role reversal in Mid South in the early 80s where Andy Kaufman played the heel in Memphis as he challenged, wrestled and pinned women but after being piledriven a bunch of times by Lawler who was avenging the women, the 2 appeared on that infamous David Letterman episode and Kaufman, who was a big star in Taxi at the time, took a face role and was cheered by the audience whereas Lawler was booed and only got booed more after the infamous slap he gave Kaufman and Kaufman's tirade against him. It was a case of Lawler sticking to what worked in the past.
We used to get USWA on syndication here in Philly, and I remember freaking out when I first saw Vince cut a heel promo. At the time I wouldn't have thought Vince had a bad bone in his body.
As it turns out, he has 206 of them.
Channel 48 I think !
Beginning of Mr. McMahon IMO
I've never seen this before so thanks for uploading it. A great heel promo from Vince McMahon.
If Verne Gagne ever saw that belt around Vince's waist, Verne's dentures would instantly fly at least 20 feet out of his mouth.
Most epic heel laugh since Ted Dibiase!
They had a match at King of the Ring '94. I would love if it there was a match in USWA, but I'm pretty sure Piper was fully out of wrestling until 1994 when he returned at KOTR.
Early heel Vince. It’s what he’s always wanted to be. It’s amazing to watch
Lawler co-owned the territory. He was pushed on top because there was no danger of him leaving his own business . But he was also on top because he consistently drew in Memphis for 20 years
Geez Memphis even polished Vince!!!
awesome series, ty for posting!
Of course, Vince would call it the "United Championship." No way the head of the WWF would recognize a regional promotion's title as a "Unified World Title."
@AmericanNohbuddy
Zbyszko's belt was different. It had a lot more added pieces as well as a logo plate and a tip at the end. This belt that Lawler kept only had the text plate and top piece as added pieces. Zbyszko's had the text plate, top piece, the leaf, and the eagles on the sideplates all added. Reggie Parks found the eagles at a flea market and thought they'd look good on a belt. Because of those eagles, Zbyszko's belt is impossible to make an accurate copy.
Vince wearing Verne Gagne's belt on Jerry Lawler's TV show.
One major reason is that pretty much everything was pre-taped back then. Obviously we have pre-taped back stage promos (which are still done during the show so there's still less time) but much of what we see is delivered live.
Your point still stand that they fine tune wrestlers way too much, trying to cram them into their prefabricated vision rather than letting them create their own personas.
Yes at one time it was but Jerry used it as the USWA title after his Unified belt was taken by the Snowman.
I guess this was the testing pattern for the inevitable Mr. McMahon character he would play years later...
Isn't that the old AWA title?
OUCH MASHUPS yeah
Surreal to see Vince as a heel during this time. I knew WWF shared some talent with the USWA but didn't know about this
McMahon is the best heel in wrestling...I mean, sports entertainment history!
Dude thx for uploading all this. I can't stop watching and were about to get to Randy Savage!!!! OOOOOOOHHHH!!! YYYEEEEEEEAAAHHHH!!!!
This is surreal to see. I didn't know Vince was a heel back then
Thanks for sharing this my friend 💯
Ironic Vince is wearing what is actually the AWA belt years after he put them out of business.
AWA put itself out of business, after Verne refused to put the belt on Hogan and refused to follow the trend.
You’re right.
So Bischoff technically wasn't the first Heel Boss....it was actually done prior in 1993....so after Montreal Screwjob he pulled his evil persona out of his dresser drawer and had an epic feud with Stone Cold
Check out Tom Renestro’s run as heel matchmaker in 85 Memphis. That predates both.
@crazy1355
Not hardly, Gagne was out of the wrestling business by then. But, seing the belt Lawler kept, around McMahon's waist, would make me wonder.
I always wondered: why did they use the former AWA title belt instead of the unified world heavyweight title belt?
Snowman never returned the USWA Unified World title so Jerry Lawler used the old AWA World title. He never returned the AWA belt back Verne Gagne over not getting paid for Super Clash 3. Kind of weird to see Vince wearing Verne's belt.
2:26 Was he also the firt WWF/E guy to wear the belt over his shoulder? That's also very late 90s/2000s
Vince behind the scenes buying terretories
Dawn of heel McMahon
me and my friend were just discussing this. youre exactly right. memphis was a big wrestling scene then too.
