Mr. McMahon 1x1

1. Take one, common mark.

2. - Am I addressing to you? - Yeah.

3. Okay.

4. I think it's gotta go that way.

5. The lighting's super.

6. Okay.

7. No stray pieces.

8. - Thank you, everybody. - Yeah, that sounds good.

9. - You good? - I'm good, I guess.

10. Where are we? What are we doing?

11. Uh, well, I'm talking about me, which I have never done before.

12. I don't like talking about me.

13. You know, um, talking about everybody else, I'm cool with.

14. I can go perform, but this is, like...

15. pretty strange, a little different, me talking about me.

16. So, I'll do the best I can.

17. Larger than life, Vince McMahon,

18. more famous than some of the wrestling stars he helped create.

19. McMahon has been called the P.T. Barnum of wrestling,

20. building WWE into an international billion-dollar business.

21. He's also an on-screen presence

22. as the billionaire bad guy boss.

23. Where the hell have you been?

24. For a long period of time, people wondered who I really am.

25. The portrayal of me is I'm a bad guy.

26. But no one really knows me,

27. and it's been a while for me to try and figure out myself.

28. I still haven't quite figured out who I am.

29. Do I know Vince McMahon?

30. I don't think anybody knows Vince McMahon.

31. Please welcome Mr. McMahon!

32. People know who he is, but they really don't know who he is.

33. The person he puts out there,

34. the larger-than-life promoter,

35. a lot of that is a character.

36. When it comes to him personally,

37. he's going to show you what he wants you to see.

38. Very few people are in control of a world.

39. Vince McMahon was.

40. He has built something so powerful,

41. so big, and so ingrained in people generationally.

42. He did things that no one thought were possible.

43. And he took no prisoners in the process.

44. With Vince McMahon, he comes as advertised.

45. And what you expect, that's exactly what you're gonna get.

46. I love Vince, and I have a lot of respect for him.

47. But he was a guy that often lied to me and let me down with his lies.

48. Do you think your dad gets a bad rap?

49. Mm, I think my dad gets the rap that he wants.

50. Breaking news that was just brought to me.

51. Vince McMahon, the legendary CEO and chairman

52. of Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment, is stepping aside.

53. The Wall Street Journal reports that WWE is investigating

54. a secret $3 million settlement

55. that Vince McMahon agreed to pay a now former employee

56. who McMahon is accused of having a consensual affair with.

57. It started with a tip,

58. and the tip was that the board of WWE had received an anonymous email.

59. The emailer was accusing McMahon of having taken advantage of an employee

60. and then covered it up.

61. Another thing we heard was,

62. "You're only scratching the surface, and there's a lot more here."

63. That first story in June 2022

64. touched off a series of events that included us reporting on other NDAs.

65. Government investigations,

66. Vince stepping down,

67. Vince McMahon returning and then selling the company,

68. and then a lawsuit against him

69. that contained some of the most graphic details imaginable.

70. A WWE mogul resigning on Friday

71. after a former employee filed a lawsuit

72. accusing him of subjecting her to

73. "countless depraved and humiliating acts."

74. I wish I could tell you the real stories. Holy shit.

75. - All right, give us one. - No.

76. - Why? - That's what I'm saying.

77. I don't wanna tell you these stories.

78. I'll give you enough that it's semi-interesting.

79. I don't want anybody to really know me.

80. He's as polarizing as he is entertaining.

81. Vince McMahon is part renegade, part mogul, and all showman.

82. Over decades, McMahon turned the WWE

83. into a billion-dollar juggernaut.

84. Throw in one part athletics, one part theatrics,

85. and more than a dash of violence, and what do you get?

86. One of America's favorite pastimes.

87. One hundred percent, Grade-A Americana.

88. The Justice Department announced the indictment of a man

89. who runs World Wrestling Entertainment.

90. This is about crime. This is about breaking the law.

91. This was a tyrant, a head of this organization,

92. that ruled by fear.

93. What did he know? What did he do? And what did he try to hide?

94. This goes beyond business. It's a family matter as well.

95. This is like Succession in a wrestling ring.

96. Another corporate leader mired in a sex scandal.

97. We're not talking about garden-variety misconduct.

98. We're talking about some real awful things.

99. A lot of Vince McMahon, his ability to get away with stuff,

100. was because he was also this character.

101. Where does the line between Vince McMahon and "Mr. McMahon" end?

102. You're... FIRED!

103. Well, the first thing I need to tell you is...

104. you're not going to totally understand

105. what happened or what is,

106. because you'd have to live it to comprehend it.

107. You're only going to know what they tell you.

108. I just know wrestlers and promoters and know this business,

109. so you're not going to get, you know, the whole enchilada.

110. To explain what pro wrestling is,

111. it's turning fantasy into reality.

112. Go!

113. Kane's on fire!

114. I remember guys going,

115. "Why do you watch that bullshit wrestling? None of it is real."

116. "Who cares? It's just phony wrestling."

117. And it's like... "You're wrong."

118. I look at what I did. That's an art form.

119. Just watch the beauty of it.

120. Wrestling's this curious phenomenon

121. that allows people to let out their aggression

122. while watching a morality play.

