Vince McMahon

Net Worth

$2,200,000,000

Born in (City)

North Carolina

Born in (Country)

Date of Birth

24th December, 1945

Date of Death

Mother

Vicky Askew

Father

Vincent J. McMahon

Children

Shane McMahon
Stephanie McMahon

About

Vince McMahon, in full Vincent Kennedy McMahon Jr, is an American professional wrestling impresario who used showmanship and tireless promotion to make wrestling, formerly a niche entertainment, into a vastly lucrative industry. He is currently serving as the chairman and CEO of WWE, and the founder and owner of Alpha Entertainment. McMahon is widely recognized as the pioneer of the professional wrestling revolution in the United States of the 1980s and 1990s, as well as being the industry’s most important figure well into the 21st century.

Early Life

He blew candles on August 24, 1945. Born and brought up in Pinehurst, North Carolina, His parents are Victoria and Vincent James McMahon. He had a difficult childhood. His father was the founder of Capitol Wrestling Corporation which has dominated professional wrestling in the North-eastern US in the 1980s. Vincent’s paternal grandfather, Roderick James Jess McMahon, worked as a boxing and wrestling promoter. Vince’s father has left his family along with his elder son Rod when Vincent junior was a baby. He was raised alone by the support of his mother and a string of stepfathers. One of his stepfathers, Leo Lupton, used to beat his mother and him. Despite his father being wealthy, Vincent grew up in severe poverty and under the worst circumstances. He attended Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Virginia, and graduated from East Carolina University in 1968 with a degree in business administration. He suffered from dyslexia in his childhood.

Road to Success

McMahon first met the promoter for Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC), his father Vincent J. McMahon, at the age of 12. At that point, McMahon became interested in following his father’s professional wrestling footsteps and often accompanied him on trips to Madison Square Garden. McMahon wanted to be a wrestler, but his father did not let him, explaining that promoters did not appear on the show and should stay apart from their wrestlers. In 1968, McMahon graduated from East Carolina University with a business degree and after a nondescript career as a traveling salesman, he was eager to assume a managerial role in his father’s World Wide Wrestling Federation promotion. In 1969, McMahon made his debut as an in-ring announcer for the WWF’s All-Star Wrestling. In 1971, he was assigned to a small territory in Maine, where he promoted his first card. He later became the play-by-play commentator for television matches after he replaced Ray Morgan in 1971, a role he regularly maintained until November 1997. Throughout the 1970s, McMahon became the prominent force in his father’s company and, over the next decade, assisted his father in tripling TV syndication. He pushed for the renaming of the company to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The younger McMahon was also behind the Muhammad Ali versus Antonio Inoki match of 1976. In 1979, the younger McMahon and his wife Linda founded their own company, Titan Sports, which was incorporated in the following year, and in 1982 acquired control of the CWC from his ailing father (who died in May 1984). On February 21, 1980, McMahon officially founded Titan Sports, and the company’s headquarters were established in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, using the now-defunct Cape Cod Coliseum as a home base for the company. At the time of his purchase of the WWF, professional wrestling was a business run by regional promotions. The various promoters shared an understanding that they would not invade each other’s territories, as this practice had gone on undeterred for decades. McMahon had a different vision of what the industry could become. In 1983, the WWF split from the National Wrestling Alliance a second time, after initially splitting from them in 1963 before rejoining them in 1971. The NWA was the governing body for all the regional territories across the country and as far away as Japan. He began expanding the company nationally by promoting in areas outside of the company’s Northeast U.S. stomping grounds and by signing talent from other companies, such as the American Wrestling Association (AWA). In 1984, he recruited Hulk Hogan to be the WWF’s charismatic new megastar, and the two quickly drew the ire of industry peers as the promotion began traveling and broadcasting into rival territories. Nevertheless, McMahon (who still also fronted as the WWF’s squeaky clean babyface announcer) created The Rock Wrestling Connection by incorporating pop music stars into wrestling storylines. As a result, the WWF was able to expand its fanbase into a national mainstream audience as the promotion was featured heavily on MTV programming. On March 31, 1985, he ran the first WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden, available on closed circuit television in various markets throughout the U.S. During the late 1980s, McMahon shaped the WWF into a unique sports entertainment brand that reached out to family audiences while attracting fans who had never before paid attention to pro wrestling. By directing his storylines towards highly publicized supercards, McMahon capitalized on a fledgling revenue stream by promoting these events live on pay-per-view television. In 1987, the WWF reportedly drew 93,173 fans to the Pontiac Silverdome (which was called the "biggest crowd in sports-entertainment history") for WrestleMania III, which featured the main event of Hulk Hogan versus André the Giant.

