After surviving controversial wrestler deaths and a steroid trial,
what finally made Vince McMahon tell himself, "You're fired"?
Sports Illustrated notes that Vince McMahon's father, Vincent McMahon Sr., founded the WWE,
which was then known as Capitol Wrestling Corporation, in 1963. According to Talk Sport,
when McMahon Jr. took over the company in 1982, he promised his dad that he wouldn't expand
beyond its New York-area territory to promote nationally. But soon enough, he broke his promise
and pried talent away from other territories, most notably the Minneapolis-area American
Wrestling Association, from which he plucked the likes of Hulk Hogan and Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
The younger McMahon is the first to admit that his cutthroat tactics
wouldn't exactly have pleased his father. He told Off the Record,
"When I bought my dad's business he had no idea what my intentions were.
My dad would've never sold me the business had he known we were gonna go national."
With his bold business moves, McMahon ushered in the pro wrestling boom in the 1980s and created
a lucrative empire, forcing most of the other traditional wrestling territories out of business.
WWE wrestlers are independent contractors, meaning that they aren't entitled to health insurance or
workers' compensation. Yet they are contractually obligated to work live events and make personal
appearances for WWE. As former WWE wrestler Chavo Guerrero Jr. told Sports Illustrated,
"You have to run everything by WWE."
When Jesse Ventura tried to form a union for WWE performers in the 1980s, he recalled on
"The Steve Austin Show" that his contract was terminated. Ventura maintains McMahon has done
everything he can to curtail a union and workers' rights in WWE. he told Pro Wrestling Insider,
"Wrestling's still the only industry that doesn't have a union and it's
not a union to fight Vince. It's a union to get retirement. It's a union to get health benefits."
More recently, wrestler Zelina Vega was suspiciously released from her contract
after she tweeted support for unionization. The WWE cut ties with Vega just 10 minutes
after the tweet, The Wrap reports. WWE representatives told the outlet that her
firing had nothing to do with her support of unionization, and she was later rehired.
In the early '90s, Vince McMahon was accused of distributing steroids to his wrestlers,
for which he was criminally charged and put on trial in 1994. Wrestler Superstar Billy
Graham claimed that 90% of wrestlers used steroids. According to the New York Times,
Dr. George Zahorian, who was sentenced to three years in jail in 1992 for narcotic distribution,
testified that he provided Hulk Hogan with steroids. Zahorian testified,
"[McMahon's secretary] would contact me, contact my office, speak to me personally,
and ask if I would send up the anabolic steroids to Mr. McMahon's office."
Former wrestler Kevin Patrick "Nailz" Wacholz claimed that McMahon told him
he wasn't big enough to be a wrestler and urged him to take steroids. Hogan
himself also admitted that he had used performance enhancing drugs, stating,
"I believed it was legal because I had a prescription for it."
That contradicted Hogan's claims on "The Arsenio Hall Show."
"The things that I am not, is I'm not a steroid abuser, and I do not use steroids."
In the trial, Hogan denied that McMahon was responsible for his steroid use.
McMahon could have faced 11 years in prison if convicted, but was ultimately acquitted
of the charges. Even so, the legal headlines damaged WWE's reputation. Bleacher Report notes
that business suffered after the trial, and it prompted the company to pivot from ultra-ripped
wrestlers like Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior to leaner types, like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.
In the late '90s and 2000s, WWE relied heavily on sexualizing its female performers.
Author Pat Laprade wrote in the book "Sisterhood of the Squared Circle,"
"Women were presented purely as sex objects, competing in bra and
panties matches or other novelty matches designed to show as much skin as possible."
Trish Stratus, one of the most esteemed wrestlers of the era, was forced by McMahon
to act like a dog on television. Metro quoted her as explaining at a wrestling convention,
"Vince pitched the angle to me like this: 'So we're going to have this angle where
you are barking like a dog and get really humiliated, and basically hit rock bottom.'"
When Bob Costas called this out in a 2001 interview with McMahon,
the WWE chairman gave a fiery response.
"You have to stay tuned, Bob. It's not fair to take
one little excerpt of this and one little excerpt of that."
More recently, wrestler Mickie James told Gaw TV in 2021
that she blames the company's sexism and ageism for her firing.
That said, the WWE has made considerable strides in the past few years to improve the
representation of women. Vince McMahon's daughter, Stephanie McMahon, told Digital Spy in 2021 that
there's been a major behind-the-scenes push to bring in more women writers.
In 1999, the wrestling world was rocked by the death of Owen Hart,
who plummeted to the ring when the equipment that lowered him from the rafters malfunctioned.
