Everyone knows the TV character version of Vince McMahon; the cartoon villain WWE chairman
whose theme music spells doom for the poor soul standing in the ring as he powerwalks
toward them.
But the real Vince McMahon is far more complicated.
Here are some things you might not have known about his life.
McMahon's parents split before he was a year old, setting him up for an impoverished youth
growing up in a trailer park in North Carolina.
Young Vince would not meet his real father until he was 12, growing up with his mom and
a revolving door of violent stepdads until he finally had enough and left home at 14.
His humble beginnings have left the billionaire wary of the trappings of wealth.
McMahon can be surprisingly candid when he talks about his troubled early years.
In an interview, he once said that a particularly hated stepdad was lucky to have gone before
he could get him.
McMahon has also insinuated that he had a learning disability or some form of attention
deficit disorder, but adults at the time usually just considered him a bad kid.
He started running in gangs, getting in street fights, stealing, and even running moonshine.
"I guess maybe I always resorted back to the one common denominator when I was terribly
frustrated like that, and that, of course, would be physicality."
With financial aid from his father, McMahon eventually attended Fishburne Military School
in Waynesboro, Virginia, but would probably have preferred if he didn't.
McMahon claims to hold the dubious honor of being the first cadet in the school's history
to get court martialed.
Vince McMahon has a reputation as a control freak.
For example, there's a persistent story that he hates sneezing because he can't control
it.
But there was at least one time when he really threw caution to the wind.
Wrestler Bret Hart's autobiography tells a tale in which some wrestlers were having a
blast at an El Paso club before taping a show in San Antonio.
To their surprise, a very inebriated McMahon is alleged to have joined the party around
midnight.
At the insistence of Hulk Hogan, the equally wasted wrestlers started hitting their boss
with their finishing maneuvers.
The police intervened just as Davey Boy Smith was searching for a good spot to body slam
McMahon, and the party was relocated to Ric Flair's hotel room.
At the hotel, everyone went on Flair's king-size bed, and McMahon started trying to wrestle
his underlings for real.
Most of them knew to take it easy with him, but "Hercules" Hernandez manhandled McMahon
to the point that the then-WWF owner was sent flying and bounced off a rollaway bed.
A few days later, Hernandez was released from the company.
"So...so I'm fired?"
According to Vice Sports, a steroid scandal nearly brought Vince McMahon crashing down
in 1993, when he was charged with routinely acquiring them for his wrestlers.
According to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, McMahon used a Pennsylvania-based
urologist named Dr. George Zahorian to help with his performers' enhancements.
Some of Zahorian's most notable patients included Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, "Rowdy"
Roddy Piper, and even the shockingly ripped McMahon himself.
After a powerlifter turned informant, the good doctor implicated the then-WWF in his
business.
The following investigation and trial could have sent McMahon in prison for up to eight
years.
The case earned national attention, and Hogan was subpoenaed to testify.
However, procedural errors severely undermined the case, as did allegations that star witness
Kevin "Nailz" Wacholz nursed a personal vendetta against McMahon.
"It just seems as though they're all ganging up on us, all at one time."
"These are people with axes to grind?"
"Yes."
Only one count of McMahon's assorted charges made it to the jury, and he was acquitted.
McMahon first attempted to start his own football league in 2001, when he joined forces with
NBC to create the XFL.
As ESPN notes, the league attempted to stand out with gimmicks, flashy cheerleaders, and
a wilder set of rules than the NFL's.
But the XFL failed to captivate the public, ultimately losing McMahon and NBC a whopping
$70 million.
Yet the dream remained.
In early 2018, McMahon announced that he was giving the XFL a second shot, and this time
he would do it all by himself.
McMahon plans to use $100 million of his own money to finance the spring league, which
is set to kick off in 2020 with eight teams that he will also own.
McMahon says he spent a good chunk of his time in military school playing wild pranks
such as feeding a laxative-laced hamburger to a commanding officer's dog and stealing
his car.
That mindset has continued well into adulthood.
In an interview with Back Sports Page, WWE commentator Jonathan "Coach" Coachman recalls
how in 2001, he was asked to run a football pool for the talent.
The next Tuesday at a SmackDown taping, two cops turned up and arrested him for running
an illegal gambling pool.
"Gambling?
Who said anything about gambling?"
They walked Coachman to McMahon's office to let the chairman know what his employee was
up to.
McMahon went ballistic and yelled at poor Coach in front of other employees.
Coach was walked out in handcuffs and driven away in a cop car.
The ordeal lasted for 45 minutes before the car was finally called back, and Coach discovered
the whole thing had been one of his boss's practical jokes.
According to some reports, McMahon once got in a physical fight with wrestler Kofi Kingston.
Wrestling legend Chris Jericho tells the tale of how McMahon was flying a number of WWE
Superstars to a WrestleMania 26 press conference on his private jet.
When the plane landed, McMahon made a strange comment to Kingston, insinuating he wasn't
popular with fans.
Kingston didn't react at first, but an inebriated Jericho intervened and told his colleague
to go back and confront McMahon because McMahon likes people who stand up to him.
After a quick exchange of words, McMahon performed a double-leg takedown on Kingston and the
two started brawling on the floor of the plane.
McMahon got up and started laughing, saying quote, "That's the way to do it," before exiting
the plane like nothing had happened.
Kingston eventually went on to win the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania 35.
In 2019, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver pointed out some glaring problems with the
way McMahon and the WWE do business, from the company the organization keeps to its
shocking labor practices.
The report pointed out the WWE's long history of shady business dealings and ties with less
than savory institutions, such as the very controversial government of Saudi Arabia.
There's also the way WWE exploits its talent.
WWE considers wrestlers to be independent contractors, which means they don't get employer
health insurance.
This is especially inflammatory given the absurdly high rates of injury and premature
within the industry.
The superstars themselves seem to know this, too: WWE legend "Rowdy" Roddy Piper once said
in an interview that he wouldn't live long enough to collect a pension.
"My pension plan, I can't take out until I'm 65.
I'm not gonna make 65."
Piper passed away in 2015, at the age of 61.
The WWE's response to the report mostly contested the show's claims.
The organization even invited Oliver to WrestleMania, which he declined.
Oliver did, however, invite wrestling fans to demand change, since they've been shown
to be pretty much the only people who have managed to influence the way Vince McMahon
runs WWE.
"The very least he can do is show the same dedication to wrestlers that they have shown
to his company."
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