WWE on ESPN’s E:60 Report 4.14.09

Welcome everyone to tonight’s recap on E:60’s feature on Vince McMahon. I am JP II and luckily I was able to catch it right before running off to another meeting. So, the big question is…how did they do?

The show begins at a roundtable of ESPN reporters. One of them mentions that you could make the case that World Wrestling Entertainment is the most successful sports entertainment company in the world. The head guy ask if this will be about the real WWE and the real Vince McMahon or if they were getting a scripted performance. Jeremy assures him they will show a side of McMahon that no one has ever seen.

After a quick intro, we get a few highlights of Wrestlemania 25 with both John Cena and Big Show describing it as the pinnacle of the business. Wrestlemania is described as the culmination of the wrestling year and the vision of Vince McMahon. The interviewer asks what lead to the creation of Wrestlemania and Vince says it was common sense. McMahon points out the “big nights” of other venues of sports and entertainment such as the Academy Awards and the World Series so why not professional wrestling?

The feature switches to clips of the first Wrestlemania in 1985 and the announcer mentions that it was made well before Pay-Per-View became popular and that it could’ve easily failed. The interviewer asks Vince what he remembers about the first Wrestlemania and Vince admits it was a roll of the dice. According to Vince it did not have to work and if it didn’t he wouldn’t be having the interview.

The feature switches to Hulk Hogan and Hogan backs up what Vince said, pointing out that Vince put everything on Wrestlemania (and him) to succeed. The feature says that the gamble paid off and mentions Wrestlemania 3 held the in-door attendance record for North America. And in the process of creating Wrestlemania Vince remade the business. Vince mentions that up until then wrestling promoters have tried to present wrestling as a sport. But it reality it was a great theatrical event. The feature switches to Hulk who stated that a lot of wrestlers didn’t get what Vince was trying to do. But once Vince changed the game and the old-school crowd left, families showed up and they began selling merchandise along with the tickets (WWE Spinner Championship: $375) and they all got it.

The interviewer ask who Vince was at the time and Vince says at the time he was a brilliant young man and now he’s a brilliant old man so nothing’s changed. The feature mentions that one thing that changed was his name. Vince McMahon was born Vinnie Lupton, the youngest of two brothers, and grew up in a trailer in North Carolina. Vince himself states that coming from a lower middle class household gave him a great advantage. The interviewer asks about Vince often saying that it was unfortunate his stepfather died before he had a chance to kill him. The interviewer asks why and Vince quips it was because ‘he needed it’. Vintage McMahon! The interviewer presses the issue a bit more and Vince goes into the fact that his stepfather physically and mentally abused him and his mother which is how he got his philosophy. The philosophy being that in a fight that if he wasn’t dead, he won. Consider how mercilessly his stepfather beat him Vince figured that as long as he was alive after that; he won.

The feature switches gears to when Vince was 12 and met up with his biological father, Vince McMahon, Sr. Vince says that he gravitated to his Dad immediately and changed his name back to McMahon and started trying to get into the wrestling business after high school. Vince points out that his Dad wanted him to be a lawyer (Vince apparently hates lawyer). Finally, at 22, Vince, Sr. gave Vince, Jr. control of a territory based in Maine. According to Vince, the promoter was stealing too much (I guess you could steal as long as you didn’t go overboard). After ten years Vince Jr. bought out his father and began creating a global corporation. Vince mentions that if his father knew what he was going to do he probably wouldn’t have let Vince buy him out since he was going after many of his friends. The interviewer points out that he drove a lot of them out of business and Vince responds that he likes to think they drove themselves out of business. Vince? Humble? Can’t be the simple can it?

The feature switches over to sports columnist Mike Mooneyham who backed what the interviewer was saying and that after Vince acquired the top stars and putting other territories out of business the wrestling world hadn’t been the same. The feature points out the success and scale of World Wrestling Entertainment, that it’s traded on the NYSE and that Vince’s personal worth is somewhere between $500 and $700 Million. However it is still considered a family business since Vince’s wife and children are all top executives in the company. The interview switches to Stephanie McMahon-Levesque who describes her toughest job as managing her Dad, but that he had ultimate creative control. The interviewer mentions they had a lot of talented people on the Creative side and asks for names, which Stephanie says are top secret but relents and describes their writers as coming from nearly everywhere from Conan and from Hollywood as well.

