The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Vince McMahon Rivals

There’s little question that Vince McMahon is the most important non-wrestler to the wrestling business in the last fifty years (and probably ever). His legacy grows even more interesting when you factor in the work he did do as a wrestling personality and wrestler from the late 1990s to the early 2010s. Particularly on the early end of that spectrum, there’s a very real argument that McMahon was the best heel in wrestling, and that his runaway success was the reason why the heel authority became such a trope over the decades to follow.

But in order for McMahon to succeed as a character, he needed his foils—rivals to wrestle with for sure, but all the more so to verbally spar with and abuse his power to antagonize across time. This week, I’m looking back at seven of the very best performers cast in that role. Unlike most countdowns in which I consider rivalries, match quality is not a primary, but rather a secondary concern. McMahon did put on some entertaining matches, but he was never one to deliver a mat classic, so the emphasis here is much more so on heat, drawing power, promo work, and quality of storylines. As always, my personal opinion weighs heavily.

Note: this countdown is focused on kayfabe. If we were to consider shoot rivalries, Eric Bischoff and Ted Turner would probably have to be considered in the conversation. While McMahon did engage with Bischoff here and there on WWE TV, that work did not make the cut for this countdown.

#7. Mick Foley

Mick Foley’s chemistry with Vince McMahon is, in many ways, comparable to Foley’s better renowned chemistry with The Rock. The personalities didn’t just clash but were diametrically opposed by the time McMahon became a true character, representing ego and wealth while Foley represented not only the everyman, but an everyman who was alternately a bit more deranged or sillier, either a bloodthirsty monster or a goofily pandering to McMahon by approaching him with gifts and visits from Mr. Socko.

After some indirect feuding wherein face Foley was, by default, out of alignment with heel authority figure McMahon, it appeared that McMahon had made Foley his chosen one going into Survivor Series 1998, only for the swerve of The Rock turning heel join McMahon and The Corporation. This move gave way to McMahon and Foley really feuding, albeit somewhat indirectly, in the aftermath. The two would continue proxy feuds on and off in the years to follow, with Foley in and out of world title contention and then authority figure positions with McMahon constantly foiling him. Foley earned a modicum of revenge as guest referee for Vince’s match with his son Shane at WrestleMania 17 in which Foley more-or-less walked the straight and narrow and counted Shane’s victory as Vince got his comeuppance from not only his opponent and the ref, but his wife and Trish Stratus as well. Foley would later be brought back to join the Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club.

For all of Steve Austin’s success as McMahon’s arch-rival (which we will get to later in the countdown), and the imitative work by acts like Bobby Lashley in the years to follow, or DX playing the triumphant class clowns to McMahon’s principal, I appreciate that Foley represented a very different kind of rival for McMahon. Not a rebel who got the better of the Chairman, but rather a bleaker, more realistic depiction of the common man who scarcely got over on his boss. On the contrary, like he did for so many other top stars (see: The Rock, Triple H, Randy Orton, Edge), Foley was instrumental in getting McMahon over while endearing himself more to the fans in the process.

#6. Hulk Hogan

In 2003, WWE raised the very real question—did Vince McMahon make Hulk Hogan, or did Hulkamania make Vince McMahon’s wrestling empire? It’s about as profound of a philosophical quandary as you’re likely to find in professional wrestling, and reality suggests that each were instrumental in making the other. In the context of pro wrestling, there was little room for rational debate and argumentation, however. McMahon and Hogan got booked into a Street Fight for WrestleMania 19.

The Street Fight was about as good a use of the talents as possible—a marquee matchup for sure, with all sorts of political intrigue. Moreover, the match itself was nicely built to be full of plunder and run-ins—most notably from Roddy Piper—to tell a dramatic story without either performer actually wrestling particularly well from a workrate standpoint. The bout included McMahon iconically rising from beneath the ring with a devilish grin on his bloody face. The ending was memorable, too, seeing McMahon get stretchered out while giving Hogan the finger.

The aftermath of this match was largely silly, with McMahon firing Hogan, only for the Hulkster return masked, under the Mr. America gimmick. The resulting shenanigans saw McMahon trying repeatedly to prove that that it was Hogan under the mask only to come up short each time, until real-life complications led to Hogan leaving the company, and Mr. America anticlimactically getting released because of backstage footage of him unmasking.

