The Story Of How Vince McMahon Bought The WWE From His Father

The story of how World Wrestling Entertainment as we know it today came to be is as fascinating as any mob movie or true-life business movie. For years, Jim Ross has told the mafioso-type tale of being in the restroom, with his legs hiked up so no one could see him. He was inadvertently privy to a conversation between several people; promoters presumably, seriously contemplating finding a way to off Vincent Kennedy McMahon for how he “ruined” their businesses.

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But the truth is no matter how critical we Internet fans are of the WWE, it is VKM’s singular vision that has made the entire wrestling industry what it is today and yes, we have him to thank for that vision to take the matches out of smokey dining halls like The Chase and high school gymnasiums and bring the action to bigger and better arenas and license the product out to anyone and everyone who could help WWE’s bottom line. But first, he had to purchase the company from his father, promoter Vincent James McMahon.

The Original WWWF

The original patriarch of The McMahon promoting dynasty was Roderick Jess McMahon, VJM’s father. He would begin promoting matches out of Freeport, Long Island as far back as 1915. Once he started promoting out of Madison Square Garden, that’s when VJM started learning the business. He would begin promoting matches as Capital Wrestling Corporation in 1953. The elder McMahon would leave his family while VKM was still an infant and the two wouldn’t meet until Vinnie Mac was twelve years old. As fans know, Vince wanted to be a wrestler, the likes of his idol, Dr. Jerry Graham. But his father shot that idea down (promoters are TS shown onscreen) McMahon began commentating for his father in the seventies before making the deal to purchase the promotion.

Vince McMahon Bought WWE For $500,000Vince McMahon And Gorilla Monsoon

Despite his misgivings about his son joining the business, “Vince Sr.” eventually would acquiesce to his son’s desire and gave him a small piece of his Northeast territory in Bangor, Maine to promote. He’d go on to substantially help Senior’s business and when he was ready to retire, VJM would sell his shares in the company to his son and daughter-in-law, Linda for a little over half a million dollars (considering he bought WCW for less than three million, The Chairman basically wound up owning all of wrestling in North America for less than ten million total).

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There were conditions to the sale, however. Vince and Linda would have to continue to pay the fellow partners of CWC — Phil Zacko, Arnold Skaaland, and Gorilla Monsoon. He would remarkably be able to not only make those payments, but he kept each man employed until their deaths. The other unofficial part of the deal was a little harder for Vince to adhere to.

McMahon Built An Empire After Buying WWEVince And The Tyrannosaur

Vince has stated in interviews several times that if his father knew what he intended to do once he owned the business, he never would have sold it to him. Vince Sr. had little interest in expanding and going against his fellow promoters (in a manner of speaking, “never take sides against the family,” as Michael once told Fredo). But as we all know, Vince had grander ideas to expand the family business. Depending on whom you ask, his intentions weren’t to strong-arm promoters out of business by buying up their syndication time on networks. His idea was to work with each and every promoter, consolidating all of The Territories (“the five families”) under his guidance. Men like The Briscoes felt partnering with Vince was the right move. Bigger promoters like Verne Gagne, Fritz Von Erich, and Jim Crockett thought otherwise and waged war. Eventually, they all fell and McMahon wound up showcasing all of their former talents as WWE superstars.

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Vince McMahon has also often spoken fondly of that moment heading out into the sea of humanity inside The Pontiac Silverdome for WrestleMania 3. How despite how his father would have initially felt about his son’s plans, he would have been proud to see what he started had in fact grown to epic proportions.

Unfortunately, that would never happen. A few years after selling his shares of the company to Vinnie Mac, Vincent James McMahon would pass away on May 24, 1984, at 69 years old. He wouldn’t get to see that moment of his son surrounded by 93,000 fans, nor would he get to even see the original WrestleMania.

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