The feature then goes to a Production Meeting to go over Wrestlemania 25. Some of the usual suspects are in place including Michael Hayes, Triple H, Joey Styles, Stephanie, Gerry Briscoe, Finlay and Vince himself. But there are a few unknowns, including someone that looks like the Miz’s stunt double. We get a few clips of the discussion before it gets to a discussion of an Undertaker promo before Vince politely kicks the camera crew out. Once outside they run into John Morrison and the Miz, and Morrison shows off his new fur coat. We also see the production trucks and The Big Show gets some air time when he gives the crew a tour of his private bus.

The feature points out that they have 134 performers that are on the road for four shows every week. It changes to Bret Hart (who has aged, damn) who says that ‘they grind you up and spit you out’. Mooneyham points out the talent are considered independent contractors who do not get health care, pensions, vacations. Apparently, the guy who cleans the arena gets more benefits than the performers. When asked how Vince ‘gets away with it’, Mooneyham points out that they all signs contracts and that Vince doesn’t hold a gun to their head.

And now the moment we all knew was coming: steroids. Hart points out that in the 80s there may have been only one or two wrestlers who weren’t on steroids and that Vince doesn’t need to ask anyone to take them. The feature points out that Vince admits to taking steroids during his federal trial in the early 90s which may taint his legacy. Mooneyham agrees that there were a number of scandals that taint McMahon’s image, creating a problem for him including the premature death of wrestlers.

At this point the feature switches to Chris Benoit. After a quick profile of the crime Vince notes that he doesn’t know what happened but calls it the darkest day in wrestling. The interviewer asks about their policy concerning drugs and Vince points out the Wellness Policy which he says is at least as good as a sports’ wellness test. The interviewer asks what the point of the policy is since they’re an entertainment company and that other entertainment companies do not have such a policy. Vince says some of it is political, because of the WWE’s visibility but admits that the sport has a history of drug problems.

From their the feature promotes Vince as the Undisputed Lord of the Ring and ends with Hogan saying that he’s never seen Vince yawn, break down, cry or give up. When asked by the interviewer how he sees the future of the WWE and if the day will come when he’s not in the picture. Vince humorously states that he doesn’t see himself out of the picture complete and doesn’t see himself dying; at least it’s not apart of his plan.

Back at the roundtable the interviewer is asked how heavy Morrison’s coat and he was replies that it had to be at least 60 lbs. The head of the table ask about MMA and whether or not Vince viewed them as competition. The interviewer points out that Vince did not since he considered MMA to be a sport. Rather, McMahon views other scripted and reality TV programming his competition and that MMA can’t pull the same ratings as the WWE. However, the interviewer points out that it is more competition on PPV. Another person at the table asks how Vince views his legacy and the interviewer points out that Vince doesn’t think like that since he is consumed with running the business. The interviewer points out that Vince may very well be a machine. The next question at the table is one the XFL and how Vince survived and what impact did it have on sports. The interviewer points out that it was a failure and that it was risky to compete with the NFL, however it did have an impact on how the NFL was broadcast and presented so it did have an impact and didn’t affect Vince too badly.

Overall this was a very fair interview with Vince being his usual self. The interview was serious when it had to be and not when it did not have to be. McMahon himself was clearly taking it seriously and although it wasn’t the in-depth interview I know some wanted it to be, when he had to be open and honest he did. The most interesting thing to note was the production meeting and simply the scale of it. While most of who was involved will not shock anyone, simply the level of organization the meeting has says a lot on WWE’s approach to their in ring product. Obviously not everyone will like this interview. Some will think it was too pro-WWE and those they didn’t challenge Vince on…well…pick a number. However, at the end of the day ESPN did a fair job with the feature.

That’s all for me. We’ll see you this Friday for Smackdown!