123. Most people when they're driving home, they go, "Ah, it was all a show."

124. "Son, none of that was real."

125. But when they're there in the building, you wanna believe it's real.

126. I was a true artist.

127. People that weren't fans would say,

128. "It's all fans that are too stupid to realize that it's not real."

129. No, it's all people that are smart enough to accept the fact that it's a show

130. and buy into characters and the storylines

131. and engage in it in that matter.

132. Pro wrestling has always been a soap opera,

133. just in broad primary colors.

134. Here's your hero. Here's your villain. Here's your damsel in distress.

135. We give you an opportunity to feel.

136. When you see everything that we do, it's about emotion.

137. - And it's about grandeur. - Woo!

138. That's what America is. It's larger-than-life.

139. It's great stories.

140. Our form of entertainment is American culture.

141. Professional wrestling matters

142. in that it's so much a part of American culture,

143. and nobody talks about it as mattering.

144. Vince McMahon's influence and impact is largely ignored,

145. but it is affecting the way the world around us is working.

146. From there, we have to swing down to Phoenix to do some PR for March 31st.

147. This is 39-year-old Vince McMahon,

148. a third-generation wrestling promoter, sometime announcer,

149. and the force behind WWF.

150. One day, we hope to be recognized as

151. the premier source

152. of sports entertainment in the world today.

153. I got my start in the business because of my dad.

154. My dad was considered best promoter in the business.

155. I first met Vince McMahon Sr. in Madison Square Garden

156. when I was 15 years old.

157. He looked and presented himself like the Pope of Madison Square Garden.

158. When I was growing up,

159. I didn't know my last name was McMahon until I met Dad when I was 12 years old.

160. Before that, I grew up in a trailer park with my mom

161. and this certain stepfather who was abusive.

162. I got the crap beat out of me on almost a daily basis.

163. You just live with it until you get out of it.

164. When all that physical abuse and everything was happening,

165. never heard a word from my dad.

166. I saw my dad for the first time...

167. It's almost like my dad had a glow about him.

168. I ran up to him, open arms, expecting to have this big hug.

169. And I got a... You know, on the back, like, "Hey, boy."

170. "Mm. That was a little bit different."

171. But nonetheless, I fell in love with him right away.

172. You could feel he had, at his heart,

173. the way that you wanted him to be... somewhat.

174. Or maybe I was just bullshitting myself. I don't know.

175. My dad and I never had the conversation

176. about why he wasn't in my life during all those formative years.

177. Even when I became much older, we never talked about that.

178. One thing that's indisputably true about Vince McMahon

179. is that he came from basically nothing.

180. But once his father came into his life,

181. whatever dreams of escape Vince had went from the abstract to the concrete.

182. He could point at his dad and say,

183. "That's what I aspire to, and that's gonna be my way out of this."

184. I never saw much wrestling on television until I met my dad,

185. and then, "Oh, this is what he does."

186. "Mm."

187. "Look at these big charismatic individuals, larger than life,

188. and they have problems with each other,

189. and the resolution is physical, and they fight."

190. "I like that."

191. At that time, I had sort of a strange relationship with my dad.

192. We didn't play ball together or— There was no camaraderie that way.

193. We'd talk business, even at that age.

194. That was sort of what we had in common, other than the fact that we were blood.

195. Vince and I met when I was 13 and he was 16.

196. I don't think I ever heard him talk about doing anything else

197. other than wanting to be involved in the business of professional wrestling.

198. I knew I wanted to be in my dad's business.

199. "Come on. There's gotta be something."

200. That's when he allowed me to go to Bangor, Maine.

201. It's the furthest northern outpost in my dad's territory.

202. Bangor was a success,

203. and my dad was thinking, "Ah, kid did pretty well."

204. Then, one day, I'm with my dad, he's doing a television show,

205. and our television announcer kept asking for more money.

206. The show's about ready to begin,

207. and he said, "Well, if you don't pay me what I want, I'm walking out."

208. And my dad a lot of times had these quarters,

209. and he would click these quarters in his hand as he was thinking.

210. So I see him off like this, and he's thinking.

211. I said, "Pop, what are you gonna do?"

212. "Go announce. You're the announcer."

213. Show number one recording of All-Star Wrestling

214. in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. Is this quick enough for you, Pop?

215. Slated to, uh, play, or just roll it, Daddy.

216. Hello, everybody. My name is Vince McMahon...

217. So I start trying to BS my way through as an announcer.

218. Bobo, look at those neck muscles. Big biceps.

219. A great athlete, and really a deep— Not to belabor a point,

220. but it is indeed nice to have him back here this... this week.

221. Vince was a horrible commentator.

222. But one thing that Vince had was emotion.

223. And Vince told stories.

224. I realized that I'm the conduit.

225. I have to translate to the audience what's going on in the ring.

226. "Here's the story that's being told."

