Who

The chairman of the WWE, McMahon is the man who brought pro wrestling—and himself—into your living room.

Backstory

McMahon has body slams in his blood: His grandfather Roderick "Jess" McMahon co-founded the Capitol Wrestling Corporation in the early 20th century, and his father Vince McMahon Sr. became a partner in the company in the early 1950s. Although wrestling was a McMahon family tradition, Vince Jr. didn't grow up with his dad; he was raised by his mother and a string of abusive stepfathers in a trailer park in North Carolina, and didn't meet his father for the first time until he was 12. After attending illustrious East Carolina University (and a stint selling Sweetheart paper cups), in 1971 he joined McMahon the elder at Capitol, taking over the organization when his dad fell ill in 1982.

McMahon proceeded to take the renamed World Wrestling Federation in a new direction, bringing the "sport" to a national audience using closed-circuit TV and, later, pay-per-view. Transforming wrestling into entertainment, he made elaborate, soapy storylines as integral a part of the wrestling experience as flying clotheslines and body avalanches. And with spectacles like the Super Bowl-esque Wrestlemania, he placed a new emphasis on creating stars, introducing the world to the likes of Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant—and, of course, himself. Despite legal scandals in the early '90s—and several money-losing years—McMahon and his wife/partner, Linda, took the company public in 1999. Flush with cash, they went on an acquisition binge, picking up rivals WCW in 1999 and the ECW in 2001. The company was rechristened World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, in 2002.

Of note

The wrestling is fake, of course—a fact McMahon himself acknowledged as far back as 1989 when he testified before the New Jersey State Senate. But that doesn't seem to bother the audience of testosterone-juiced teenagers and rednecks in the mood for action. The WWE show Monday Night Raw, which airs on USA, is the highest-rated show on basic cable; the WWE-produced Friday Night Smackdown is the CW's highest-rated show. All the action and theatrics have made McMahon a very rich man—while he dropped off the Forbes 400 list several years ago, he's still worth nine figures. He continues to rule over the empire he created as the company's largest shareholder and chairman of the board. (Linda McMahon is CEO.) Unlike most board chairmans, though, McMahon doesn't spend all his time sitting in an office suite or conference room. In a life-imitating-art-imitating-life scenario, he plays the character of Mr. McMahon, an evil wrestling promoter, on WWE shows.

Drama

Although it's often hard to tell a publicity stunt from the real thing in McMahon's world, he's had his share of legal entanglements over the years. He's been sued for sexual harassment on several occasions, and in November 1993 he was indicted on charges of distributing steroids to his wrestlers and conspiring to defraud the FDA. (He was acquitted.) He's gone on the legal offensive, too. After the Parents Television Council accused the WWF of encouraging behavior that led to the death of two kids, McMahon fought back in court, and in 2002 he won a $3.5 million libel settlement against the PTC as well as a personal apology from the group's chief Brent Bozell. Recently, McMahon and the WWE came under scrutiny when WWE superstar Chris Benoit killed himself, his wife, and his 7-year-old son in June 2007. Though autopsies revealed Benoit was steroid-free at the time he carried out the murder-suicide, the incident revived charges that steroid abuse is rampant in the WWE, despite McMahon's claims that the organization has a system in place to prevent drug use.

For the record

In 2001, McMahon attempted to launch his own professional sports league, the XFL, which he billed as a more extreme version of the NFL. It lasted all of one season before mercifully disappearing; he reportedly lost $400 million on the venture.

Personal

The buffed up McMahon, who has admitted to using steroids in the past (before they were made illegal), married college classmate Linda Edwards in August of 1966. The couple has two children, Stephanie and Shane, both of whom are both nominal executive vice presidents of the WWE and prominent characters on WWE shows. Stephanie is married WWE star to Triple H.

Habitat

McMahon and his wife live in a mansion in Greenwich, and have an oceanfront vacation retreat in Boca Raton that they purchased for $2.145 million in 2002. They commute back and forth on the WWF-owned 11-seat Bombardier Challenger 604.

True story

In April 2007, McMahon made a bet with Donald Trump: Each would pick a wrestler, the two would square off, and whoever backed the loser would have to shave his head. Billed as the "Battle of the Billionaires" (although it's unclear if either of them actually merit the title), Trump's man won in the end and The Donald duly shaved McMahon's head before a live pay-per-view audience. In another outlandish gimmick, McMahon staged his own death in a June 2007 episode of RAW. A three-hour "memorial service" was to be held for him on RAW a few weeks later, but the event was scuttled in light of the Benoit affair.