The reason you're into professional wrestling today is because of Vince McMahon. The reason you're reading this is also because of Vince McMahon.
He is the reason for all our joy and has provided us with a pass-time to fill our empty lives. He's the biggest name in wrestling history and the puppet master behind all our favourite superheroes.
Mr McMahon is an entrepreneur, businessman and legendary TV character. Over the years, through several strategic business moves, the 71-year old has amassed a personal net worth of over $1 billion.
Despite his endless pits of wealth, Vince should be wealthier than he currently is, and he knows it. Here a few reasons why the money-grabbing chairman isn't as rich as he should be:
#1 Unintelligent investments like the XFL:
Vince is a businessman and territory explorer, he loves to push boundaries and evolve with the times. But in this particular scenario, the Chairman of the WWE got his bearings completely wrong and wandered into unknown territory.
In a daring attempt to broaden his business ventures, Vince McMahon created the Xtreme Football League (XFL). A professional American football league in 1999, by 2001 it had already folded.
Viewership and ratings tanked throughout the one season it was on for. The plan was for the show to run during the NFL off-season to cater to fans who missed the NFL dearly, however, in the end it was just a cheap imitation.
Vince packaged the product as an alternative to the NFL but nobody cared. Vince approximately lost around $35 million in one year from investments made in the XFL. NBC also lost a similar sum as it was the primary owner of league’s TV rights.
#2 Endless amounts of Lawsuits:
Over the past two decades, McMahon, has somehow come out on the good side of several lawsuits.
At this present time, Vince and WWE are being sued by 53 former wrestlers, as they claim that Vince consciously held back information concerning long-term health implications of brain damage. For Vince, this is another lawsuit, which is the equivalent of another day at the office for him.
Over the years he has encountered many lawsuits, ranging from defamation cases to brand naming disputes, and yet he still stands tall today.
However, the one lawsuit that nearly ended the Vince we know of today, is when he was accused of supplying steroid substances to wrestlers in the business. In a court case where Vince admitted to using steroids himself, it looked as if the WWF owner was going to receive a criminal charge.
Until the superhero he created, Hulk Hogan, came in and denied Vince had any part in handing out steroids to the wrestlers. If Hogan hadn't had testified, Vince was looking at a possible jail term with intent to supply, scary eh?
#3 Having 'chosen ones'
As a businessman, Vince is shrewd and maximises his assets' potential, but when that business mentality gets mixed in with booking philosophy, it gets complicated.
Vince's mindset when it comes to booking philosophy seems to be 'there can only be one or two TOP guys' on the roster at one time. Others are not allowed to prosper besdies his guys. If you get yourself over it doesn't count, look at guys like; Ryback, RVD, Sandow etc, they will only accept it when they're forced to, like they were with Daniel Bryan.
Ryback who recently found himself walking away from a new WWE contract gave an interview, where he implied that the company repeatedly restricted his merchandise production and he could not understand why the company wouldn't want all the wrestlers to be over and making money.
Rumours have always been afloat that if you're not one of the WWE's 'chosen ones’, they don't want you to do better than them.
According to former wrestler Mister Saint Laurent, the WWE merchandise department started to under-ship CM Punk's merchandise as soon as he began to outsell John Cena, in order to have Cena remain as the no.1 seller in terms of units shipped. The WWE also refused to give Punk a second t-shirt design whilst giving Cena several designs.
If this is true, then Vince has missed out on millions of dollars by not utilising his whole roster.
#4 Exaggerated TV predictions:
In 2014, Vince seemed to carry over his larger than life on-screen character to the business room, by blatantly exaggerating potential profit margins from a new TV deal with NBC to investors.
WWE portrayed to their shareholders that they expected to get three times their previous deal with NBC, but ended up only ended up getting a 50% raise. The reaction to the news was devastating, shares went down by 40% in the same day.
This was an extremely costly start to 2014 for WWE as they also announced weak subscriber counts for the network a few months before. That first quarter of 2014 was so bad that it even took Vince McMahon's personal net worth to under a billion for the first time in years, he reportedly lost in excess of $350 million in four months.
The principal owner of WWE owns 52% of the company, so any hits the company takes, directly impact him the most.
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