227. Zbyszko is facing a legend.

228. Our business is no different than a play, a movie, books.

229. It's all the same.

230. Okay, you have an environment, so we establish what the environment is.

231. They've jam-packed this arena...

232. Next thing you have to do is create some very interesting characters.

233. Zbyszko, of course, the only individual to have been trained by Bruno Sammartino.

234. The good and the bad.

235. A "babyface," which meant a good guy,

236. and the other was a "heel," which meant a bad guy.

237. And Sammartino holds the rope open for Zbyszko.

238. Too much—

239. Uh oh.

240. Oh— Look out!

241. You introduce another character.

242. Sends the referee flying out.

243. Always this big finish.

244. Zbyszko striking Sammartino, and he really let him have it!

245. Zbyszko couldn't take it!

246. The formula is simple,

247. but... not that easy to do.

248. Sammartino laying in a pool of blood!

249. Next week...

250. Kept that job announcing for my dad.

251. It wasn't long after that that my dad wanted to get out of the business.

252. He wanted to sell to someone.

253. And when he was going to sell to someone, he wasn't thinking about me.

254. On behalf of...

255. Matter of fact, he was going to sell it to Gorilla Monsoon,

256. who was a partner at that time.

257. Monsoon with another little jab there.

258. Ali's not finding his bark at all.

259. When I joined the company, Gorilla Monsoon was the heir apparent,

260. and I could feel the tension right away.

261. Gorilla Monsoon thinks I'm competition.

262. Boy, was he right.

263. When I proposed to buy my dad's business, he made a deal with me.

264. I'll give you x-number of dollars here,

265. three months later this, three months later that,

266. and then the final payment.

267. And if I miss a payment,

268. then you get the business back and keep the money.

269. That appealed to my dad, and appealed to his other stockholders,

270. because they were thinking, "This kid's not gonna make it."

271. We took over Vince's father's company.

272. We actually were paying with money that they would have been generating

273. should they have stayed in the business.

274. It was robbing Peter to pay Paul.

275. Made the last payment, and no one could believe it.

276. My dad was really, really surprised.

277. Do you think your dad wanted you to succeed?

278. I think my dad wanted me to succeed,

279. but, then again, sometimes I think he didn't.

280. I honestly thought that he didn't want to make it easy for Vince,

281. that he really wanted to let him know what it was like to struggle.

282. But it was strange because when I bought the business,

283. there was some friction there,

284. because my dad, he then worked for me,

285. and I knew he didn't want what I wanted.

286. Hello, everyone. Welcome to All-American Wrestling...

287. My vision was to upgrade the product.

288. My vision was to make this mainstream,

289. not the lower-class that everyone thought it was.

290. I didn't want to be "pro wrestling." I don't like that term today.

291. I wanted to be something beyond pro wrestling.

292. I wanted us to grow and compete

293. against all these other promoters all over the country.

294. During this point in time, the wrestling industry was regional

295. and operated in what was called the "territory system."

296. There were separate wrestling companies around the country,

297. and they each ran shows

298. both live and on TV within their own territories.

299. So, you had Florida, you had Georgia,

300. you had the Mid-Atlantic, the Carolinas.

301. There was San Francisco, Portland, Seattle.

302. Vince's dad had the WWE, which was then known as WWF,

303. in the Northeast territory.

304. And there were these imaginary lines that no one crossed.

305. It was a good ol' boy system.

306. People had agreements, and you didn't break those agreements.

307. As soon as I closed the deal, I knew right what I wanted to do.

308. Go right into their territories.

309. One of the great World Wrestling Entertainment cities,

310. St. Louis, Missouri, and indeed...

311. Vince started promoting his own shows

312. in what would traditionally be someone else's "territory."

313. And that ruffled a lot of feathers.

314. Whether it's in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Hoboken, New Jersey, or wherever,

315. no doubt World Wrestling Entertainment will be there.

316. My dad was very much against that.

317. He said, "Take it easy, Vinnie. Don't rock the boat."

318. It hurt my dad, but at the same time, I'm in business.

319. Other promoters started threatening my dad.

320. "You know, your kid, Vince, is going to wind up at the bottom of a river."

321. I don't know what it is. These promoters, I guess,

322. love the bottoms of rivers.

323. Whenever I was threatened, I didn't care,

324. 'cause you didn't own anything.

325. I'm competing with you.

326. Back with you here on All-Star Wrestling,

327. and joining me now, former nine-time Heavyweight Champion of the World,

328. Verne Gagne...

329. I worked for Verne Gagne in the AWA,

330. which was one of the strongest territories.

331. And as far as Verne Gagne was concerned,

332. Vince was Satan.

333. He was the devil. He came and ruined all the territories.

334. In a moment, we'll take you to Tampa, Florida...

335. Once they made their national expansion and started shattering the territory mold,

336. so many of the top talent who were really fixtures in other territories

337. decided to take a better opportunity with Vince McMahon and the WWE.

338. Our talent was making so much money,

339. which attracted other talents.

340. It's a virtual flood of wrestling talent into World Wrestling Entertainment,

341. the likes of which we've never seen before.

342. If you really look at what he did, he was quite cutthroat.

343. He basically went into almost every territory

344. and bought out their top guys,

345. then he'd go back to their town with the three or four guys

346. that he stole from there.

