Analyzing Vince McMahon and WWE's Ties to Professional Sports

For Vince McMahon and WWE, professional sports can both feed his empire and help to expand it.

The sports entertainment giant has long been culling talent from the football field and using sports stars as added attractions. That has been especially true for boxers, whom WWE has welcomed into its rings time and time again.

McMahon has also tried to duplicate his wrestling promotion triumphs in the realm of pro sports, only to find that he is master of one world, and one world alone.

It's a world that benefited greatly from football, the seedbed that has grown several WWE Hall of Famers.

Football Funnels Talent  

WWE, getting its start as the WWWF (World Wide Wrestling Federation) when Vince McMahon Sr. was in control, seemed to treat the NFL and college football as a developmental system of sorts.

So many of the men toiling in the ring began their athletic careers on the gridiron. Wahoo McDaniel, for example, was a linebacker in the NFL during the football season and a wrestler during the offseason.

He headlined events at Madison Square Garden and eventually moved to wrestling full-time.

WWE Hall of Famer Ernie Ladd made the leap from the NFL to the wrestling ring as well. After serving on the "Fearsome Foursome" San Diego Charger defensive line, he found success with several promotions, most notably what is now WWE.

WWE later showcased former Cincinnati Bengal Brian Pillman at the height of the Attitude Era. Goldberg played defensive tackle for the Atlanta Falcons before winning WWE's world title.

The long list of football-to-wrestling transplants was no coincidence. The toughness, size and agility that football requires are all valuable qualities for WWE Superstars.

Paul Connors/Associated Press

Today's developmental roster boasts two former NFLers Mojo Rawley and Baron Corbin, continuing the long tradition of WWE snatching up quick-footed, powerful men from the football field.

Boxer vs. Wrestler

Boxing has always had a strange relationship with WWE. Despite how different the two entities are, the McMahon-run company has tried to merge them time and time again.

Boxing and wrestling have indeed crossed paths, only to step on each others' toes as they tried to dance together.

Back in 1976, Muhammad Ali was set to face Japanese wrestling icon Antonio Inoki in a boxer versus wrestler match. 

WWE made sure that there were shenanigans before that bout to hype it up. Ali and Gorilla Monsoon collided in a wrestling ring in the kind of supposedly impromptu altercation that is a regular part of WWE programming.

That same year, Andre the Giant took on boxer Chuck Wepner, whose claim to fame was lasting longer than expected in a fight with Ali and later becoming the inspiration for Rocky. 

They fought at Shea Stadium—Wepner in boxing gloves, Andre in wrestling gear. The worked bout was a mess of rabbit punches and bear hugs. It ended with Andre awkwardly tossing Wepner over the ropes.

Even with that history, McMahon didn't kill the boxer versus wrestler concept.

He had Mr. T, who played a boxer in the movies, trade gloved punches with Roddy Piper at WrestleMania II. Over a dozen years later, WWE put on a shoot fighting tournament featuring wrestlers fumbling in an unfamiliar boxing-like environment.

Bart Gunn won that tourney. His prize was a boxing match with heavyweight Butterbean. The boxer knocked out the wrestler in a matter of seconds.

The result had the unpleasant effect of making Gunn—and all the men he beat beforehand—look like lesser athletes. The stigma that pro wrestlers wear for being "fake athletes" only got worse.

The next time McMahon put brought in a boxer, he made sure it was more of a spectacle and less of a belly flop.

Floyd Mayweather challenged Big Show after a run-in at a No Way Out 2008.

That led to a David versus Goliath, boxer versus wrestler match where Mayweather knocked out Big Show at WrestleMania XXV. Boxing's star power has lessened over the years, decreasing the likelihood that we'll see another bout like this for a long time. 

Venturing Out

McMahon spread his father's company from the New York area to the entire world. He made pro wrestling a far more mainstream enterprise thanks to Hulkamania, WrestleMania and later, Steve Austin's beer-drinking, butt-kicking persona.

Despite how successful McMahon has been in that realm, he's faced failure several times when he's tried to enter the world of sports.

His sports endeavors began with hockey. Angie Peterson Kaelberer writes in The McMahons: Vince McMahon and Family, "In 1979, he began renting the Cape Cod Coliseum in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts."

The arena played host to sporting events including the Cape Cod Cubs of the Eastern Hockey League. 

McMahon couldn't keep the Coliseum open, though: It closed in 1984. As Fred Cusik writes in Fred Cusik: Voice of the Bruins, "his quiet dictatorship meant the end of the arena."

Next on McMahon's list of ventures was to own a hockey team.

McMahon bought the Cape Cod Buccaneers of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League in 1981, but "folded his franchise at the end of January 1982," per HockeyDB.com. 

The money he made in WWE afforded him the ability to take chances in business, to absorb losses like the minor league team and move on.

That was also true of the World Bodybuilding Federation. McMahon looked to challenge the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB), established in 1946, with a bodybuilding promotion of his own.

As Irvin Muchnick told ESPN, McMahon crashed a rival promotion's event and borrowed from his wrestlers' playbook when he had a representative grab a mic and challenge IFBB founder Joe Weider and company.

The WBF only lasted one year, when McMahon told Weider in 1992, per GetBig.com, that "he was closing down his bodybuilding magazine production and the WBF."

McMahon's most famous flop in the sports world came in 2001, when he looked to challenge the kingpin that is the NFL.

He founded the XFL—a racier, edgier football league that lasted only a single season. NBC broadcast the games, but viewership fell dramatically after the first game.

When the Los Angeles Xtreme defeated the San Francisco Demons in the championship game, Forbes.com reports, the ratings "tied for 93rd place among prime-time shows that week." It's no surprise then that the XFL was a financial failure.

According to Sports Illustrated, "The WWF said its share of after-tax losses will be about $35 million."

Those defeats didn't deter McMahon's love affair with sports. He continues to use their stars for his own programming.

Sport Stars as Superstars

As a means to increase star power and perhaps give the WWE a more legitimate feel, WWE has welcomed athletes from football, basketball, boxing and even baseball to participate in matches and moments.

William "The Refrigerator" Perry is most famous to NFL fans as a member of the 1985 Chicago Bears.

McMahon brought him and a number of other NFL players to fight in a Battle Royal at WrestleMania II. Perry made an impression by eliminating Big John Studd, but it was Andre the Giant who ended up winning.

Charlie Bennett/Associated Press

WWE loves its sport stars, but not enough to give them the honor of knocking off Andre, it seems.

The NFL invaded WWE again at WrestleMania XI. This time, McMahon allowed the outsider to win.

Lawrence Taylor battled Bam Bam Bigelow in the main event, an ill-advised decision to showcase a football player vs. wrestler match rather than the WWE title bout with two bona fide wrestling stars.

Mike Tyson famously changed the course of WWE history, refusing to take sides at WrestleMania XIV. He served as a special enforcer for the Austin vs. Shawn Michaels match, bringing added eyes to the product.

His pre-WrestleMania collision with Austin was done far better than the Monsoon and Ali clash, creating a dramatic moment that is among Raw's biggest.

Pete Rose has been the victim of Kane's tombstone piledriver several times. Shaquille O'Neal and Michael Strahan have both appeared on Raw.

This long-lasting relationship between sports and WWE has been one of McMahon's go-to plans to entice casual fans, to incite curiosity and add to the circus-like atmosphere that WWE is famous for.

With WrestleMania XXX nearing, expect that history to continue. WWE, a sports-adjacent entity, will never fit into the sports landscape, but it will certainly borrow from it, for better or worse.