The tragedy occurred in front of a live audience, though it did not air to viewers
at home. During a press conference after the event, Vince McMahon snapped at a reporter,
"This was a tragic accident. Don't try and put yourself in the spotlight here, okay?"
The pay-per-view event, Over the Edge, went on as planned after the accident.
Wrestler Jeff Jarrett, who participated in the next match,
said he wrestled with tears in his eyes. Speaking with The New York Times,
Owen Hart's brother, Bret Hart, said of McMahon's decision to continue with the show,
"It was very cold-blooded."
Speaking with CBS Sports, Owen's widow, Martha Hart, called out McMahon's, quote,
"lack of respect for a human life that had just been lost."
When Martha sought financial compensation,
McMahon promptly filed a countersuit against her. In an interview with Uproxx, Martha
mentioned that she sued them in the state where the event took place, not where WWE is based.
"This is a company that sued me, the widow, for breach of Owen's contract
because I didn't sue them in Connecticut, I sued them in Kansas City. It's like,
I'm not suing you for breach of contract, I'm suing you for his wrongful death."
Martha was ultimately awarded $18 million after months of litigation,
according to Missouri Lawyers Weekly.
In 1992, the WWE was rocked by another scandal when a number of former employees accused Vince
McMahon of turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct by several of its executives.
According to Politico, Tom Cole, a former ring boy, alleged he was sexually abused as a minor
when working for the organization. The WWE ultimately paid Cole and two other former
ring boys a small out-of-court settlement. Cole took his own life at age 50 in 2021.
The controversy played out on an infamous episode of "The Phil Donahue Show."
McMahon was present to defend himself as former WWE commentator Murray Hodgson alleged that
he was fired two months into his job when he refused the sexual advances of Pat Patterson,
then vice president of operations. According to Newsweek, McMahon suspended Patterson
following the accusations, though he was soon rehired once the charges were dropped. Wrestler
Barry Orton likewise alleged he was sexually harassed by Terry Garvin in the late '70s.
The episode has aged particularly badly due to the callousness with which the accusations are met.
Sections of the audience erupted into laughter as the alleged victims described their ordeals.
"He didn't say, 'Sleep with me,' did he? Is that the way men talk?"
"I don't--"
Meanwhile, Donahue himself suggested that Orton was not "helpless,"
being a big, strong man. When Hodgson confronted McMahon about being fired,
the Chairman deflected by calling the WWE a benevolent organization.
In 1992, Rita Chatterton, WWE's first female referee,
alleged that Vince McMahon raped her. The allegation pertained to an incident in 1986,
so the statute of limitations had passed. Her claims were corroborated by wrestler
Leonard Inzitari, also known as Mario Mancini, who told New York Magazine,
"I remember it like it was yesterday. She was a wreck. She was shaking. She was crying."
Shortly after Chatterton told Inzitari about the ordeal, the WWE cut ties with her. During
a 1992 appearance on "Geraldo," Chatterton explained that when she joined the company,
McMahon told her she would be a huge star with her face plastered on magazines and merchandise.
He also offered her a $500,000 contract. McMahon allegedly soon put conditions on those promises.
"Vince continued to, you know, if you wanna have a half- a-million-dollar contract,
you're gonna have to satisfy me, and this is the way things have to go."
The Daily Beast reported that in 2006,
a 22-year-old tanning salon worker alleged that McMahon attempted to rape her.
She rushed to a nearby restaurant and called the police, whose report concluded,
"There is probable cause to believe that Vincent McMahon did actually
and intentionally touch [the alleged victim]."
However, McMahon was ultimately spared from prosecution due to lack of eyewitness testimony
and physical evidence. He denies the allegations.
In 2022, Vince McMahon resigned as CEO and Chairman of WWE after
The Wall Street Journal reported he'd allegedly paid hush money to an employee
with whom he was having an affair. The WWE board received a tip via email that Vince had paid
$3 million to a paralegal he'd employed to prevent her from discussing their entanglement.
The Journal notes that the relationship between the CEO and the paralegal,
whose salary was doubled to $200,000 following the affair, was reportedly consensual.
Further investigation found that there were numerous other women who had been employees
who had signed non-disclosure agreements, and that McMahon had paid out a total
of $14.6 million in "unrecorded expenses," according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The investigation also rekindled rumors that Vince and his wife,
Linda McMahon, had been separated for some time. Speaking with Playboy in 2001,
Vince admitted to cheating on his wife on numerous occasions. He said,
"It's not something I'm proud of. I just didn't realize the impact
of messing with other people's lives. Notwithstanding the impact on my wife,
I'm talking about the havoc you create in other lives, just from wanting to have a good time."
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault,
help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).