347. There was nothing anybody could do about it.

348. We understand that you're attempting to invade

349. almost every area in the United States.

350. That's right...

351. Most wrestlers that worked for Vince came from somewhere else,

352. and somebody else did the hard work to make that person who they were.

353. And one phone call,

354. they ran and left that guy standing in the dust.

355. Just like he did with me. "I can make you more money here."

356. It's a dog-eat-dog world, and you have to get your bite out of it.

357. It was one of those things where I'm not taking anything away from anyone.

358. I'm building.

359. And if you can't compete with me, it's America.

360. Tough.

361. There's no doubt that the popularity of World Wrestling Entertainment

362. continues by leaps and bounds...

363. At that time, I'm competing with all these promoters successfully,

364. so I then said, "Okay, now I can do things my way."

365. My dad chose Bob Backlund as a champion.

366. I love to travel. I love the fans. I love wrestling.

367. Every minute of my life is a pleasure.

368. All right, we appreciate...

369. He was the All-American boy, but a little too milquetoast.

370. I was looking for someone that had more charisma.

371. Look at that. Are you kidding me? Look at this.

372. The Dream just pummeling this man now.

373. Oh no.

374. Okay, there was Dusty Rhodes as a possibility.

375. You can look up in this building in a matter of few hours, when it's full,

376. and you can see a Black man and a white man

377. eating out of the same popcorn box! Whoo!

378. That's funky. That's the American dream.

379. I had only ever been told by my father that he just didn't believe in it.

380. It seemed too large of an endeavor.

381. Dusty could not take advantage of the opportunity,

382. and so I kept looking for someone that would charm you,

383. someone that would excite you, someone that was larger than life.

384. This man is not a television illusion.

385. The first time I met Hulk Hogan,

386. it was years before I bought my dad's business.

387. Wow, what a physical specimen.

388. And he was Sterling Golden.

389. Sterling Golden...

390. And my dad saw him and said, "Nah, nah, that's not your name,"

391. and he changed it to "Hulk Hogan."

392. The Incredible Hulk Hogan!

393. When they brought me up, they needed somebody

394. that the people thought could beat Andre the Giant,

395. who's one of their big stars.

396. Hogan!

397. Come here!

398. Andre the Giant is sports entertainment's first attraction.

399. You could advertise Andre the Giant,

400. draw a house.

401. Hulk Hogan going for the...

402. I was kind of like Andre's other half.

403. We'd wrestled everywhere.

404. Shea Stadium was sold out with me and Andre the Giant,

405. so I was pretty well established.

406. One of the ways I would get established was to have these so-called "TV matches."

407. During those matches, I would wrestle two guys.

408. Sylvester Stallone saw that,

409. so that's how I ended up getting offered the part in the Rocky movie.

410. I was talking with Vince Sr. about doing Rocky III,

411. and Vince Sr. says, "You're not doing that."

412. "You're a wrestler." You know? "You don't act, you don't do TV stuff."

413. He asked my dad, and my dad said, "No, no."

414. Because my dad had invested a lot in Hogan and wanted to get his money out of it.

415. He goes, "If you do that, you're fired, and you'll never work here again."

416. I said, "Okay, cool."

417. Yeah!

418. When I did the Rocky movie, I knew it was gonna be big.

419. I'm coming after you, Balboa.

420. Say hello to my little friend!

421. If you took Scarface, if you took The Godfather,

422. the Rocky franchise was bigger than all that.

423. It was Americana.

424. I knew it was going to put me on the map.

425. It just went crazy.

426. Would you welcome Hulk Hogan.

427. You are one good-sized person.

428. Thank you, thank you.

429. One big man...

430. In the middle of this, Verne Gagne got a hold of me,

431. he goes, "How quick can you get to Minnesota?"

432. Hulk Hogan, back in the AWA, and I cannot believe...

433. When I went to the AWA, I started the Hulkamania stuff.

434. I started ripping my shirt off.

435. And it was growing and becoming dominant.

436. I followed his career, and he was really honing in on his talents.

437. Here comes Hogan! Here is the leg smash!

438. I am the champion! This is your belt!

439. Vince came to me and said, "I want to take over all the territories,

440. and I want to do it with you." And I went, "Let's go, brother."

441. Hulk knew where the business was going, and he— he knew Vince was the direction.

442. It was an easy decision. Some guy's gonna push you

443. and make you the biggest star and you're gonna go national,

444. the other guy just wants to promote Minneapolis, Chicago, and Milwaukee.

445. I'd been dreaming my whole career about going back,

446. and when Vince said what he was gonna do with me,

447. I knew what was going to happen.

448. - Oh! - Gotta be kidding!

449. Hulk Hogan!

450. I would like to thank the WWE for bringing the Hulkster back...

451. So somehow I had to transfer the title from Bob Backlund

452. to get to Hogan.

453. I couldn't make that match. They were two "babyfaces."

454. So I used the Iron Sheik.

455. Bob Backlund!

456. The Iron Sheik from Iran

457. was one of the most disliked individuals we've ever had as a heel in our company.

