10 shocking moments from WWF (WWE) 2001

#9 Stone Cold joins forces with Vince McMahon

Shaking hands with the Devil.

Most of the shocking backstabbing moments in 2001 came as a direct result of the Invasion Angle, but perhaps the most unexpected of all came a few months before in the main event of Wrestlemania 17.

For the second time in three years, long-term rivals Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock would meet in the final match of Wrestlemania for the WWF Championship. The two biggest stars of the Attitude era would come together, this time with Vince McMahon more directly involved in the match.

When the bell rang to announce the start of the match, Vince and Austin were still very much enemies and most fans assumed Vince was there to prevent Austin from becoming the champion like he had done so many times before. By the time the match was over, however, the entire landscape of the WWF had been changed forever.

In bemusing and startling scenes, Vince McMahon gifted Austin a steel chair which the Rattlesnake used to beat down his opponent and score a pinfall victory. Austin took his belt and ended his three-year rivalry with McMahon with the most unlikely handshake in the entire wrestling business.

This is a moment that a lot of fans first mention when you bring up professional wrestling in conversation. A whole generation of young adults who had witnessed Austin and McMahon tear each other apart over the WWF Championship were now witnesses to an alliance between the pair.

It is also a perfect example of why shock value is not always a positive. In many ways, this decision signalled the direction the WWF was going to go in the future. Now that WCW had been vanquished, Vince was free to do whatever he wanted, and if that meant turning the most beloved babyface heel at Wrestlemania, then so be it. Fans were going to have to get used to the Vince McMahon ego ruining that which they once loved.