Hogan-McMahon didn’t have all of the highs and lows, longevity, or dramatic intrigue of other entries on this countdown, but it represent a fascinating dream rivalry between two of the business’s most iconic figures, with one good match, which earns it this spot on the list.

#5. The Undertaker

On the surface, The Undertaker seemed like a square peg trying to fit into the round hole of the Attitude Era, and this is the point at which not only the character but the performer behind it began a long process of steady evolution to stay with the times at this point. ‘Taker took on his most demonic persona toward the front end of this era, launching the Ministry of Darkness, before he more fully revamped into biker mode. Throughout this period, he was as often as not at odds with McMahon.

The Ministry of Darkness targeted McMahon and his Corporation, with a nicely defined goal of seizing power from them. As a highlight, The Dead Man famously abducted Stephanie McMahon and subjected her to cult-ish wedding ceremony that loosely implied some sort of horrific sacrifice (she was tied up to a cross-like structure), only for Steve Austin to come to the rescue because it was the right thing to do, and further McMahon’s character turning face at the time (though the long con was in and McMahon would ultimately reveal himself to be partnered with ‘Taker in the Corporate Ministry).

Under his new biker gimmick, The Phenom would chase Triple H and later Steve Austin’s world title, feuding directly and indirectly with McMahon throughout the process, including a six-man in which ‘Taker teamed with Kane and The Rock against Helmesley and the McMahon father-son duo.

McMahon and The Undertaker would feud one more time in a proper one-on-one rivalry building to Survivor Series 2003 in a Buried Alive Match. The rivalry didn’t exactly light the world on fire, but it was a perfectly reasonable upper card rivalry which ultimately set up The Dead Man to take some time off and return in a darker persona to challenge Kane, who had gifted McMahon the Survivor Series win.

#4. Shawn Michaels

The real-life business relationship between Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels is a fascinating one, in which Michaels was the sort of undersized talent McMahon wouldn’t take seriously at the top of the card, only to come into his prime in the post-steroid trial era when the WWF was more willing to take a chance on smaller talents. Michaels also demonstrated good creative instincts, and ultimately win over McMahon and a fair enough portion of the viewing audience to function as the face of the company more or less until Steve Austin usurped him. An additional wrinkle: once Michaels had reached the top, a combination of ego and drug use made him a terror to work with.

After Michaels stepped away from the ring following WrestleMania 14, he had sporadic on-air roles before reentering the fold three and a half years later a new man—cleaned up, devoted to God, and somehow about as good in the ring as he’d ever been. All great things, though the religious part was arguably an odd fit for WWE programming that was just coming out of the Attitude Era (in a period when John Cena was on the rise whilst rapping dick jokes).

What I appreciate most about the McMahon-Michaels rivalries that played out over the years, is the ways in which they paralleled these dynamics from real life. Michaels and McMahon were tacitly on opposite sides of the decency line in the early Attitude Era, when McMahon was still playing straight-laced announcer and Michaels was fronting DX. From there, as an authority figure, Michaels was occasionally in alignment with McMahon, but often his foil, providing a face antagonist to McMahon’s heel machinations. From there, when the two feuded in 2006, it was riteous Michaels against morally bankrupt McMahon, duking it out in an excellent Street Fight at WrestleMania, then in a handicap scenario that made a mockery of HBK’s faith.

From there, the McMahon-Michaels feud morphed into the reunited DX vs. the McMahons and friends, a fun enough nostalgic romp of a program with some good moments, though the undercurrent of Michaels and Triple H portraying anti-authority characters was a bit absurd given their age and collective political standing with WWE.

In the end, Michaels proved himself time and again both in real life and kayfabe, in opposition to McMahon’s expectations and predispositions. Great foils help shape great characters, and HBK was one of the very best at pulling the best out of McMahon.

#3. Shane McMahon

I don’t know of any greater father-son rivalry in wrestling than that between Vince and Shane McMahon. Part of that has to do with the stakes always being high when they went head to head, consistently portrayed as vying for control of their company. Part of that has to do with their respective willingness to do whatever it takes to entertain the fans, including absorbing absurd amounts of physical punishment.

