Jim Ross On Vince McMahon Preparing Triple H To Be His Successor In The WWE

Jim Ross was recently interviewed by Business Insider to discuss who he thinks will be Vince McMahon's successor in the WWE. Since taking over the company in 1982, Vince turned a territory-based promotion into the largest wrestling company in the world.

To reach a wider fanbase, McMahon has made some shrewd business decisions over the past nearly four decades, including boldly starting the WrestleMania series early in his executive status, purchasing the TBS timeslot in 1984 to show WWE content in place of Georgia Championship Wrestling (this would be labeled as "Black Saturday"), and purchasing WCW and ECW in 2001, among many other WWE business ventures. His decision to make WWE a PG product has led to record-breaking recent fiscal years, and an over $2 billion combined television deal with NBC and FOX to showcase the Raw and SmackDown Live brands, respectively, starting in the fall of 2019.

J.R. stated that, even at 72 years old, he does not see Vince going anywhere, because he really takes care of himself and is "very healthy [and] still works out like a crazy man." He added that "we don't want him to go anywhere anytime soon" because he is the rock that built the WWE to where it is now, and it is "an amazing company."

Understanding that Vince is reaching the latter stages of his status as WWE Chairman and CEO, J.R. shared his thoughts on who will take over the company.

"I think that if I'm guessing, and it's gonna strictly be a guess, that the money would be on, probably, Paul Levesque to be Vince's successor," said J.R. "I think Vince is kind of preparing him for that in a lot of ways. You always knew that he was different from the other guys because he was very studious and very under control. He didn't drink. No drugs. He looked to be a lifer early on, and he got a lot of that from being a fan all his life, growing up in the northeast, New Hampshire. Then, getting trained by Killer Kowalski, who was a great old school guy. So, I think he's probably the heir apparent."

Triple H is currently the Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events, and Creative, and runs the NXT promotion. Today, the WWE United Kingdom General Manager Johnny Saint announced during the UK tournament tapings that WWE is launching the NXT UK division. The tapings are scheduled to begin at the end of July.

Source: Business Insider