Challenges

The success and power of McMahon has seen him make many controversial choices both in and outside of the ring. Fans are left scratching their heads over some of the ideas and projects to come from the mind of a mad genius. We will look at the most polarizing or criticized moments regarding the man responsible for most of WWE’s success. These are the ten most controversial things to come from Vince McMahon in wrestling. •Killed The Territories. The old territory system of wrestling would see certain wrestlers working for specific markets. Wrestlers like Ric Flair, Terry Funk and Jerry Lawler became huge stars thanks to the territories. The market had promotions in each location representing the shows in each area. •Changed The Term "Wrestling" To "Sports Entertainment". The growth of WWE allowed Vince McMahon to dictate many things within the wrestling business. One of them was his desire to end the term wrestling altogether. McMahon wanted to separate the success of WWE from the rest of the industry to truly get the success of his vision. •Montreal Screwjob. One of the most controversial moments in the entire history of wrestling to get televised was the Montreal Screwjob. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels having such personal issues led to Hart refusing to lose to Michaels on his final night in WWE. •Faking His Own Death. Vince McMahon has gone to drastic extremes to improve the ratings of WWE television. The company was struggling when he came up with the idea to fake his own death as a storyline. McMahon would walk into his limo at the end of the show before it exploded to leave the viewers wondering his fate. •Booked Himself To Win the WWE Championship. The Mr. McMahon character found success for WWE when Vince started appearing on the show opposing wrestlers. Steve Austin was the one to benefit most, but Triple H also had a memorable feud with McMahon in 1999. •The "Independent Contractor" Loophole. WWE has been criticized for many years regarding the independent contractor status for employers. That label would mean wrestlers had the freedom to wrestle anywhere since they were not employees of WWE. The company however provides restrictions and works them like employees. •Match Against "God" Aka, Shawn zzMichaels. Vince McMahon’s feud with Shawn Michaels in 2006 featured some controversial moments along the way. One specific strange idea came when McMahon wanted to mock Michaels’ newfound religion for changing him as Michaels believed it was the motivator in cleaning up his life. •Faxed CM Punk Termination Papers On His Wedding Day. CM Punk will always have a strong legacy in wrestling thanks to his incredible success in WWE. The last few years of Punk’s run for WWE saw him rise to the top with the Summer of Punk making him a top tier superstar right behind John Cena in the drawing power. •Booked himself to date Divas. Vince McMahon has been criticized since the end of the Attitude Era for constantly booking his way into romantic moments with the female performers. Trish Stratus was the first to enter a relationship with him culminating in many embarrassing moments that still haunt WWE today. •Purchased WCW And Buried Them In Invasion Angle. Vince McMahon had other plans after purchasing the rights to WCW in 2001. The Invasion storyline started a few months later with mostly WWE names like Steve Austin and Kurt Angle jumping ship to WCW. Real former WCW beloved acts like Diamond Dallas Page and Kronik were buried. WWE destroyed WCW and ECW to win the war within a few months and that was the end of the highly anticipated angle. •Sexual Harassment allegations Vince McMahon has been accused of sexual harassment on various occasions, a former employee of WWE, Rita Chatterton, aka Rita Marie, claimed that McMahon forced her when she refused. McMahon did not face any legal action. Similarly, a worker at Tanning Salon (a tanning bar) in Boca Raton, Florida where the McMahons have a house accused Vince on February 1, 2006, of sexually harassing her. At the time, he was at the 2006 Royal Rumble so no further investigations took place but it was later clarified that the incident took place a day before and was reported on February 1, 2006. After a legal investigation, the State Attorney’s Office announced on March 24, 2006, that it would not charge McMahon due to insufficient evidence.

Failures

Originally intended as a third brand in the same vein as NXT, ECW on Sci-Fi turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for the revolutionary movement of the nineties. Labelling ECW as a “brand” is how the problems began: Paul Heyman’s cavalcade of demimondes was antiestablishment, clustered in a South Philly bingo hall in front of profane, bloodthirsty fans. The mature nature of the promotion could never fit inside WWE’s corporate structure, and that’s what fueled its grassroots success. After the financial success of the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD, followed by the equally successful One Night Stand pay-per-view in 2005, McMahon decided to resurrect the company in 2006 as a minor league of sorts, blending established names with up and comers to create a new generation of “Extremists” (ugh, more branding). Even with Heyman in charge of the writing, the project was destined to fail because as with every WWE venture, McMahon has the final say. He and Heyman argued on a weekly basis about what stars to spotlight (Bobby Lashley instead of CM Punk) and what storylines to feature (another authority figure’s abuse of power rehash). Their final clash came at December to Dismember when Heyman left the company. In February of 2010, ECW on Sci-Fi was cancelled. Critics such as Rob Van Dam have claimed that McMahon’s goal all along was to destroy the legacy of ECW, bastardizing it to the point that fans would no longer cheer those iconic letters after a dangerous move. If that was indeed the case, you’d have to consider it a Pyrrhic victory for McMahon. A wrestling-themed restaurant sounds like a fun idea, but history shows (Hulk Hogan’s Pastamania, JR’s Family Bar-B-Q) that it’s an extremely challenging endeavor. For instance, check out WWF New York (later called The World). It had the most recognizable location in the U.S. (Times Square), opened during the hottest period in wrestling (late 1999) and had constant publicity through weekly TV segments. Sunday Night Heat even emanated from the building for over a year. But the restaurant and merchandise store only lasted for around three years as astronomical rent - combined with mediocre food and wrestling's dying popularity - forced WWE to cease operations.

Achievements

The Guinness World Records named him the Oldest WWE Champion in 1999.|He was inducted in the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2011.|Besides winning the ECW World Championship, WWF Championship, and Royal Rumble, he has earned several Pro Wrestling Illustrated championships and Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards.

Quotes

You can say what you want about Vince McMahon, but he was the best ... He was a genius at creating stories for the wrestlers.
In America it's live by the sword of freedom of expression and be will to die by it as well.
One of the public things that my character (Mr. McMahon) says is that I always do everything I do for WWF fans.