Updated 23/06/2025

08/10/2024

Who is ‘Mr McMahon’?

As a showman and businessman, Vincent Kennedy McMahon’s vision has made him one of the world’s most innovative geniuses and ringmasters in the wrestling world. By the way, I am ignoring the charges against him, and we will come to that in the end.

His father owned a wrestling business in New York and New England, and back then, professional Wrestling was a regional sport, with each area having its own set of wrestlers and shows. For example, if you lived in Georgia—I am making up the name of the promoter—you would go and see the Georgia and Southern Wrestling promotions shows. Everyone respected their territories.

How Did Vince McMahon Change the World of Wrestling?

He transformed it from a regional territorial affair by becoming the dominant wrestling federation in the USA and arguably the world. He expanded his wrestling company nationwide across the USA without any feelings of guilt or remorse, while ignoring the informally agreed-upon territorial agreements that had been previously established.

How did WWE expand?

Vince and Linda, his wife, who deserves a lot of credit, secured a national TV deal by promoting shows and touring across the entire USA, making it relevant to the whole country, not just the territory his father previously managed. In time, WWE became dominant. Vince and Linda were ruthless; he would get the best wrestlers from other federations. Arguably one of the most successful wrestlers poached, Hulk Hogan, wrestled previously in the Southeast of America, not the WWF/WWE.

Vince ran the creative side of the business as a kind of ringmaster. The show was his vision, and his wife Linda was the CEO. They built modern Wrestling. It was not just the ring that made the WWE successful. Vince and Linda were prepared to diversify outside of the ring.

How did the WWE diversify?

They produced and commissioned a wide range of toys, merchandise, and other items. I remember that Hulk Hogan figures were available in toy shops as a child. Additionally, he had his own TV cartoon, which I quite enjoyed, featured in the UK’s Saturday morning cartoons. Wrestling was global. There were also Hulk Hogan vitamins. Yeah! I am showing my age.

You probably knew that. Whatever you think of him, his achievements in wrestling and his vision are genius, and you cannot take that away from him.

Wrestling as a story?

Wrestling is a soap opera. In each show, stories are built and brew steadily, and the viewer hopes the baddie gets his comeuppance in a pay-per-view event. Events happen in the back rooms and locker room, and grudges occur. As the wrestling is televised you get access to both backstage and the ring.

 The fights in these pay per view events are better and longer, and the wrestlers provide better fights. In pay-per-view, events are also more unpredictable, thus the entertainment and the justification for payment. The wrestlers really are put through their paces in these matches. Of course, it is intense entertainment, but people do get injured, so it is, and it is not fixed.

WWE Raw and Smackdown

The public does see smaller fights happen in these non-pay-per-view events; it is wrestling, and no one would watch if there weren’t fights. The odd, very occasional championship belt changes hands occasionally, but the heels, the bad guys, tend to win their belts back by cheating even though they have lost the moral victory. The faces, the goodies, often win through equally unscrupulous cheating ways. For example, a fellow face, a good guy, will run into the ring and hit the heel, the bad guy, when the heel is about to defeat the hero, but that is OK as you like them because the baddies do the same.

It would be boring if the good guys always won because it is Pay-per-View. So, there is no guarantee that the heel will lose. You will just have to watch the next pay-per-view to see if your hero will become champion. This is a simplified version of how wrestling works.

Mr McMahon is a promoter. He works with all the wrestlers behind the scenes, right?

Wrestling is a form of theatre. There was a match in which a wrestler was a match was told to lose his championship in front of his home crowd. It was against his wishes; Brett Hart didn’t want to lose. Hart did lose by foul means. It was done by blatant manipulation of the rules. It was more of a fix than it usually was, and it was against his wishes.

This was known as the Montreal Screwjob. This established Vince McMahon as a seedy promoter, and fans in the crowd were throwing stuff into the ring, and people hated Vince McMahon. In his documentary ‘If It Is Good For Business’, Vince said I will become an evil promoter.

This began the attitude era, where Vince became part of the story. It was worth noting that when the wrestlers were asked if Vince McMahon was the ‘Mr McMahon’ character he was going to become. They all said he was no different from the ‘exaggerated version of him’. He had exploited his wrestlers in the past, making them work far too hard for little money and contract less, so maybe their grievances do have some strength.

The Attitude Era

The Attitude era succeeded, and Vince came to the forefront and created some truly nasty stunts/behaviours as he was boss. One of these was ‘Kiss My Ass’. Once WWE, Vince’s company was in the ascendancy, and he had taken over his rival, WCW, he forced all the wrestlers who had wrestled for the rival company to ‘Kiss My Ass’ literally or be fired.

William Regal, an ex-rival wrestler, did this as he felt he had no choice. Mr McMahon was an exaggerated version of Vince. His disturbing attitude of ‘What is good for business!’ dictating everything is alarming.

He said this many times. He made his wrestlers perform about 6 times a week in the early days for little money. This was only stopped when WCW came in and offered ‘his talent’ better money and better terms. Everything seems to revolve around what is good for his business and, thus, Vince.

My Humble Opinion

I came away feeling that Vince McMahon is not a nice man. Although he has abused his power on occasion, whether he is guilty of sex trafficking will be decided in the court, he wasnt. But the fact that he sexually exploited his female wrestlers in the past in the name of ‘wrestling theatre’ has not been denied, e.g Sable.  

He has quit his position and left the company. Do I think he had it in him to mistreat his female wrestlers and employees to that degree? I would probably say yes with regards to the NDAs, not the sex trafficking. I have no idea whether he is innocent or guilty regarding that, written at the time

I remember being annoyed that Vince McMahon was a fan of Donald Trump. Having seen about six episodes of this documentary, I can see why they are like two peas in a pod. Donald Trump’s speeches and rallies are addressed in the manner of a WWE wrestler.

Donald Trump has also appeared on WWE.  He once fought with Vince ‘Mr’ McMahon, and the loser would shave the other’s hair. Donald Trump was, of course, the face, and Vince had his hair shaved off.

NetFlix ‘Ya Boo!’ conclusions.

One thing that did annoy me is that in a Netflix documentary, they sometimes show a ‘Ya Boo!’ as an ending. In the Mr McMahon one, they showed that wrestling could function perfectly without him. Also, it mentioned his alleged sex offences, which is fair enough. Finally, it said that the show was more popular without Vince McMahon because Stephanie McMahon, Vince’s daughter, and Triple H, Stephanie’s real-life husband and also a retired wrestler, were perfectly capable of running the show without him.

They gave the example of running the company’s premier event, ‘Wrestlemania, ‘ with a record number of subscribers.

The WWF/WWE, creatively, is undeniably Vince’s baby, and he nurtured the company to become a behemoth. However, his attitude of  ‘If it is good for business’ has been seedy and exploitative. However, as wrestling goes, he is a genius.

NOTE:My knowledge is only based on the documentary ‘Mr McMahon’ and a brief flirtation with the ‘Attitude Era’ as a fan. I apologise wholeheartedly if I have upset any wrestling fans.

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