Vince McMahon may be long gone from the wrestling industry, but he continues to make an impression on fans.
The grappling emperor will forever be linked to his role in turning his family business from a fairly localised wrestling promotion into a global phenomenon.
Under his stewardship, wrestling became ‘sports entertainment’ with its unique mix of characters and athleticism, WWE becoming a billion-dollar entity in its own right.
Undeniably, though, McMahon was been plagued by controversies throughout his time in the industry.
From the steroids scandal of the early 1990s that saw him in court before being cleared, to close-to-the-knuckle storylines that proved too much even for his own family to consider, the North Carolinian was rarely far from the headlines.
His exit from WWE came under a cloud, too. Hit by serious and damning allegations of misconduct by a former employee, which he denies, McMahon stepped aside from the Board of TKO – by then effectively the parent company of WWE.
It was later confirmed that he won’t be returning but, as ever, he remains a prominent figure despite appearing in public much less frequently than his days booming around the WWE ring during the Attitude Era.
As such, any sighting of the 79-year-old always makes waves, the latest being his attendance at the NBA clash between the New York Knicks and Miami Heat.
McMahon watched on from courtside as the Knicks overcame the Heat 116-95 and, for wrestling fans, his appearance proved even more compelling than the action itself.
He was shown on TV screens during an NBA broadcast, dressed in a green suit jacket and shirt, seated at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York that housed so many iconic WWE events in his day – and even a recent episode of Monday Night Raw.
Under the on-screen stewardship of Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, McMahon’s son-in-law and current WWE Head of Creative and Chief Content Officer, the company is in the midst of a mammoth European tour.
McMahon’s distance from the business was, therefore, never more evident than when his image on screen at the NBA clash was accompanied by the line ‘former wrestling promoter.’
That’s what many fans on social media latched on to, too, with one saying McMahon looked ‘broken’, adding: “That ‘Former wrestling promotor’ is so strange to see as well.”
Another post added: “Vince McMahon spotted at the Knicks game and mentioned as ‘Former Wrestling Promoter’ Wow.”
A third, with a laughing emoji, simply added: “Former wrestling promoter! Damn!”
One stepped in to object to the classification, saying: “Former wrestling promoter? Put some respect on that man. If it wasn’t for him wrestling would still [be] back road tikki torches type of event.”
A little more mischievous, one merely noticed the lack of the mustache that was a hallmark of the former Royal Rumble winner’s previous look, saying: “At least the mustache is gone.”
While McMahon seems unlikely to be back in the wrestling industry any time soon, rumours have persisted he may venture back into the entertainment sphere with a new company of his own.
WWE worked closely with the FOX Network during many of McMahon’s years, the Network recently speaking out to insist they won’t be part of any new venture.
