Best For Business: 5 Times Vince McMahon Knew Better Than His Critics
Vince McMahon is certainly the most powerful and influential figure in the last century of professional wrestling, if not of all time. Between business strategy and creative decisions, he has been all but untouchable in the wrestling world, including building the WWE brand as one synonymous with the business to casual fans.
McMahon is nothing if not controversial. At virtually every step of his journey, he has faced critics and detractors who suggest his business tactics won’t work in the long term, or that he has lost touch with his fan base. The Chairman may not make the right choice every single time. Nonetheless, his track record at large is beyond reproach, and there are certainly those times when he made questionable, arguably even counter-intuitive choices that wound up paying off in the long run. This article takes a look back at five times Vince McMahon really did know what was best for business, and proved himself to know better than his critics.
5. Going All The Way With John Cena
After the Attitude Era, and after the initial wave of WCW talent had been incorporated into WWE, the company got behind Brock Lesnar as its new top star. For all of Lesnar’s athletic prowess, impressive look, and good initial performances, however, some of the luster had come off by the time he approached two full years on the main roster. Moreover, Lesnar decided WWE wasn’t really for him when he walked away to pursue professional football and then MMA.
WWE needed to hitch its wagon to a new face of the company and went with John Cena. Not only did Cena get a big push from 2004 into 2005, and beat JBL for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania, he was moved to the higher profile RAW brand where he went on to dominate the main event scene for a decade.
Cena may have never appealed to the WWE fans base in ways that Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin did. Despite criticisms, however, he did evolve into a guy who could deliver great matches when the spotlight was at its brightest. Moreover, Cena was a reliable star who kept his nose clean from controversy and managed to stay relatively healthy despite working a rigorous schedule. In short, he was the ideal company man, and threatens to further reward WWE for its trust in him with his blossoming acting career.