5 ways WWE Chairman Vince McMahon changed Pro Wrestling forever
Today, Vincent Kennedy McMahon turns 74.
It's hard to imagine where pro-wrestling would be today if it hadn't been for Vince McMahon. Soon after buying off WWE from his father, McMahon made it a point to turn the company into the biggest wrestling corporation in the world. Around 4 decades later, it's safe to say that he has been successful in achieving his intended goal.
The journey towards turning WWE into a global phenomenon certainly wasn't an easy one for McMahon. On his way to pro-wrestling greatness, Vince made several friends, as well as foes. Nevertheless, he came unscathed out of every challenge that was laid out in front of him, most notably The Monday Night Wars. Buying off WCW and ECW in 2001 was possibly the biggest victory of Vince McMahon's professional career, and he never looked back. Let's celebrate Vince McMahon's birthday by looking into 5 big changes that he made to Pro Wrestling.
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#5 Created legendary storylines that are still mimicked to this day
Under Vince McMahon's vision, WWE delighted its fans with a string of iconic and memorable angles that fans still talk about today, and some of which are mimicked to this day. Possibly the greatest pro-wrestling rivalry of all time, Vince McMahon vs Stone Cold Steve Austin was simple, yet incredibly effective in its delivery.
The struggle of an everyday worker against his corrupt, power-hungry boss was something everyone could relate to. It turned Vince into one of the biggest heels of all time, and Austin into an anti-hero everyone loved to cheer for. This storyline has been imitated several times since then, notably with John Cena and Eric Bischoff, but nothing ever came close to it. Same can be said about the brother vs brother rivalry between The Undertaker and Kane, and the unmatched tension between The Rock and Steve Austin.