Backstage details of a canceled WrestleMania match for Vince McMahon revealed
MLW founder Court Bauer was a guest on a recent edition of the 'Talk Is Jericho' podcast with Chris Jericho. As expected, Bauer and Jericho discussed a lot about Vince McMahon and shared their experiences working with the WWE and the Chairman of the company.
Bauer revealed a nixed plan that was floated for a WrestleMania 22 match between Vince McMahon and Bret Hart. Bauer stated that WWE had just closed a big deal with Bret Hart for a DVD Anthology series, and he revealed that Hitman, albeit for a little time, was really into the idea of a match against Vince McMahon.
WWE had an idea for a multi-generational storyline featuring the McMahons and the Harts
The creative plan was to divert towards another direction after the match, which would have later involved the Hart Foundation, including Natalya, Tyson Kidd, and Davey Boy Smith Jr.
Bauer recalled that there was a plan for Jim Neidhart to also come in for the angle. WWE had an idea of having a multi-generational storyline that would pit two prominent families against each other in a fresh take on the McMahon family storyline. On one side, you would have had Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and HBK's students. On the other end, you'd have the veteran and up-and-coming members of the Hart wrestling dynasty.
Here's what Court Bauer revealed:
"By the time you arrived, I was heading out. I think you left in the summer of 2005. I was just starting, so we didn't have much of a window together. But when I was there, there was a time where we had just closed a deal with Bret to do the DVD Anthology series. And it was big deal, and Bret was, at that moment in time, very small window of time, very much into the idea of doing a match with Vince at WrestleMania in Chicago, WrestleMania 22.
And so that was then going to turn to other things because Bret wasn't going to wrestle regularly. It was just a special attraction. So they're trying to find ways to take us to the house shows, how to take this on TV, and also, at the time, USA wanted more McMahon. They wanted to do a fresh take on the McMahon Family, and so the idea was you would have Bret, and the Hart Foundation, and the New Generation, which would have been Harry Smith, Tyson Kidd, Nattie, and so on.
I think Jim Neidhart was even going to come in for it, and they would take on Vince, Shane, Hunter, and Shawn, and his students, which were Brian Kendrick, Paul London, and - he wasn't at the time - Daniel Bryan. This really cool multi-generational thing -- we needed new talent. We were starving for young, talented guys. We're gonna bring all these guys and bring them into the system, and it was a really interesting idea." H/t WrestlingInc
The plan never really materialized, but what if it had come to fruition? Do you think it would have had a different impact on the careers of several younger talent that has been mentioned above?