Vince McMahon's 10 Biggest Successes

Whether you prefer the bloody, unscripted, politically-incorrect storytelling of pro wrestling or the family-friendly, homogenized spectacle of sports-entertainment, you have to commend McMahon for changing the public’s perception of wrasslin’. He did it in the 1980s with the Rock 'N' Wrestling Connection, in the 1990s with the Attitude Era, and in the 2010s with WWE’s mantra of “putting smiles on faces.”

While promoters and wrestlers had devoted their lives to maintaining that pro wrestling was legitimate, McMahon spent his tearing down their curtain. In 1989, he went in front of the New Jersey Senate to admit that the sport was predetermined, defining it as "an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for the purpose of providing entertainment to spectators rather than conducting a bona fide athletic contest."

On the surface, he was simply saving money by getting a tax lifted from the state athletic commissions. But in reality, McMahon was taking another step in having his brand of entertainment accepted and even embraced by mainstream society.