5 WWE Superstars who felt the wrath of Vince McMahon
In WWE, every superstar has to go through Vince McMahon at some point or the other. We've seen several clips before of superstars receiving hugs after great matches, and even moments where he has shown his disapproval (for example, Kevin Owens after his match at WrestleMania 37).
However, it's rare to see instances where he is irate and shouting at other people. He is reportedly known for being loud and vocal backstage, and here are five superstars who truly felt the WWE Chairman Vince McMahon's wrath:
#5. Batista - Vince McMahon's wrath ended his WWE career in 2010
Batista was arguably WWE's second most important superstar between 2005 and 2010. While John Cena became the face of WWE in 2005, Batista's rise was parallel.
He won numerous World Championships in that period, but in 2010, his WWE run ended after his feud against Cena. He legitimately quit, and as Batista has recalled previously, his experience exiting the company wasn't graceful.
But what caused the exit? It was when he felt the wrath of Vince McMahon in 2008 after a match against Chris Jericho. Batista bladed during the match, and as it was banned quite a few years before, The Animal was slapped with a heavy fine.
He revealed in an interview with Chris Jericho that the moment he felt Vince McMahon's wrath, he knew things would never be the same:
"I knew we weren't supposed to do it…I knew I would get consequences but I thought I would get the consequences and I didn't think they'd be as harsh as they were. Then he starts passing out fines. So my fine was $100,000…My heart dropped. I thought it would be like $25,000…When he said $100,000, I was just heartbroken. I literally think that he sucked the life out of me that day. I think that's the day that I knew things were never going to be the same," said Batista.
Batista saw out the rest of his WWE contract and left the company before returning to headline WrestleMania in 2014. Following that, he reached his highest level of success in Hollywood and returned in 2019 to close the chapter on his wrestling career.
Following an underrated bout against Triple H, The Animal felt that his wrestling career was complete and closed the chapter on WWE.