This was a "well if you can't beat them, join them" deal. Make no mistake that Vince McMahon always had a bad feeling toward Memphis because the WWF just could not outrank them for many years. Even during the first big boom period in the 80s Memphis fans rejected the WWF not even putting 2,000 fans in the Coliseum for WWF shows during that period.
That wouldn't be the last piece of gold Vince would have around his waist as a former WWF and ECW Champion that he later became. His delivery here is great but I still love the over the top "YOUR FIREEEEEEEED!" Mr. McMahon as well.
Just imagine, Vince McMahon on Monday Night RAW, wearing the TNA World Title around his waist...... which signifies the death of TNA.
+Nien Nunb No
Technically to me when I saw this it was the AWA Title.
or Triple H
I was lucky to be allot of tade trading during the 80 and 90's .. this would become one of my prized possessions. 2 horse of Vince as a heel in Memphis. I think those that saw this realized that THIS Vince is what the fans needed. A mere 4 years , and with some tweaks he's on WWF main TV.
Primarily because THIS Vince McMahon had a legitimate hatred for Jerry Jarrett and Memphis Wrestling: the only territory he couldn't kill and the only city the WWF couldn't own (the WWF couldn't draw a dime in Memphis until they teamed up with the USWA in 1993.)
Awesome, he's an 80's guy alright!
Amazing! I've been a wrestling fan for...forever and I had NO IDEA about this cross promotion deal. Wow. How did WWE mess up the WCW invasion storyline?!
WOW...a glimpse into the future. What would become, Mr. McMahon
Ironic Vince wearing Verne's belt.
So was this only aired on the Memphis program, or was it aired on WWF as well?
Memphis
wow.Nice guy vince of the early 90s as evil Mr Mcmahon of these days? Quality promo!
Man I bet Vince barley remembers his heel stuff on USWA TV. Such good shit pal.
him wearing the AWA belt is kinda ironic.
I miss young Vince
And he was almost 50 around this time
Wow, it's amazing to see this stuff for the first time. I guess this is where, "Mr. McMahon" sowed his heel oats, and then a few years later used it in WWF.
how did this promotion combine with wwf? especially with vince on the show showing a different promotion belt...
This is basically tony khan in Impact
Pre Attitude era Vince McMahon. Gotta love it!
WOW!!!!! This is EPIC!!!! Vince was on here!?! With the title!?!
@linkmand
There's one problem here, the unification was between the AWA & World Class titles. World Class would change their name within a few months after Jerry Jarrett bought the promotion (but not the World Class name). The unification fell apart when Lawler quit working for Gagne after not getting paid for SuperClash 3 and Lawler was stripped of the AWA World Title. So Lawler was left with the World Class Title, which became nothing more then a title defended only in Memphis.
1:18 pure vince...🤣
He looks like Reagan. I like that he's cutting loose, like he was never allowed to n his own show. And then things got crazy.
Funny thing is, if HHH or Stephanie McMcmahon did this in Evolve, Progress, or any org a few years from now, it would be badass
It sounds a lot like the laugh coming out of the recorder the police pull out of the Joker's pocket after he falls off the cathedral in Batman (1989).
Wow, I had no idea Vince actually used his heel persona before the Attitude-Era.
I know this is basically who he is in real life but I didn’t really know he was a wrestling heel before the official birth of the Mr. McMahon character four years later. I guess this is some sort of a prototype for the character.
2:59
Hahaha Vince doesn't know how to pronounce "svelte"
"What's a burrito, dammit!!??"
He has dyslexia for shoot, man.
He's still counting his money
@MrNWA4Life
When Larry Zybszko had it it was that very title design though when the promotion closed in '90
Hard to believe Vinny Mac is wearing the USWA/ former AWA heavyweight belt.
That's actually the AWA Championship Belt. So Vince McMahon is wearing the AWA Championship on USWA television. Because fuck logic, but damn it was good tv.
What year was this recorded?
Yes, Jarrett booked for them but Vince had the impression that "well if he's done this good down there..." mentality. Vince has also made no bones about the fact that he hates Southern wrestling ('wrasslin' as Vince says) in general for reasons I've never figured out. Either way, this set up was never about respect but about necessity.
This is surreal. I love it.