When it comes to Vince McMahon, our first thoughts are always of the WWE and what we love or hate about it. I’m one of the first to question or point out something I disagree with, but I try to look at both sides. To me, he is as much a hypocrite as a genius when it comes to business practices. But that’s business. As a person, so many have stated that he’s a respectful and honest person. He’s taken people at their word and has bene betrayed by them. He’s also turned down opportunities because he had a handshake deal. Thanks to the convoluted world of professional wrestling, it’s difficult to know who McMahon is. One thing for sure is, Vince McMahon isn’t who we often think he is.
The hard road
When she see McMahon on TV, it’s easy to think he’s had every break possible, been handed every opportunity possible. It’s how we’ve been taught to think, to look at anyone successful with disdain and downplay what they’ve accomplished because we or others don’t have it. It’s what our society has become.
It’s a difficult habit to break, especially with all the negatives flowing about an individual, but reality is often more entertaining than fiction.
Born August 24, 1945 in Pinehurst, North Carolina, his parents divorced when he was a baby, and his father took his older brother, Rod, with him, and Vince didn’t meet him until he was twelve years old.
Throughout most of his childhood, it’s been reported that he lived with his mother and a string of step-fathers, and he claimed that Leo Lupton, one of his step-fathers, used to beat his mother. Whenever Vince tried to defend her, Lupton attacked him. To that, he once said, “It is unfortunate that he died before I could kill him. I would have enjoyed that.” (Playboy Interview: Vince McMahon page 60). As if that wasn’t enough, he also had a bought with dyslexia and a rebellious nature that he talked about in an A&E interview from 1999.
Finding his love and influence
When he was twelve years old, Vince met the promoter for Capital Wrestling Corporation (CWC, which became the WWWF, then the WWF, and now is the WWE), who happened to be his father, Vincent J McMahon. It sparked what was to become his life-defining love of professional wrestling that also changed the world.
As all ambitious children, Vince initially wanted to become a wrestler, but his father refused to let him, saying that promoters needed to stay separate from the show. Instead, Vince started as an in-ring announcer and worked his way up his father’s company. The role many of us first saw him in was as the TV play-by-play commentator, where he was a staple from 1971 until 1997 when he broke his father’s rule and created his Mr. McMahon heel character and finally entered the ring as a competitor.
In one of his many flashes of entertainment genius, Vince had the idea of sending taped matches to other areas to help spread the word of the promotion outside of their region, which resulted in tripling TV syndication. In short, he changed the game for the regional business.
We all know of his previous and upcoming XFL football league attempt, but as strange as it sounded at the time, it wasn’t anything new as he and his wife, Linda, purchased the Cape Cod Coliseum and the Cape Cod Buccaneers of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. The venue also held rock concerts for Van Halen and Rush, among other bands, as well as professional wrestling and hockey.
This extended to the world of bodybuilding, another early love of his, as he founded the World Bodybuilding Federation in 1990. Unfortunately, the pay-per-view sales were poor and the WBF only last two years before folding.
Our journeys define us
When it comes to daily decisions, we often rely of past experiences to guide us. While it’s easy to hate on Vince McMahon for something he did, in the end it makes it easier to understand him when seeing some of what he went through.
While his experiences helped shape and mold him, his love and passion for so many things added a great deal more. He loves entertaining and professional wrestling. It also helps the two are one and the same.
His love of bodybuilding has led to some ups and downs for him personally and professionally as he’s been dragged into court and been labeled many things thanks to the steroid rumor that go hand in hand with bodybuilding and sports in general.
While he’s worked to clean up the WWE, there will always be a cloud hanging over his head as far as fans and detractors are concerned. Is it warranted? Maybe, maybe not.
That’s for Vince to know and us to guess at.
Despite his many flaws, which we all have, he’s managed to overcome a great deal in his life to become a very successful businessman and entertainer. We may not always agree with what he’s doing or has done, but we keep tuning in to see what comes next.
If he’s given us nothing else, it’s a lifetime of memories that may not have been had he not followed his passion for all of us to enjoy.