458. Now, there was lot of nationalism then. A lot of "rah, rah, America."

459. And for years, we had problems with Iran.

460. The President met with the National Security Council in Washington

461. about the fast-breaking developments in Iran.

462. There was American hostages that are being held in Iran.

463. It's front-page news. There's talk about it every single day.

464. So when the Iron Sheik would be in the ring,

465. waving the Iranian flag and all that...

466. Iran number one!

467. that got a negative reaction.

468. You look at what is happening, and you try and tell a story off of that

469. and have people be able to react in a way

470. they couldn't necessarily react in real life.

471. Again, a lot of people do not like the Iron Sheik.

472. You can't find an Iranian sheik walking down the street

473. that you can boo and hiss at and see him get beat up,

474. but you could go to the wrestling matches and see it.

475. Iran sucks!

476. What are they chanting? "Iran" what?

477. I don't wanna say, Vince.

478. It doesn't always age well, but you look at the movies.

479. Movies depicted Japan as the evil empire attacking America.

480. Anybody from Japan was not to be trusted.

481. Germany.

482. You are a liar!

483. Russians.

484. If he dies, he dies.

485. You were taught at an early age...

486. these people, foreigners, they were the bad guys.

487. From Russia...

488. Right, wrong, indifferent,

489. in that time, your bad guy was the Russian bad guy,

490. the German bad guy, the Japanese bad guy.

491. And it was easy to understand for people.

492. Banzai!

493. Wrestling is an imitation of the world.

494. If you want to know what America is like, watch wrestling.

495. We show you yourself.

496. Tell me a wrestler you don't like.

497. The Sheik, man, the Sheik.

498. - Sheik. - The Iron Sheik.

499. - How come you don't like him? - He's from another country, man.

500. He's from another country.

501. Vince sees what's going on. He followed the river.

502. That's how he became rich. He never swam upstream.

503. You can look back on anything and say, "Oh, I bet you regret that."

504. Well, you know, look back on ten years, twenty years, five years ago,

505. life was different then.

506. Things were different, values were different,

507. and you can't take the values of today

508. and look back and say, "The same values apply to that."

509. It was a different time, different life, different set of values then.

510. If it were done today? Wow. That would be a problem.

511. But then? I didn't think it was a real big deal.

512. The Iron Sheik!

513. So, I wanted to transfer the title from Backlund to the Iron Sheik,

514. and then of course, setting us up for this big, blond-haired, All-American

515. to come in and beat the Iron Sheik from Iran.

516. Hulk Hogan needed the ultimate opponent,

517. and the timing was impeccable.

518. It's the All-American hero versus this evil Iranian.

519. The "Eye of the Tiger" as Hulk Hogan enters the squared circle!

520. Back then,

521. Vince made the decision if I was gonna win or lose the match,

522. but what we physically did in the ring,

523. I called in the ring on the spot.

524. We didn't rehearse anything.

525. That's the art form of wrestling.

526. I jumped in before the bell rang. Didn't tell him I was gonna do it.

527. Felt like the right thing to do.

528. Hulk has the Sheik's robe, and he clotheslined him with it!

529. I didn't tell him I was gonna clothesline him and choke him out.

530. It just all happens.

531. The Hulk now is in trouble.

532. You have listen to the crowd.

533. And the noise is deafening!

534. You kind of feel it, you listen, you think.

535. Hulk Hogan drops the big leg on him!

536. One, two— He's done it!

537. It was a really huge response from Madison Square Garden.

538. Hulkamania is here.

539. And of course everyone knows of Hulk Hogan to this day.

540. All I asked was for the whole WWE to stand behind the Hulkster,

541. and I told them I'd bring it home for the USA!

542. Hulkamania is running worldwide!

543. What a—

544. To put the belt on the Iron Sheik,

545. and then have the business direction that the belt's coming to me

546. because we need a guy to be the hood ornament to take over the world,

547. that was a business decision that Vince had to execute creatively,

548. and it worked.

549. Many fans feel that Hulk Hogan is perhaps

550. the most exciting pro wrestling champion ever.

551. You can't overemphasize the importance of Hulk Hogan.

552. You take Hulk Hogan out of the equation, I think, uh...

553. I think Vince fails in his expansion.

554. I'm relatively certain he fails in his expansion.

555. Pro wrestling is a star-driven business,

556. and the ability to make stars is what makes you popular.

557. Vince was much better at making stars than all of these other promoters

558. because his father was.

559. Vince McMahon Sr. was really good at making the top guys

560. come across like stars,

561. which was more important than having good wrestling matches.

562. That was Vince's strength because it was his father's strength.

563. There is a point when my dad told me he was proud of me.

564. He said, "You know, Vinnie,

565. all these friends of mine aren't really friends."

566. "These promoters I've worked with all these years in their territories,

567. you know, fuck them."

568. "You're beating all of them."

569. "I'm proud of you for what you've done. Fuck them all."

570. And I thought... "Wow."

571. First time my dad ever said anything like that, that he was on my side.

572. Of course, he waited until I was a success.

573. And maybe he felt that way all along, but he never told me.

574. That was one of the biggest moments of my life.

575. Until...

576. We'd like to have you all rise in a moment of silence

577. for Mr. Vincent J. McMahon.

