Vince McMahon Talks Angles He's Regretted, Chris Benoit, The Wellness Program & More
CTPost.com has a great article and rare interview with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. In the interview, McMahon talks about his upbringing, his wife's campaign, the Chris Benoit tragedy and much more. Here are some excerpts:
On WWE's popularity: "I like to say that WWE is America's greatest export . . . It's big-time Western culture . . I think so many people just can, from an elitist standpoint, say `I don't watch that.' (But) when you've got 16 million people in the United States alone that watch WWE programming — roughly four times the entire population of the state of Connecticut — somebody likes this and they watch it every single week."
On angles he's regretted: "You can pick apart every little thing we've ever done, sure . . .When you look at the totality of the number of minutes we've produced and look at the number of those that may be incendiary or what have you, it's a fraction. So for me to go back and relate to one particular incident . . . are there moments of which I might have some degree of regret? Yeah, there are. But like any good producer, any good television writer or film writer, you write the best film you can."
On implementing the Wellness Policy: "You evolve in terms of how you want to run your company, you evolve in terms of how you want to present it and you evolve in terms of the way you treat your performers. Even if we didn't personally care — I'm very close to a lot of these guys personally — it's good business. I like to say the only raw material that our company really has are our talent. The better shape they're in the more you can invest in them. The healthier they are the greater longevity and all of that so it's just good business."
On the Chris Benoit tragedy: "Who knows what clicks in somebody's head one day? People look for excuses as to why someone would do that. I don't think you can point to his profession as to why he did that. . . . nothing ever happened like this since the advent of this business, and it goes back to Abraham Lincoln."
You can check out the full article and interview by clicking here.