Vinny Mac, real name Vincent Kennedy McMahon has been hit or miss with ushering in eras of professional wrestling. For each ‘Attitude Era’ we got an abysmal ‘New Generation’ failure and the current product today is looking to set a new creative low. That could change though with Vince stepping of the spotlight partially for one more and probably final attempt at creating something successful besides his wrestling company.
He attempted a body building equivalent of WWE with the World Bodybuilding Federation or WBF. Fail. He opened a Times Square WWE themed restaurant. Fail. He attempted to usurp the NFL with the XFL. Fail. His ICOPRO nutritional supplements line was also an epic fail. There are even rumors that 3 million gallons of it are buried behind their headquarters which they call Titan Tower. My point is that most of the time it’s been said that his ego and not business strategy has prevented his endeavors outside of WWE from taking off.
According to lordsofpain.net, Vince McMahon owns more than $2.4B in stocks and just sold 306,000 shares totaling just over $22M. It is possible that this was to further finance his attempt at resurrecting the XFL but no one has confirmed this. It is a good bet that it was because he sold $100M in stock before this instance to finance the Alpha Entertainment Company which kicked things off. What is the total price tag for the XFL? A staggering $500M over three years according to McMahon himself. With 8 host cities and venues it’s difficult to foresee a true path to recouping that money while he is still alive. He is 73 years old and has put a lot of miles, suffered through some wear and tear, and possibly put ‘supplements’ in his body along the way.
This XFL reboot has not cemented a TV deal yet which is where some of that $500M would come back to him along with advertising. It’s also very difficult to predict just how bad or successful it’s going to be this time around without seeing all of the new business plan.
One thing is for sure and that is people will be watching it closely to see what happens.