578. The day before he died was the only time that he told me that he loved me,

579. but, wow. He told me. Before he died.

580. God, it felt so good.

581. Whether or not they care for you or not,

582. it's so wonderful in life to have someone that you care for.

583. And I had that opportunity to really care about my dad

584. and to love my dad.

585. I don't think he liked his father, to be honest with you.

586. Why do you say that?

587. When Jr. came along,

588. he had a vision that wrestling is going to change.

589. It can't remain the same.

590. And every idea that came out of his head drove his father up the roof.

591. Drove the wrestlers up the roof.

592. I remember guys in the dressing room talking about how nutty he was.

593. When Vince became the owner of the company and he and his father started to clash.

594. The clashes were mostly because of Vince Sr.'s lack of willingness

595. to accept where the industry and the business was headed.

596. Vince come along with these ideas that we thought were crazy.

597. It was just... It was not wrestling.

598. Vince had ideas about programming to a younger audience,

599. and not shying away from the fact that this was scripted entertainment.

600. Vince really wanted to grow and expand.

601. While everybody else was looking at the territories,

602. Vince understood that national cable was the future.

603. It was clear to me from the very beginning

604. that Vince was looking at a bigger distribution.

605. USA Network became the marketing channel for WWE.

606. Vince always wanted to promote something new that they were doing.

607. Be careful!

608. Vince was never in the wrestling business.

609. He was always in the entertainment business.

610. Like, for example, when he first came in and took over,

611. he made that talk show, and we thought he was off his deep end.

612. Thank you and welcome to TNT...

613. It was so much fun.

614. That's right!

615. It was the Wild West in a talk show format,

616. It was a riot.

617. Whoa!

618. You stupid idiot!

619. Vince was experimenting with different kinds of ways

620. to expose the talent to different audiences.

621. I'm in favor of that, for sure.

622. He always wanted to use wrestling as a stepping stone into other stuff.

623. Our company was growing, and things just started opening up.

624. And it's like, "Yeah, let's do this. Let's do that."

625. The voice of World Wrestling Entertainment and host of TNT, Mr. Vince McMahon.

626. Dave, as you know, um, there are lots of mothers in New York City...

627. There was an overlap that you and Vince had early on.

628. Oh! Yeah, yeah.

629. It was Letterman's third anniversary show,

630. and they decide if a baby was born during the show,

631. then that baby would become the "Late Night Baby."

632. And so they sent Vince McMahon to one maternity ward, and me to another.

633. - Vince, I have a question for you. - Yes, David.

634. Is that your tuxedo?

635. - Uh, no, actually, it's not. - Okay.

636. I think Vince enjoyed being on David Letterman.

637. It was as culturally hip a show as you could find.

638. It was a mark of credibility

639. if David Letterman gave you a figurative thumbs up.

640. Question, Larry. Is that your tux?

641. - No, it's not. - All right. Back to you!

642. Vince always looked at

643. how could he connect different aspects of the world of entertainment.

644. How can we co-brand with something

645. and make both of our brands bigger and stronger?

646. Hi! You're listening to MTV, Music Television,

647. and I'm Cyndi Lauper.

648. Cyndi Lauper was on MTV at that time, and she was a huge star.

649. For the uninitiated, this is Cyndi Lauper,

650. whose debut album, She's So Unusual, placed four singles in the top five.

651. On the video for one of them, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun,"

652. Captain Lou Albano appeared as Cyndi's father.

653. Cyndi Lauper met Captain Lou Albano on a plane...

654. Let me in! I wanna see Cyndi Lauper!

655. and felt that there could be some connection.

656. - Heavy metal wrestling goes. - Heavy metal...

657. And there's an opportunity to grow our businesses. Both of us.

658. Cyndi, tell all these people out here how I made you a superstar.

659. Tell them how you came off my reputation, Cyndi!

660. - How all women are nothing, Cyndi! - What?

661. Cyndi was associated with us, and that made MTV think,

662. "Here's Cyndi, she's going into this other genre."

663. "Let's work with this other genre as well."

664. This week on MTV. The Brawl, Sunday...

665. We did two television shows on MTV.

666. Got great ratings for MTV, and it was a great storyline.

667. I challenge you, you fat bag of wind!

668. At that time, women's wrestling was...

669. déclassé in a déclassé business.

670. Let me tell you something...

671. So I thought,

672. "I'll have Cyndi connect with one of our female performers."

673. "That'll make that division mean more."

674. - Yeah! - Moolah's going down!

675. That's right!

676. Wendi Richter was the choice to represent Cyndi.

677. I just got a call from her out of the blue

678. asking if I could represent her in the ring.

679. And I said, "Sure."

680. Managing the challenger, Cyndi Lauper!

681. There was a buzz in the arena, and it was because of her involvement.

682. This crowd is on their feet!

683. At this point, many of my friends, we were wrestling fans.

684. We liked the whole tongue-in-cheek aspect of it.

685. Like, here's a mainstream sports guy, and now he's lending his voice

686. to introducing Hulk Hogan and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper,

687. and he's doing it straight.

