WWE Chairman Vince McMahon recently took part in a rare interview with Forbes.com following his recent placement on the 2014 Forbes Billionaires List. McMahon spoke about a number of topics, including the transformative over-the-top WWE Network, going to war with Ted Turner, having to “feed the monster” of the WWE audience and why he expects to “die a very frustrated man.”
The Challenge of Pleasing The WWE Audience:
Sitting next to the desk in his office at WWE Headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut is a huge dinosaur skull – a gift from Triple H. “I look at it like it’s a really nice monster,” Vince said. “When you feed the monster, the monster is happy. The problem with that is, the monster grows. And as the monster grows, then the monster wants more to eat. And as long as you do that, everything’s great. And if you don’t provide the food, then bad things start to happen.”
When asked by Forbes’ Michael Solomon if that ‘monster’ represents the WWE audience, Vince said with a smile, “You can look at it that way, absolutely.”
WWE vs. WCW:
Regarding his ‘war’ with former rival Ted Turner, Vince expressed that he was pushed to his limits, saying “it came down to attrition” and “Who was going to burn out before the other guy did?”
Talk Of Companies Wanting To Buy WWE:
Vince was coy about rumors of WWE being for sale, but there are no guarantees that the company will be run by McMahon family members forever, Vince did admit, “I would like to see a degree of that. I just think as times go on, things will evaporate. Eventually Uncle Sam sees the benefit. You can’t do anything without Uncle Sam taking a huge bite of it.”
Never Being Truly Satisfied Despite His Enormous Success:
Despite Vince’s exceptional professional accomplishments, he admits that he’ll never be satisfied, a trait that is common amongst the most successful people in the world. “I have a voracious appetite, for life and everything in it,” he said. “To a certain extent I will die a very frustrated man because I didn’t do this or accomplish that.”
There’s much more to the interview, which you can read in its entirety at Forbes.com.