10 Times Vince McMahon Loved Big Sweaty Men
Being big and sweaty gets you places...
Up until very recently one of Vince McMahon's business practices has proven he is a very shallow individual.
While the majority of professional wrestling fans the world over believe there isn't a prototypical look for an in-ring competitor, ol' Vinne Mac's stubborn ideologies have often scoffed at his own company's mantra of what's 'best for business.' The likes of Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe are currently proving Vince's penchant for muscles and complete a utter refusal of 'bigger boned' individuals (less muscle than a normal main eventer and less body fat percentage as Rikishi, Viscera et al) has cost him a bonafide star or two down the years. On the flip side of course, this could have prevented a couple of embarrassments ever gracing a WWE ring too!
Vince himself is a body guy. At 71 he has a body that most 21-year-olds would be jealous of. Vince picking and choosing guys he sees in his own image is understandable. I guess if he lives his life one way, he'll want the faces of his company to follow suit. However, there have been a number of occasions where Vince has placed his faith in a big sweaty man based on their aesthetics alone and it has backfired handsomely. For every Rock, Hogan and Warrior - big sweaty men whose talents backed up their billing - there have been those who simply couldn't cut it.
Here are 10 examples of Vince McMahon loving big sweaty men for the sake of loving big sweaty men...
10. Jinder Mahal
Let's deal with the most recent example, shall we. Obviously, the Jinder Mahal story is yet to play out in full so this entry is probably a tad unfair. However, his journey from jobber to main eventer in no time whatsoever and with no real storied push behind him is proof that muscles is still one way to Vince McMahon's affections.
We've all heard about WWE's ploy to exploit the Indian market in double-quick time and as a result of that Jinder has wound up being WWE Champion, however, the fact that he was released beforehand when his body wasn't so veiny shows that there's still a little bit of Vince that looks twice when he sees shoulder boulders. While Samoa Joe and Kevin Owens' success proves the selection process for main event talent isn't entirely what it used to be, I don't think the Modern Day Maharaja would be enjoying the success he is today without going through the radical change in his appearance.
Jinder is rapidly improving. While his promos were a tad robotic at the start of his push, he appears to be slowly growing into the role of a top guy. The one thing that you can't deny is that his physique has ensured the WWE Title always looked like it was on the shoulder of a main eventer.