On the 7th January 1952, Capitol Wrestling Corporation Inc. was established. The founder was a man named Jess McMahon, and unbeknown to him, his company would one day pass from son to grandson, eventually becoming World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.
Back in the days of CWC, the landscape of wrestling entertainment was a very different place to the glitz and glamour we know of it today. It was primarily a live-only entertainment product, making only brief appearances on terrestrial television. During this time, there were a dozen or so wrestling promoter companies, all who claimed ownership to different territories of the United States, never overstepping these boundaries, and never poaching talent. These unwritten laws of the promoters became the foundations of the NWA, or the National Wrestling Alliance, which CWC joined in 1953.
A year later, Jess McMahon passed away, and his son Vincent was brought in to take the reigns. Following a falling out with the NWA however, Vincent and other CWC founding members left the alliance and started a new promotion company, the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Their rebellious antics would be short-lived though, as by the 1960s McMahon crept his way back into the NWA, and by 1979 he decided to ditch the Wide part of the WWWF to re-christen it the far catchier WWF.
A year later (these fuckers sure didn't mess around getting shit done) Vincent's son Vince McMahon and his wife Linda were starting up their own wrestling company, named Titan Sports Inc. The company proved very popular, and within a couple of years Vince Jr. was able to buy the CWC from his pops, taking control of both it and the WWF. With three wrestling companies under his belt, Vince could now set his sights on his next challenge - completely fucking over every other company that had come before him to become the only name worth knowing in the world of wrestling entertainment.
This utter heel move was all sparked when in 1983, the McMahons pulled out of the NWA during one of their annual meetings, and with quite literally no alliances left to worry about, they could start playing dirty. Vince began shopping around to get the WWF coverage on syndicated TV, and through his push for tape sales and merchandise, he had extra pocket money which he could use to break one of the biggest taboos of wrestling at the time - he started to poach over promoters' talent. This completely shook the foundations of the wrestling industry, as suddenly all bets were off and promoters within the alliance found themselves falling significantly behind the WWF as they began to vacuum up all of the best talents available to them, essentially signing the death warrants of every other promoter of the time.
On the subject of his takeover, Vince was quoted as saying:
"In the old days, there were wrestling fiefdoms all over the country, each with its own little lord in charge. Each little lord respected the rights of his neighbouring little lord. No takeovers or raids were allowed. There were maybe 30 of these tiny kingdoms in the U.S. and if I hadn't bought out my dad, there would still be 30 of them, fragmented and struggling. I, of course, had no allegiance to those little lords."
Some of this poached talent would go on to become some of the WWF's most famous old skool stars, including Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, The Iron Sheik, Ricky Steamboat, and even Jesse Ventura as an announcer.
Now that the competition was all but crushed beneath him, Vince begun the next phase of his ingenious plan - he took the WWF on a national tour, spreading the name of the WWF across the country to drum up interest in his television work, and also his first big bill event, the first ever Wrestlemania in 1985. The move almost bankrupt the company, but in the end everything paid off, and the WWF was now a household name.
Things were looking good for McMahon for quite some time, but karma will always come back round to bite your ass, as Vince discovered when he was suddenly challenged in the TV ratings by two newcomers to the wrestling business - the WCW and ECW. As wrestling had entered a new frontier of pop culture relevance and TV outings, it gave opportunity for these fresh faces to enter the ring and challenge Vince for his title of the world champion, which would lead to the infamous Monday Night Wars. This stiff competition gave Vince a headache for quite a while, that is until the conception of The Attitude Era, led by his own son, Shane McMahon.
Through the Attitude Era, the WWF began to focus more on an adult market, many of whom would have grown up as children watching the golden age of the WWF, who could now have their love of the "sport" revitalised through a new focus on spectacle and drama rather than athleticism, and of course, there was the attitude. The Attitude Era was an instant hit, giving rise to stars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, and for his troubles Vince was able to not only captain one of the greatest eras of the WWF, but was also able to buy out both of his rivals, effectively ensuring he was once again the top dog of the business.
Things calmed down for the company following the end of the Monday Night Wars, with a number of factors forcing McMahon to reign in the rebellious and dangerous nature of the Attitude Era, a transition which began roughly around the time the company changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment in 1999. The first factor was the issue of family values and the changing of society's interest in their media, as more and more people were now looking to poo-poo on the antics being allowed on a television show still technically marketed to children.
On top of that, following the horrific suicide of Chris Benoit and the murder of his family, which doctors claimed had come to be due to intense brain damage Benoit had suffered from chair hits over the years, the WWE began to take a very strong stance on the safety and protection of its talent. Chair hits and similar weapon-based attacks were completely scrapped, as were acts such as "blading", and just about most other life-threatening/cool stunts. Iconic moves such as The Piledriver were also removed after a serious injury caused by a botched performance of one left their prime talent Steve Austin almost unable to wrestle, with only The Undertaker and Kane still permitted to use the move. The Attitude Era was now well and truly over, and so the WWE entered a new era of film-making, merchandise shifting, and a return to showmanship and athleticism over spectacle.
Still though, the company are just as strong today as they have ever been, and although they've seen their ups and downs, they are still the biggest wrestling company in the industry the world over. It has jump-started the acting careers of a number of its alumni, it has been the subject of countless videogames and pop culture homages, and for many kids growing it up was the inspiration for play time shenanigans, despite the very strict instructions not to try these things at home.
Come on guys, you can't go selling masks and clothing of your wrestlers and CDs of wrestler entrance music and not expect kids to pull this shit, we know your game! But all the same, happy anniversary and thanks for all the good times.
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