WWE History: Vince McMahon once wrote a letter to Ted Turner about his issues with WCW
WWE Chairman Vince McMahon wrote a letter to Ted Turner at the height of the Attitude Era concerning the use of blood in their televised shows.
At the time, WWE and WCW were engaged in the Monday Night Wars. With Hogan a part of WCW, the company regularly beat RAW in the ratings.
In his letter, Vince McMahon called out WCW for having wrestlers self-mutilate.
Some excerpts of the letter can be seen below:
"Dear Ted, Since there has been no response to my repeated request that you and your pro-wrasslin' company stop the practice of self mutilation, I can only assume based upon the last two weeks of Nitro that the practice of self mutilation [slicing oneself with a razor blade] is not only condoned but encouraged," McMahon wrote.
Mr. McMahon went on to talk about how Hulk Hogan had bled in the previous few episodes of WCW Nitro and how he found that disturbing. He then added his issues with the "practice of self-mutilation."
"This encouraged practice of self mutilation is disgusting, violent, potentially infectious, and completely contradictory to your testimony before Congress in June of 1993 and contrary to your 1995 participation of 'Voices against Violence.' Notwithstanding numerous unprecedented predatory practices against the World Wrestling Federation, if you continue to promote self mutilation, I hope your stockholders hold you accountable for this unethically, guttural, potentially unhealthy practice."
You can check out a tweet with the full letter below:
Vince McMahon’s letter to Ted Turner from February 8th 1996. https://t.co/wC5aO4lDqL
Vince McMahon did not shy away from using blood in WWE
In 1996, WWE didn't use as much blood on their television shows as they would later during the Attitude Era, but it was not unheard of either.
Former Senior Vice President of WCW Eric Bischoff pointed out that officials in WCW knew what Vince McMahon was doing, and they found it amusing. He also pointed out how soon after sending the letter, the WWE Chairman would do the same thing in his own company.
“Whenever you’d see blood in WCW, Vince would write these letters from the king’s court to Ted criticizing him, and WCW, and the health and welfare of the talent by saying it’s gross, it’s c**p, and all this. And then he’d turn around and do the same thing a month later. None of us took any of those letters very seriously, and it was pretty obvious what Vince was trying to do. We all just chuckled about it,” Bischoff said. [H/T WrestlingINC]
D-Generation X!
#ShawnMichaels #TripleH #Chyna #DGenerationX #WWE #ProWrestling #WWERaw https://t.co/4p0xgpMJJi
Eventually, WWE's programming increased the risk quotient, with D-Generation X, Sable, Goldust, The Godfather, Val Venis, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and even Vince McMahon himself all pushing the limits of what could be considered a family-friendly product.
What do you make of Vince McMahon's letter to Ted Turner? Let us know in the comments section below.