Why is Vince McMahon unsuccessful Promoting anything but Wrestling?

Vince McMahon is a massive success story, an American Businessman who took the WWE (Then WWWF) from his father took a chance on Wrestlemaina and then took a chance on what he believed in and become a Millionaire, took WWE onto the stock exchange and made even more money and has huge success within wrestling to this day. 

Vince Mcmahon become who he is by taking chances and believing in his vision. 

I saw all of this growing up especially in the 90's where as a teenager WWE was maybe the most popular and hottest thing it has ever been with Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Mankind, Undertaker and more becoming household names all over the world, Vince seemed to have the golden touch, when it comes to wrestling.

I began thinking recently what an amazing story Vince Mcmahon has and then I realised Vince McMahon is an amazing promoter but then I realised only at promoting wrestling.

Vince has tried his hand at a few things since becoming so successful but all outside endeavours seem to end the same way lets take a look 

WBF - World Bodybuilding Federation 

This was created by Vince Mcmahon in 1990 and Mcmahon wanted to bring Bodybuilding into the mainstream however it didn't fair very well. 

You can see from the video above Mcmahon was trying to sell his Bodybuilding PPV with "WWE style" promo videos with competitors talking to the camera. This didn't help The WBF fans were rightly confused as to whether this was part of WWE or not and lack of identity for WBF. WBF held its first World Championship in 1991 and another one in 1992.

According to "When Bodybuilding Met Wrestling: The Bizarre Tale of the World Bodybuilding Federation" The WBF 2nd PPV event drew very minimal buys around 3000 in total.

  McMahon was a fan of Bodybuilders but it seemed that the wider public didn't seem to have that same interest,  Mcmahon then closed the WBF in 1992 and very short lived run for a company and outside endeavour from wrestling that just did not pan out for Mcmahon with the looming controversy of steroids in wrestling too it was a mix of circumstances that led to WBF eventual downfall .

XFL (First incarnation) 2001

Vince Mcmahon in 2001 then decided he wanted to take on another outside project and the NFL in the process and get into the business of American Football. Vince McMahon went into Business with NBC and they had joint ownership of the XFL as the games would be broadcast on NBC.

The concept of the XFL was to have no penalties and in my opinion to be a more down and dirty version of American Football. The First Game was 3 Feb 2001 it was then closed on 10 May 2001 and only lasted one season.  

Again carrying over the same theme from WBF. XFL was a confused concept which fans didnt gravitate towards and it didnt capture the interest or the money of the target audience and just couldnt gain the traction that was needed to sustain the league. 

According to ABC News NBC and Vince Mcmahon lost $35 Million Dollars each and they decided a 2nd season wasn't viable. 

To learn more about XFL in more detail it is really worth listening to Something to Wrestle Podcast with Conrad Thompson and Bruce Prichard (who was Vince Mcmahon right hand man at the time) he gives great insight into the XFL in 2001 how the concept for the kickoff or scramble came about click the video below to listen 

XFL (revived) 2018

Its 2018 its 17 Years after the XFL closed in Vince McMahon is trying the same concept again!

Obviously Vince McMahon didnt want to be beaten and despite XFL only lasting one season in 2001 he decided to bring back XFL in an announcement in 2018 that the league would return fully in 2020,

XFL did restart however after 5 weeks the world was engulfed in the COVID pandemic, the league stopped playing games and then shut down and Vince McMahon then announced that in April 2020 XFL would file for Bankruptcy.

The XFL story doesn't end there thought as it was brought by one of McMahon former Wrestlers Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson along with his business partner Dani Garcia and the XFL without McMahon involvement plans to return in 2023.

What Keeps going wrong?

All three of Vince Mcmahon outsider Endeavours outside WWE have all ended in Bankruptcy/losing lots of money, shutting Down or a combination of all three, 

Vince McMahon certainly has the Vision the ideas and the money but seems to lack in the execution to keep the ideas he has relevant and making money. Interesting links were that with all 3 examples they only seemed to last a year before closing, maybe Vince losing interest or just reading the needs of the audience he is trying to attract the wrong way.

None of the concepts had any longevity or staying power in my opinion Vince Mcmahon is the best at promoting Pro Wrestling, a master a true genius I think its best to keep your money and stick to what you know.

As of 2022 WWE is worth an estimated $5.7 Billion and WWE Network created by Vince McMahon sold their rights to Peacock for estimated $1 billion over five years.

Thanks for Reading 

@jon422002

Jonathan Orchard