688. Thank you, Howard. This is indeed an honor.

689. It was funny. I loved it.

690. Oh, they're at it!

691. Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection!

692. - Wow! - Oh!

693. - Look out! - Oh!

694. You've gotta be kidding me! Here comes Mr. T, ladies and gentlemen!

695. I had made friends with Mr. T, and Mr. T was white-hot at the time,

696. just really on fire.

697. So you bring the celebrity into our world.

698. We've got a madhouse. What is going on? Ladies and gentlemen—

699. Pandemonium!

700. To have this partnership with MTV,

701. it was quite a step up from what we had been doing.

702. MTV was red-hot back then,

703. so this product that Vince McMahon put together

704. just wasn't in the back rooms for people that smoke cigars.

705. I mean, this was getting to be mainstream.

706. It changed wrestling.

707. Now, it's... it's okay for people to say, "I watch wrestling."

708. Andy Warhol, your impressions of what took place earlier on here.

709. I'm speechless.

710. Uh, it's just so exciting. I just don't know what to say.

711. I don't think it's over.

712. I think we have just seen the tip of the iceberg.

713. At that time, the business was growing leaps and bounds

714. and I enjoyed putting in the work.

715. But my wife, finally, "You need a vacation."

716. So I went to the Caribbean someplace for two days.

717. I came back the next day and announced, "We're gonna have one big event a year,

718. just like the Super Bowl, and we're gonna call it WrestleMania."

719. She turned to me and she said,

720. "You weren't relaxing or enjoying any of that."

721. "You were thinking about business."

722. On Sunday afternoon, March 31st, it's WrestleMania.

723. Mr. T risks it all wrestling for the first time,

724. teaming up with champion Hulk Hogan...

725. You will see the greatest production of wrestling ever in the world.

726. Wrestling history will be made.

727. The Woodstock of professional wrestling.

728. WrestleMania was obviously just, again, common sense.

729. There was a Super Bowl

730. and other big culminations of sports and things of that nature,

731. so why wouldn't we have one big end-of-the-season type deal?

732. - WrestleMania. - WrestleMania.

733. WrestleMania.

734. Maybe we could take this one huge event

735. and put it on what was known as "closed-circuit."

736. There will be over a million people watching on closed-circuit television

737. all over the, uh, United States.

738. Closed-circuit was simply a very large projector

739. projecting on a screen in an arena what you were presenting.

740. And you paid money, as if it were a live event, to come in and watch.

741. That concept today sounds ridiculous, but that's the way it was then.

742. Closed-circuit television, every major city in the United States.

743. Not only that, Jack.

744. but it's going to 24 foreign countries on big screen.

745. The hype worked so well that Hulk Hogan and Mr. T

746. have been granted the ultimate yuppie honor:

747. co-hosting Saturday Night Live.

748. Mr. T and Hulk Hogan!

749. We got a big match coming up.

750. Madison Square Garden. WrestleMania, that is. Hulk Hogan...

751. In terms of publicity for WrestleMania,

752. you wanted to invite the media as much as you possibly could.

753. We had an event in Madison Square Garden.

754. This isn't really wrestling. This is wrassling.

755. And John Stossel, from one of the networks,

756. wanted to interview some of our performers.

757. John Stossel's there under the premise

758. that he wants to find out if Hulk Hogan's really as popular

759. as the New York Times said.

760. And as we're walking, he goes, "Do you guys use razor blades to bleed?"

761. And I said, "Are you kidding me? Isn't that kind of masochistic?"

762. My head was already carved up from the last couple weeks, you know?

763. Man, I make a beeline to Vince.

764. I say, "Vince, this guy is not here to find out how popular Hulk Hogan is,

765. he's here to expose the wrestling business."

766. And Vince come into the dressing room,

767. and he said there was a reporter here that run around asking wrestlers,

768. "Is wrestling fake?"

769. Fans, I'm afraid I have to tell you, it is fake.

770. He said, "I wish somebody'd do something with that guy."

771. I did not hear Vince McMahon say anything about putting him in his place.

772. That's verbiage I never heard.

773. He didn't tell us to do it,

774. but he said, "I wish someone would take care of that guy,"

775. and walked out of the dressing room.

776. There was a wrestler by the name of David Schultz,

777. decided he would step into the shot.

778. - I think this is fake. - You think it's fake?

779. Out of nowhere, David Schultz just slaps the crap out of Stossel.

780. You think it's fake? Come—

781. - Cut! - Huh? What do you mean?

782. Do you remember Vince's reaction to John getting hit?

783. We all celebrated.

784. Not just Vince, everybody.

785. David was getting pats on the back, people was buying him drinks.

786. Well, at the time, we were very protective of the business,

787. because wrestling is not fake. It's predetermined, it's exhibition,

788. but I can tell you, in the last 10 years, I've had 23 surgeries.

