World Wrestling Federation And Vince McMahon Jr example essay topic

Relevant Facts Since 1890, professional wrestling has garnered the attention of the public. However, no one has capitalized on this sport's entertainment value more than the World Wrestling Federation and Vince McMahon Jr. Vince McMahon Jr. acquired the WWF from his father Vice McMahon Sr. in 1982. Vince McMahon Jr.'s succession brought along freshness, flare, success, and much controversy to the world of professional wrestling. Before McMahon's takeover of his father's company, professional wrestling had various territories across the country in which each was headed by a "little lord". These people in charge followed a gentleman's agreement in which no takeovers of different territories were allowed.

McMahon, however, broke this mold and took over all the markets by signing wrestlers to lucrative contracts, creating a "rock show" type of venue, and occupying prime television slots. The WWF began to enjoy much success as it took advantage of the cable network USA Network and delved into pay-per-view events. This period of time for the WWF was somewhat monopolistic because of a lack of competition in the industry. After a failing attempt to buy some of the WWF's stock, Ted Turner, owner of the TBS Network, sought to get into the wrestling business for himself. Ted Turner created the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and brought direct competition to the WWF. The WCW challenged the WWF's success in every way, including its Monday night showcase and its use of headlining characters.

Competition amongst the two wrestling corporations was brought to a head with a fight over WWF superstar, Bret "The Hitman" Hart. Pressing Issues The WWF is in a constant battle against time and the audience's ever-changing wants and desires causing consistent reinvention. During early years of wrestling it was clear wrestling had no identity. Wrestlers would travel from region to region fighting in promoted venues, the sport slowly began to gain popularity but quickly lost steam during the Radio and TV age where popularity shifted to sports like boxing, baseball, and football. During this time Vince McMahon Sr. would begin the first of many reinventions of the sport. Changes included starting a full scale wrestling federation (WWF) and the inception of a championship which wrestlers would compete for.

Along with having to always change the image of the WWF, both McMahon SR. and McMahon Jr. had to deal with the rise and fall of the wrestlers / characters. This is an issue McMahon Jr. dealt with more so than his father, thanks to his strategy of making the characters lives accessible to fans through the plot twists used during wrestling events and TV show. When a character was hot they would be really hot and the merchandise and ratings would go through the roof. And just as fast as the character rose is as fast as they would fall.

The problem comes when the owner has to designate how short or how long to push a character to the audience. Even through the ups and downs of the characters, wrestling still reached a point of peak popularity and it became a billion dollar industry. In that there is a clear concern of pushing the consumer too hard or force feeding the customer / audience. There was a point where wrestling would broadcast almost 20 hour a week. You could see WWF characters in movies, in music videos, on the radio, and all over internet. This type of over saturation caused by pressures from the competition contributed in speeding up the process of how long or how short a character's popularity would last.

After the WWF regime was coming to a close McMahon Jr. failed to realize his competitor's advantage. The owner of WCW which had begun to take over the title as the number one wrestling organization had endless control over broadcasting, given the fact that he owned his own broadcasting network. Not being aware of your competition's strengths will only hurt you in the end. Relate the Material During our lectures in class we discussed several topics which can be closely related to the WWF case. First is the management function of control. As the owner of the WWF, Vince McMahon Jr. performed well when it came to growing his company into an industry giant.

McMahon Jr. changed his business from a risky venture in to a billion dollar a year business by controlling everything that encompasses the WWF. McMahon controlled the plot twists, what character to push and when, where the shows would be broadcast ed and how often, what merchandise to sell, and contract negotiations for characters. McMahon gave the WWF a vision and it was followed perfectly, his vision was to make the WWF an industry innovator. The WWF was the first to start venues in multiple regions, the first to begin national TV broadcasting, the first to sign characters to major contracts, and the first to change wrestling from a sporting event to an entertainment event. The WWF set the benchmark for every move in the industry. On the contrary, however, as an owner and leader in the industry, one has to be aware of the state of your business, your product and your environment, and make decisions accordingly.

During the rise of WCW owned by Ted Turner, McMahon Jr. became reactive, while Turner was proactive. McMahon did not foresee Turner being able to start his own company, during their meeting in Atlanta. He did not foresee Turner being able to control the ratings wars because he broadcast ed from his own station. McMahon also became reactive when it came time to pushing characters to the fans. He let the fans make the choice of who to push and when according to popularity, which sounds like a great idea but it turned out to cause turmoil. Characters began to feel neglected because of the up and down nature of fan loyalty.

McMahon's inability to feed forward is what cost him the ratings battles and many of his star characters. Recommended Response In order to maintain a competitive advantage, McMahon must come up with new, innovative ideas to make his wrestlers famous. McMahon has a reputation of consistently changing characters from good to evil and vice versa. By doing so, McMahon is confusing his WWF audience, whom are flocking to the WCW and their favorite characters. The WCW's tactic of utilizing old WWF characters in their wrestling matches is overshadowing the tactics of McMahon. Creating new characters and maintaining their images will generate a new audience to the WWF.

To effectively compete with the WCW, McMahon and the WWF should consider investing in a broadcasting network of their own. By doing this, the WWF will be able to expand their media coverage and compete with Turner, who already owns his own network. Another way to compete with the WCW is to refrain from using controversial issues in the wrestling matches. Conveying controversial views limits the audience that is usually generated by the WWF. As a last alternative, the WWF should consider merging with the WCW. Through merging, McMahon will be able to keep his pride and not risk completely loosing the family business.