Shane McMahon vs. Vince McMahon street fight, WrestleMania 17, April 2001
After watching the Netflix documentary about Vince I was in the mood to watch some of Shane McMahon's best matches, and where better to start than his street fight against his dad at WrestleMania 17? Considering that neither of them is really a wrestler it's always amazed me that they managed to put on a show that stood out like this amidst such a strong card.
Some small things that I love here: Steph's hair is pure 2001. The hints of red on Vince's ring gear contrasting with the blue on Shane's jersey, subtly telling us that there are two teams here and we have to root for one of them. And nobody was rooting for Mr McMahon at this point.
Vince opens up with a cheap shot that's so stiff Shane's eye immediately swells up, getting worse over the course of the match. And that really sets the tone for everything. It feels like they mean it, and it feels like a brawl.
After whaling on Vince with a kendo stick Shane lands a flurry of punches that have the crowd roaring. It's always amazing to me how two guys who aren't the best wrestlers in the world by any measure are so, so good at popping a crowd.
Shane going through the table off the top turnbuckle is a huge bump. He gets so much height, it's unbelievable. He nearly misses the table entirely.
After the table spot there's not much wrestling but it doesn't matter because the storytelling is so good. Trish wheels in Linda then attacks Steph. The two of them run out of the arena after Steph slaps Foley. Vince goes to abuse Linda and Foley stops him, before Vince hits him with a chair shot to put him out of action. Vince lifts Linda into the ring and sits her on a chair in the corner before heading out to the destroyed announce table to grab Shane and drag him into the ring, grabbing teach cans from under the ring and sending them flying over the ropes. As Shane tries to stand Vince cracks him over the head with one of the cans, beginning a beating in the middle of the ring in front of Linda. If you didn't think Mr McMahon was a badtard before this you do now.
All of this is obviously leading to one of the the great moments in WrestleMania history as Linda stands up from her chair and kicks Vince between the legs. Foley climbs into the ring and beats Vince into the corner, sparking him out and allowing Shane to set a trash can over his dad and then hit the coast to coast for the first time. The first time I saw this spot I yelled and its hard not to do that every time I see it.