From World Wide Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Entertainment, the WWE has always been a wrestling company pushing the boundaries of entertainment and moving beyond the limitations of just wrestling. On Thursday morning, Vince McMahon confirmed the next step in the WWE's business evolution as he told the LA Times that the WWE will no longer be referred to as a wrestling company. The WWE will just go by its 3 letters and look to expand its entertainment business into other media opportunities.
"I think every brand has to re-create itself. I want everyone to look at us in a vastly different way than they have. It is a logical broadening of what we already do." Vince McMahon
McMahon's latest comments come as no surprise to many wrestling pundits who have followed or studied the history of the WWE. McMahon has consistently gone outside the box of pro-wrestling since he took over the WWE in 1982 when he bought Capital Wrestling Corporation from his father Vincent J. McMahon. McMahon immediately implemented plans to expand outside his regional area to go national. By 1985, McMahon created a wrestling event that combined pro-wrestling with rock and entertainment called WrestleMania. He reached out to media outlets like MTV and forged relationships with rock stars like Cindi Lauper.
In the early 90's, McMahon told the media and wrestling fans that his style of pro-wrestling was sports entertainment and not the traditional sport that has been portrayed for the last 90 years. McMahon did this to get around the taxes and regulations from various state athletic commissions.
By 2002, the WWE name was forged after it lost a legal battle with the World Wildlife Fund who shared the same initials of WWF as the once named World Wrestling Federation. WWE began to push the entertainment side of things, eventually developing a movie production department and producing its own films.; which starred WWE superstars like John Cena, HHH, Kane and more. McMahon also opened a WWE restaurant in Times Square and created a successful book publishing department.
Through the years, Vince had unsuccessfully tried to branch out into other forms of media, sports, and entertainment. In 2000, Vince forged a partnership with NBC as they tried to start a new football league called the XFL. The league debuted in 2001 but only lasted 1 season as NBC pulled out and Vince was unable to find another TV network to air the games. Additionally, McMahon also tried to create his own body building league which quickly fizzled out.
It's unclear as to what media ventures McMahon is currently looking to obtain. But the chairman of the WWE feels the company is in a financial position to do so.
"To me, it is anything that is out there. We can take on a ton of debt."
McMahon would also like to market the WWE production talents to other entities as he feels they have more experience than any other entity other than the Olympics for producing live events.
"No one does television production better than we do, it's damn near the Olympics.We know more about live event touring than anyone in the United States."
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