WWE Vince McMahon's First Official "Screw Job"

Vince McMahon is the owner of WWE formerly known as WWF. For more than 40 years WWE has been at the top of the wrestling world including the 1980s when the entertainment boomed. Part of the 80s boom happened because of the Rock-n-Wrestling connection. This featured Cyndi Lauper and Captain Lou Albano exchanging words after shooting the video "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" which they both were involved in.

MTV and the WWE decided to have a wrestling promotion on MTV channel. The Fabulous Moolah, who was champion for the last 28 years was supporting Captain Lou Albano and offered to wrestle someone on his behalf against whoever Cyndi had in her corner. Wendi Richter was the challenger. She was young, attractive and had great ability. With the assist of Cyndi Lauper, Wendi beat Moolah for the title in a widely televised show. This all went great though a bad business decision by Vince McMahon was about to take place.

A little more than one year later Vince set up another match between Wendi Richter and Fabulous Moolah. At this point Wendi was still champion though it is known she was pushing for more money. Nevertheless, she agreed to do the match as she was billed to win again against the Fabulous Moolah.

Moolah wore a mask during the match, though everyone knew who it was. They had a good wrestling match and it lasted a little while. Wendi goes for a pin and it is reversed. Nobody could predict what was about to happen except Moolah, Vince McMahon and the referee.

As Moolah reversed the pin, Wendi kicked out at a one and a half count, but the ref kept pounding the canvas quickly to 3 and called the match. Wendi Richter was without question confused. She began chasing Moolah around the ring, taking off her mask and trying to continue the match. Fabulous Moolah was parading around the ring basically trying to ignore Wendi's awkward pleas of reason.

Wendi Richter never saw the inside of a WWE ring again. Moolah held the title for another 2 years. Vince McMahon is known for being less than honest, though no one could expect to be manipulated on live television in a business that is built on this kind of trust. For some reason this never got much exposure and even everyone in the wrestling business let it go. This was Vince McMahon's first "Screw Job", but it wouldn't be his last. Unfortunately Bret Hart had to figure this out at a Wrestlemania when he was billed to win. Vince was nervous about Bret possibly going to a rival company, he did this "Screw Job" about the same way he did with Wendi Richter, now referred to as the "Montreal Screw Job". Bret Hart had no intention of leaving the organization.