In the 30 years since wrestling promoter Vince McMahon Sr. died, the sport he loved and promoted has become a multibillion-dollar, worldwide industry.
In the 30 years since wrestling promoter Vince McMahon Sr. died, the sport he loved and promoted has become a multibillion-dollar, worldwide industry. The company he spent his life building is an entertainment titan, with its spandex-clad stars appearing in weekly televised bouts, pay-per-view events, video games and major Hollywood films.
McMahon would have been horrified, according to his son.
The son of a successful boxing, wrestling, and music promoter, McMahon Sr. grew up at Madison Square Garden, helping his father with special events and learning the family business. On his own, McMahon made a name for himself as a wrestling promoter, thanks in large part to his early adoption of television in the 1950s to reach larger and larger audiences with weekly fights on Wednesday nights. Television proved a great match for McMahon’s Capitol Wrestling Corp., and he came to dominate the market in the country’s most lucrative region, from Washington, D.C., to Maine.
Despite the growing popularity of the CWC, McMahon made no moves to gain ground in other markets, and he did his best to keep his star wrestlers from becoming stars outside of the ring. He even went so far as to fire one of his biggest stars, Hulk Hogan, for acting in a film. McMahon feared what would happen if his crowds began seeing the wrestlers as performers instead of athletes. He kept himself out of the limelight as well, choosing to stay behind the scenes and keep the focus on what happened in the ring.
His philosophy went out the window when McMahon sold his company, then called the World Wide Wrestling Federation, to his son, Vincent McMahon Jr. The younger McMahon rehired Hogan, began poaching stars from other promoters and made inroads into local television in new markets. Wrestlers became larger-than-life personalities, and the WWWF all but publicly embraced the notion that professional wrestling is entertainment, rather than sport. In a 1991 interview with Sports Illustrated, McMahon Jr. admitted, “Had my father known what I was going to do, he never would have sold his stock to me.”
Despite the change in tone and tactics from one generation to the next, Vince McMahon Sr. still holds a place of honor in the history of professional wrestling, joining wrestling’s Hall of Fame in 1996.
Written by Seth Joseph
