5 Things Vince McMahon expects from the 'Top Guy'
It is traditionally assumed that Vince McMahon and you, the internet wrestling fan, can never ever see eye to eye. This is because Vince McMahon, in his head, has a set image of a top superstar that fits a certain mold. Only with these traits can someone ascend the ranks and become the top babyface of the company.
Ever since Vince McMahon Jr. took over the company from his father, he has fostered a brand that is built around a popular babyface (as opposed to say the NWA, which was built around top heel Ric Flair, and WCW circa 96, which was created around the nWo). This began with Hulk Hogan, and has continued with The Ultimate Warrior, Lex Luger, The Rock, John Cena, Randy Orton and finally Roman Reigns.
While the internet wrestling ‘smark’ may have gotten behind Randy Savage during Hulkamania, Bret Hart during the Lex Express, and C.M Punk/ A.J. Styles of right now, there’s more than enough evidence to prove that Vince McMahon agrees with Big Daddy Cool Kevin Nash’s assessment of them as ‘Vanilla Midgets’ and believes that they won’t draw a dime. But enough about the boss. Let’s find out what characteristics make him pick the face that runs the place.
#5 An impressive ‘big’ physique
As a bodybuilder himself (who’s in phenomenal shape at the age of 71), Vince McMahon is attracted to superstars with a robust, imposing physique. Be it Lex Luger or Roman Reigns, the physically formidable stars have constantly received pushes ahead of smaller crowd favourites (Bret Hart and Daniel Bryan respectively), and these two men have ruled the roost in the company, 20 years apart.
In fact, it is speculated that if not for the steroids scandal that rocked the wrestling world in 1991, smaller superstars like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels would never have become main event players at all. Vince adopts the traditional viewpoint that smaller superstars don’t draw money at all, and invests money in building stars who have a certain look.
This is said to primarily be to connect with a mainstream audience. A non-fan audience that, with little regard for the actual spectacle of wrestling, is drawn towards it only due to the formidable and awe-inspiring on-screen presence of the wrestlers themselves. One can only guess how accurate this assessment is, but for what it is worth, WWE is called ‘Land of the Giants’ for a reason and the fact has certainly has been apparent in their programming for a long time.