This morning, the BBC Archive YouTube page posted a segment (or at least an excerpt thereof; it appears to be cut off) on the national expansion of the WWF from a 1985 episode of BBC Newsnight. Vince McMahon is the focus, and the feature has a rare glimpse of his old office in the WWF’s pre-Titan Tower office building. In the above clip, McMahon primarily addresses the differences between “being in the sports entertainment business” and “being in the wrestling business” as well as defending the WWF as wholesome family entertainment. NBC’s Dick Ebersol joins him in the latter, trying to stave off a legislative attack from New York State Senator Abe Bernstein, who was attempting to ban pro wrestling in the state.
Bernstein’s Senate Task Force on Professional Wrestling didn’t end up going anywhere, but the hearings got a fair bit of mainstream coverage, including in the New York Times. Irv Muchnick was in attendance and provided additional coverage in a subsequent letter to the paper, as well, noting that Bernstein spent much of the time trying to prove that pro wrestling is worked.