Vince McMahon met (and according to some accounts, found out the identity of) his father when he was 12. He went to live with the elder McMahon, escaping the volatile trappings of his previous life. Immediately, Vince fell in love with the wrestling business. He wanted to be a part of it, he told his father as an in-ring competitor. Not wanted to mix the promotion side of the business with the performing side, Vincent James McMahon forbid his son from pursuing his dream career. He did, however, allow him to become an announcer. Vince's transition from announcer to owner to on-screen personality (and occasional wrestler) has been well-documented. It's interesting, though, to speculate about how different things may have been if McMahon had stepped in the ring at a younger age. He undoubtedly had the skill and personality to hit it big would he have been a superstar of the 70s? Would he have gotten the push that went to Bob Backlund... or the one that went to "Superstar" Billy Graham? We can only speculate but either way, it's nice he got to eventually live out that particular dream.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
