Vince McMahon is a polarizing genius. Many in the wrestling world most likely have a thing to say about the man. In his long and varied career, McMahon's ruthless, and I mean ruthless tactics, got him to the top of the wrestling industry. He's worth billions of dollars, he destroyed the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and defeated World Championship Wrestling (WCW) through skill and cutthroat shenanigans. But he isn't invincible. I'm not talking about the missteps he made along the way here and there, I'm talking about how Vince McMahon is most likely going to die soon.
As of this article, Vince McMahon is 70 years old. He's old. Really old. However, he's been in great shape most of his life. Regardless, it is assumed that McMahon will die soon. So what does this mean for all those involved in WWE? What happens to the product? Well, simply put, business goes up, at least for awhile. When real world stuff happens, attention is brought to the WWE and it's ratings go up and its profits skyrocket. In the past, there were two "boom" periods in the history of WWE: 1985-1990 and 1997-2001. Back in the 80's, notable mainstream celebrities such as Mr. T and Cindy Laupner became involved in the first Wrestlemania giving widespread attention to the WWE (then known as the WWF). The resulting success set a huge money making hit for McMahon and company in the immediate years that followed. The second was the result of a screwjob, where in 1997, McMahon changed the plans in a match between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, where Hart didn't know the end of the match, he lost the belt and immediately went to the press complaining he was betrayed. The attention caused a surge in views for the WWF and this led to the morally ambiguous, Attitude Era. The point is, real life occurrences bring oodles of attention to the company, whether good or bad.
If/when McMahon dies, the company will experience a media firestorm, documentaries, specials, coverage they haven't experienced since 2001. Which means viewers will tune in to the obligatory memorial episode, but to also see what happens to the product. It's widely believed that after McMahon Dies, his daughter Stephanie and her Husband, Paul "Triple H" Levesque will take over the company. Unfortunately, for McMahon fans, both of these two believe in different routes for the company compared to McMahon. The product will slowly, but surely, become more and more to H's vision of the company and the legacy of McMahon will soon fade. The company will skyrocket in ratings, but slowly come back down to what they were, or even lower, after fans finally give up on the product. I'm not saying the company will die, but it will never be the same when McMahon was in full charge.
