Vince McMahon fought his own son, Shane McMahon, on “The Grandest Stage of Them All” at WrestleMania X-Seven, the exact place, in storyline where the elder McMahon wanted to reveal his purchase of rival WCW. That didn’t happen, however, as just days prior, Shane announced that “the name on the contract does read ‘McMahon,'” but it was his name, instead. The reveal led to the McMahon vs. McMahon street fight, which also saw a drugged up Linda McMahon, Trish Stratus, and Stephanie McMahon all getting involved.

Sure, their involvement was certainly enough to make the match an overbooked mess, but strangely, there were no WCW stars in sight to back up their new boss, Shane. At the time, there was a rumor that Shane was set to introduce a host of WCW stars at WrestleMania, but as the story goes, someone leaked the debut of the WCW talent ahead of time, and they all suffered the consequence. Instead of helping Shane out in the match, which would have made a ton of sense and kicked off the coming Invasion angle in a big way, they were banished to a sky box and got a brief mention ahead of the match. When the camera cuts to the box before the McMahons start fighting, the stars can barely be seen, to the point it’s laughable.

The wrestling itself in the match is exactly what you’d expect from two guys who weren’t trained wrestlers, though Shane does get plenty of his now-infamous strikes in on his dad. The most memorable spots include when Stratus and Stephanie go at it in a cat fight, leaving the comatose Linda unattended. Vince picks up his wife, plops her in the corner, and at one point, she arises from the chair she’s sat on, no longer drugged up by her own husband, and low blows Vince. Shane also hits an impressive coast-to-coast, complete with trash can set up on Vince’s lap, and the “Prodigal Son” emerges victorious.

And, if you’ve forgotten, Mick Foley is also involved, serving as special guest referee. The match is an overbooked chaotic mess, but involving WCW stars in the mix, and maybe doing the other angles, like the Linda reveal, in the coming weeks, would have only helped the case of the Invasion.

It may seem silly, but perhaps the McMahon family street fight was the precursor to just how badly the Invasion angle would flop. Shane had just announced his huge purchase, right under his father’s nose, yet his newly-signed stars, rather than get involved in a huge angle and help him score the win, were stuck in the sky box.

Written by Daisy Ruth