Case 3: World Wrestling Federation
1. How did Vince McMahon build the WWF from one of many moderately successful regional wrestling promotions to become the world’s dominant international sports entertainment business?
-Overall his confidence and ambition.
-First taking on a small role as a ring announcer in order to see how everything worked.
-After acquiring the company, he asserted his position by letting people know he was going to abide by the artificial territorial borders that were in place.
-He then got the WWF to be aired in LA on the second-largest TV market and soon after St. Louis as well as other local markets.
-He was one of the first promoters to get wrestling on Cable TV and then pay-per-view.
-He developed each of his characters individually giving them their own complete package.
-McMahon then made WWF family orientated by always having the “good guys” beat the “bad”.
-WWF characters were merchandised and licensed. Ex/ action figures, ice cream bars, foam fingers and other toys.
-He brought celebrities into the picture to try to combine wrestling with the music entertainment.
-He brought ideas from all kinds of TV into the WWF. It was like a soap opera, cartoon, rock concert, and athletic event all in one.
2. How big a threat to the WWF was Ted Turner’s entry into the professional wrestling business?
-In the beginning not a great threat, but eventually it would be a huge threat.
-Turner had to figure out that it wasn’t the wrestling that made the WWF so big, it was actually the entertainment edge.
-Turners ties to TBS, which once showed WWF, gave the WCW an edge into the industry.
-The fact that Turner had a lot of money to be thrown around enabled him to get former WWF stars to work less and earn more money to be on WCW.
-By putting Monday Nitro on the same time as RAW it made viewers choose and eventually Nitro was winning the ratings all the time.
3. When Bret Hart’s contract was set to expire, how important was it for the WWF at that
moment in time to retain his services and re-sign him?
-Bret Hart was the WWF’s greatest “good guy”. He had been with McMahon from early on and it was very important that he remain there while the competition between the two was so strong.
-Bret also felt he had to remain loyal because he had been through so much with McMahon.
-Money wise, the WWF couldn’t afford to keep Bret Hart.
4. What do you think of Vince McMahon’s decision to release Bret to the WCW one year after succeeding in signing him to a 20-year deal?
-I think releasing Bret was a terrible decision based on the fan aspect. But I think it was a worse decision to make him a bad guy. After so long of having fans think of him as one of the best guys, to totally change his image would make him no longer liked whatever league he was in. Financially, I don’t think McMahon [next page]