In case you haven’t heard, Vince McMahon is getting his own movie. It was recently announced that WWE Studios and TriStar are teaming up on Pandemonium, a movie project on the life of WWE honcho, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. The charismatic and controversial showman certainly has a rich and wild history perfect to craft a script around.
Is this something wrestling fans have been clamoring for? Not necessarily. Now don’t get me wrong, telling the story of WWE through Vince’s journey of building it into a global juggernaut certainly has appeal. I just wouldn’t drop $17 to go see it in a theater. If the movie pops up on Netflix, Hulu or the WWE Network then yeah, I’ll give it a watch. The project also has McMahon’s approval and involvement, which means the story will be drastically skewed, painting him in good light, free of any of the blood and nastiness he’s gotten on his hands on the way to the top.
Before this movie becomes a Redbox special or a Walmart bin bargain, I’ve compiled a list of key events in McMahon’s life that fans would love to see find their way into the film.
WWE Goes Nationwide Bringing an End to Regional Promotions
Prior to the early 1980s, pro wrestling was run by regional wrestling promotions, splitting up the country by territories. WWE (WWF at the time) controlled the Northeast region; American Wrestling Association (AWA) ran the Midwest out of Minnesota, and Jim Crockett’s National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), based in North Carolina, dominated the South. There were more but these were the power players.
The gentleman’s handshake or understanding between promoters was that they wouldn’t invade each other’s territories or poach talent away. Vince McMahon, however, had other plans.
After buying the company from his father, Vince started his plan to turn WWF into a national brand. He signed stars from other promotions like when he raided AWA taking Hulk Hogan, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, “Mean” Gene Okerlund and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. Vince became the “Bad Guy” in the wrestling world by breaking long set rules and aggressively pushing his product into other territories.
In what’s now known as “Black Saturday” Vince started showing WWF wrestling on TBS in a spot formerly held by Georgia Championship Wrestling. Ahead of the curve and with a grand vision for what WWE is now, the movie needs to spotlight Vince’s cold-blooded business skills, letting us see all of the backstage drama.
The Birth of WrestleMania and Hulkamania
You can’t have a Vince McMahon movie without covering WrestleMania or Hulk Hogan. Both are key to pro wrestling’s popularity boom in the ‘80s, as well as the mega success McMahon achieved.
As an answer to NWA’s Starrcade event, in 1985 Vince put together his own super show WrestleMania, which would become the Super Bowl of wrestling. WWE’s biggest show of the year also marked a move away from “wrasslin” turning to sports entertainment. Tapping into mainstream media like MTV, Vince relied heavily on the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling connection of mixing music and wrestling. Celebrities like Cyndi Lauper, Mr. T, Muhammad Ali and Liberace were all prominently featured.
While McMahon packed his extravaganza with Hollywood glitz and glamour, the jewel of the event was the face of the company, Hulk Hogan. Gambling big on the new platform of pay-per-view, there was arguably no bigger wrestling/sports star on the planet than the WWF champion Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster’s natural charisma and main event drawing power is what really cemented WrestleMania as a big-time success. His pairing with Mr. T against “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff is what got all of the headlines the next day.
The partnership between Vince and Hogan launched the company into a global force, making Hogan an icon in the process. At WrestleMania 3 in 1987, the zenith of this duo came when Hulk battled Andre the Giant in front of 93,173 fans at the Pontiac Silverdome, which became the measuring stick for all sports entertainment events since.
The Monday Night Wars
Do we really need to see the infamous “Montreal Screwjob” between Bret Hart and Vince McMahon in this movie? I’d argue no, as its been covered from almost every angle imaginable in documentaries and special features. While that event might have been the unofficial start of the “WWF Attitude Era”, the producers would be foolish not to dedicated a good portion of the film to the late ‘90s when Vince McMahon went toe-to-toe against Ted Turner.
Known as the Monday Night Wars, WWF’s Monday Night Raw went head-to-head against WCW’s Monday Nitro in a battle for ratings and wrestling supremacy. Backed by Time Warner and Ted Turner’s support, Eric Bischoff, who ran WCW, was actively trying to put Vince and his company out of business. Using the same tactics Vince utilized years earlier, Bischoff aggressively competed against Vince through broadcasting and by signing away McMahon’s biggest stars like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, just to name a few. Imagine an all-out war between Coke and Pepsi or McDonalds and Burger King, and that’s what was going on here with nasty business tactics, wrestler’s defecting and anything goes, mature on-screen content.
We couldn’t blame producers if they wanted to do a movie just around this era, as the battle between both companies spurred pro wrestling to mainstream success never seen before or since.
Kiss My Ass Club
Whichever actor gets the role of Vince better be comfortable with showing his ass in public. A brief footnote in the life of Vinnie Mac is the “Mr. McMahon Kiss My Ass Club,” where on-screen (and probably behind-the-scenes) McMahon would have his employees pucker up and kiss his ass in lieu of getting fired. The select members of this club include Jim Ross, Shawn Michaels, William Regal and even Vince’s son, Shane.
Only in wrestling could you have skits like this that would revolt and entertain fans at the same time. While the film will try and portray the dramatic side of Vince’s life, they have to also show off his unconventional sense of humor and personality, as the man is certifiable!
A Steel-Cage Match Between Vince and Donald Trump for the US Presidency
How do you end an autobiographical film about Vince McMahon? You embellish the hell out of it, of course!
This hasn’t happened yet, but knowing Vince, at some point in the near future he will start a storyline on WWE TV challenging his WrestleMania 23 opponent, Donald Trump. We’ve talked before about how Linda McMahon has been appointed by Trump as the Head of Small Business Administration. But that’s not enough for Vince. He wants it all, and the next step is defeating Trump in a steel cage match for the title of commander-in-chief.
The last shot will have a bruised and battered Vince standing victorious while holding an American flag and proclaiming himself the most powerful man in the universe. Fade-to-black as the credits role!
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