789. In 10 years.

790. So if that's fake, please explain it to me.

791. I didn't get the memo.

792. At the time, you gotta realize, you know, they were protecting the business.

793. We loved it.

794. Until the lawsuit came down. That's when the shit hit the fan.

795. How is it, physically?

796. A doctor now says I have ear damage that's probably permanent...

797. Mainstream culture was coming to pro wrestling.

798. But pro wrestling wasn't quite ready for prime time.

799. You see a similar thing on The Richard Belzer Show,

800. when Hulk Hogan, who's the most media ready

801. of anybody in that crew,

802. finds himself in this incredibly bizarre and unfortunate situation.

803. Apparently, you don't know what's going on.

804. - You must've been in a log cabin. - I know—

805. I'll lay it out for you, little dude.

806. - Let me tell you how it is. - Okay.

807. You know, Mr. T...

808. It's tough when people try to undermine our business.

809. The thing is, I fear no man.

810. - I believe you. - You dig it?

811. - I can dig it twice. - Are you a man?

812. - What do you think? - I really don't know.

813. You wanna step outside?

814. Like when Richard Belzer says,

815. "Hey, put one of those wrestling moves on me."

816. Tell me, brother, when you want him to quit squealing.

817. All right.

818. Brought him over, hooked him in a front chin lock.

819. - How about it, T? - Keep it like that for a while.

820. And when I let him go, he fell and hit his head.

821. Belzer just flopped, and Hulk thought it was a pratfall.

822. In actuality... he was hurt.

823. - Your head is bleed— - We'll be back.

824. He hit his head when he fell, and it was bleeding.

825. This was not good.

826. I sued Mr. T, Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, World Wrestling Entertainment...

827. I sued them all.

828. Yeah. Vince wasn't real happy with me.

829. We were at a very, very vulnerable stage with WrestleMania I

830. for me to be going around choking people out and stuff.

831. WrestleMania was a big risk.

832. Vince banked everything on this WrestleMania being a success.

833. He put a lot of money into it.

834. The story is if it had failed, he'd have been belly-up.

835. And, you know... um, it's very possibly true.

836. Well, my parents mortgaged everything they owned to make WrestleMania I happen.

837. I was so young, I didn't truly understand what that meant.

838. My parents never really talked finance in front of us, uh, but you can feel it.

839. My dad would just keep saying, "This is going to work,"

840. and, uh, "We're betting a lot on this one."

841. You know, at this point, I'm a teenager, and I'm just like, "Hm."

842. We didn't have the money to do it,

843. and if it was a huge failure, then we were in trouble.

844. I'd say that's an accurate statement.

845. Welcome, everyone! Gorilla Monsoon here at ringside

846. as World Wrestling Entertainment presents

847. the wrestling extravaganza of all time, WrestleMania.

848. I knew that if we didn't pull this thing off,

849. that we were completely out of business.

850. Thirty-five thousand plus on their feet!

851. The electricity is unbelievable!

852. The crowd definitely behind Hulk Hogan and Mr. T.

853. It was a roll of the dice. A big one.

854. Going nose-to-nose.

855. But so many things that night went right.

856. It was a big success.

857. From Vince's perspective, you could not hit a bigger home run.

858. It really was the sum of all the parts.

859. When you think back to WrestleMania I,

860. I was trying to make a statement as to what our business really is.

861. We wanted to be all forms of entertainment all rolled into one.

862. When you have extraordinary people

863. from all different parts of entertainment combined,

864. that is sports entertainment. That's what we're about.

865. If there was ever a perfect storm, this was it.

866. Vince was very excited and very happy.

867. You could tell. He was vibrating, man.

868. He was on a high. He knew we pulled it off.

869. Hulk Hogan and Mr. T in a tag-team grudge match?

870. They called it WrestleMania,

871. the biggest event in pro wrestling since Gorgeous George.

872. Everybody in Madison Square Garden, all the way around the world,

873. now you know what it's all about...

874. Right before the first WrestleMania, the whole business was looking good.

875. Vince was the strongest, but there were still all these territories going on.

876. After WrestleMania I, nobody knew it yet,

877. other promoters didn't know yet, but Vince won the war with that.

878. I don't know if it was good for the industry.

879. It was good for me and my organization. That's all I cared about.

880. After WrestleMania, in whatever city we were in,

881. all of a sudden, more TV cameras were everywhere in the buildings,

882. and people wanted to do interviews with us.

883. It was such a major success, it put a skyrocket on the company.

884. This whole momentum changed the wrestling business

885. from cigar smokers and beer drinkers who wanna see violence

886. to having families in the front row that wanna buy a ton of merchandise.

887. It definitely made wrestling so mainstream

888. there was no denying that we were here to stay.

889. WrestleMania I is a huge success.

890. It achieves

891. more than Vince could've possibly imagined for his company.

892. But with greater success comes greater scrutiny.

893. And Vince becomes a target.

894. That expression of "there's no such thing as bad publicity..."

895. That's BS, 'cause there is.

896. A special investigation has turned up allegations

897. that could outrage the biggest wrestling fan.

898. A legal fight is in store for the head of World Wrestling Entertainment.

899. It's a scandal that threatens to knock him out of the ring.

900. Right on the heels of this huge success,

901. Vince finds himself caught up in a series of scandals

902. that threaten to upend his entire world.