1) The Triple H bidding war was a Kevin Nash power play. He has management by the balls because of how over-inflated his contract got because of his wage-matching clause and Hogan bilking Ted Turner in private negotiations. He has the ability to go home and collect a fortune in guaranteed money for nothing in return at any time, so when his buddy's contract came up he basically turned it into a shakedown. He strong-armed Bischoff into offering Hunter the world on a silver platter, not only to make Hunter rich, but also to expand his own Locker Room power base to counter continued politicking from the old guard like Hogan and Flair and to keep all the younger high-workrate guys from moving up the card to challenge his spot. The only thing that stopped him from being brought in at hugely over-inflated expense was Bischoff manipulating Nash's respect for the Undertaker, claiming they needed to cap their offer to Triple H (conveniently at just low enough for WWF to keep him) in order to preserve resources for negotiations with the Deadman. He secretly knew Taker would never even entertain a WCW offer due to his loyalty to Vince.

2) Rumors of a budding affair between Chris Benoit and Nancy Sullivan, AKA Woman, were one the reasons why her and Taskmaster Kevin Sullivan's contracts weren't renewed, but despite being so on-the-ball with that little issue management completely missed a similar problem until it was too late. After becoming the valet/girlfriend of indy hotshot Nick Lovin' one Kimberly Page was sleeping with the kid almost immediately because of her deteriorating marriage with Dallas Page. The affair became public knowledge about a week after Page and (ironically) Chris Benoit put on a near-five star match on Nitro that cemented Page's position with management, to the point they were talking about World Title contendership. As a result of the affair becoming public Nick's Nitro debut was indefinitely postponed, Kimberly asked to be released from her contract and filed for divorce, and Page's morale took such a nosedive that his in-ring work and attitude during promos suffered and the crowd cooled on him. Management was forced to cancel all plans regarding him going into Starrcade and he's scheduled to take a long vacation before his attitude knocks him even further down the food chain. The cherry on top: backstage scuttlebutt says that one of the major politicos (whether it was Nash, Hogan, Flair or someone else isn't known, but Giant's money is on Jeff Jarret) encouraged the affair AND caused it to be exposed to cripple Page on the eve of his breakout as a singles star and to derail Nick Lovin's momentum in a way that would sour Ted Turner on him and remove his protection.

3) Related to the previous story, Jeff Jarret knows he's seen as a career upper midcard gatekeeper even by the booker who was directly responsible for his renewed push, and is looking to thin the Main Event scene via politics to improve his chances at making it to a big money contract. Jarret was the one who was directly responsible for the infamous San Diego Sandbag Job, the 20 minute Nitro Main Event between Rey Misterio Jr. and Lex Luger that was supposed to make Rey a Main Event star in front of his home town crowd. Jarret was privy to several conversations in the writers room where plans to move Luger down the card at the expense of young rising talents in the midcard were discussed, and as he was Luger's tag partner at the time he had every opportunity to whisper poison into the Total Package's ear. Sandbagging Rey and ruining the Main Event live on national TV to save face was Jarret's idea, and it worked to perfection as it totally derailed the writer's plans. Rey has been relegated to a new role in the tag division which does not include any hopes for singles stardom, meaning there's one fewer man between Jarret and a top-card spot. Menewhile, Luger was protected from punitive burial for his actions first by his slot in the War Games match, and second by a very conveniently timed injury. When he returned his star power was needed for the Mexico tour, and Starrcade plans had shifted, so now Luger is looking at a minimum of another half-year near the top of the company hierarchy. Of course, rumor says that the "injury," was just the final stage of Jarret's plan.

4) William Regal's rise to the top has been one step away from sabotage at every turn. During his time in the Nobility, Eddy Guerrero attempted to use the locker room influence he's garnered as the result of his family members being hired to sway creative into changing several of their match outcomes, hoping to basically steal Regal's push. Since that failure he's been relentlessly campaigning for his other brother Chavo Sr. and several other family members to be hired specifically so he can expand his influence.

Later, Hulk Hogan and Warrior's rematch, while not a disaster, was a fairly large disappointment by design: both men worked together on a plan to make the match as poor as possible without being so poor as to reflect badly on themselves. They wanted to cool the crowd in order to damage the second confrontation between Regal and Savage going on right after them, a strategy which worked to perfection as that match was the worst of the three and almost tanked the PPV's overall rating it was such a downgrade from their first. Hogan's requests in the booking of the match also lessened the rub Warrior received for his win, which in turn was intentional as Warrior knew the victory was to make him look stronger when he jobbed to Regal and Great Muta, and he wanted to give as little gravitas to those wins as he could to protect his own legacy. He knew he would probably not be welcome back in WWF when his contract ran, but if he were kept strong he might have a shot at a lucrative nostalgia run a few years down the line. Many backstage believed the infamous backstage fight in which Meng broke Warrior's arm was Warrior's plan to get out of jobbing to Muta since he knew the match was very close to the date of his contract's expiration, and even more believed that creative put his title match with Regal on Clash of the Champions to make sure as few people as possible would see it if Warrior did something to damage Regal's image, and Rick Steiner was made referee as a physical threat to Warrior to keep him on script.

Most recently, Ric Flair's highly public and obvious botches during the Main Event at Halloween Havoc were no accident, as he knew that it was the perfect opportunity to leverage his reputation as a consistent worker. The botches ruined the grand climax of a potential 5-star classic, and Flair was hopeful that the writers would have such remorse for the unlucky lost opportunity that they would give him a shot to make it right, knowing from experience that the people in charge over there are a bunch of marks for the Nature Boy. His plan was to lobby that he win World War 3 and Main Event Starrcade for a second shot against Regal. Not only would this secure him a monster bonus for Main Eventing the biggest show of the year, it would give him the chance to take a page from Hogan's book and make an inevitable second defeat all about himself by milking the crowd and refusing to leave the ring. The way Naitch saw it, this would dampen the moment for Regal, while the match beforehand would give him a chance to remind the writers of what he's capable of by giving them a critical darling bout on the biggest stage of the year, putting his name back in the running for company headliner much like his program with Arn Anderson did in 1997.