The McMahons feuded off and on throughout the Attitude Era, alternating between partners and rivals during that time, only to culminate in a showdown at WrestleMania 17 in which Linda and Stephanie McMahon got involved too, not to mention Mick Foley and Trish Stratus to tie together the variety of stories these characters had been entangled in for the months leading in, and to give Vince his comeuppance. By summer, the characters’ face-heel orientations had inverted with Vince the face representing the WWF against Shane as one of the leading figures for The Alliance—an angle that never fully found its legs, but that nonetheless dominated WWF programming for months. The McMahons would indirectly spar in the years to follow, then team up again, before Shane disappeared from WWE programming for over half a decade. When Shane returned, he promptly entered another power struggle with his father and sister, to set up Shane vs. The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32.

Family rivalries don’t always work out for a sense of contrivance, or a reluctance to get to physical with one another, but Vince and Shane had the personalities and the do-anything sensibility that made their feuds more often than not work, and sell a sense of personal fury nicely for all of their kayfabe pent-up father-son animosity.

#2. Triple H

If Vince-Shane had a natural chemistry and sense of storyline between them, Triple H landed one notch higher—not the boss’s son, but the boss’s daughter’s rapist cum husband. While the two feuded indirectly in the early days of DX, the feud came into focus in 1999 when Triple H interrupted Stephanie McMahon’s wedding to Test, only to reveal he’d drugged her, taken her to a drive-thru wedding chapel in Vegas, and proceeded to “consummate the marriage.”

In the rivalry to follow, Vince relieved Triple H of the world title in an electric moment on Smackdown, only to vacate it thereafter. The two would continue to feud leading to Armageddon 1999 in which they squared off in a mini-epic of a No Holds Barred Match in which Vince’s fatherly indignation was enough to allow him to hang when he ordinarily would have been outmatched. But then Stephanie turned on her old man—her very first heel turn, mind you, and thus legitimately shocking—and reveal herself to be aligned with Triple H. Vince would end up backing The Rock heading into WrestleMania, to further the rivalry by proxy, only to ultimately align himself with the McMahon-Helmesley regime to bring the family back together.

After that first impassioned go-round, McMahon and Helmesley would revisit their issue one more time in the mid-2000s when the McMahon father and son duo, plus allies like The Big Show and The Spirit Squad, waged war with DX. While McMahon got the upper hand here and there in the build between matches, Helmesley and Shawn Michaels would win every important match to decisively get the best of the rivalry.

Vince McMahon has often demonstrated a willingness to put over others, but a part of what compels me to rank Triple H second is that the Cerebral Assassin so thoroughly defeated McMahon in two separate feuds, each of which received top or close to top billing on PPVs nearly a decade apart.

#1. Steve Austin

I suspect you’ve read up to this point either under the assumption you’d see Austin at number one, or frothing at the mouth for an opportunity to shout me down in the comments because I dared place anyone else in the spot.

But this Austin vs. McMahon. McMahon vs. Austin.

While I can understand arguments that you might sub in someone like The Rock or Bret Hart as Austin’s greatest rival, there’s no comparison in McMahon’s catalog of feuds. The Mr. McMahon character quite arguably first began to take shape in the fall out of the Montreal Screw Job opposite Bret Hart, and his run as a character is largely defined by the Authority figure vs anti-authority anti-hero dynamic which he’s riffed off ever since, to varying degrees opposite DX, Bobby Lashley, Mick Foley, Zach Gowen, and so many others.

McMahon was the ideal kingpin for Austin to build his legacy opposite—not an overwhelming heel force the likes of an Andre the Giant, King Kong Bundy, Earthquake, or Yokozuna in generations earlier, but on the contrary a mastermind, a billionaire, and a representative of every stuck-up, bullying boss that every regular joe has had to contend with, and through whom these average folks could vicariously Stun or stomp a mudhole via Austin’s shenanigans.

From that first Stunner, to a range of matches that were entertaining despite generally being one-sided, to antics like Austin driving a beer truck to the ring to soak McMahon and company, it doesn’t get much better than this license-to-print money rivalry that worked for eyars and years and reshaped some of the hero versus villain dynamics of WWE programming ever since (for better or for worse).

Which rivals would you add to the list? Zach Gowen, Stephanie McMahon, The Rock, and Bret Hart were among my top runners up. Let us know what you think in the comments.