JBL Says Vince McMahon Told Him, ‘I Don’t Do Things Where I Don’t Know How To Make Money’
Vince McMahon was against putting money in things he didn’t understand, according to John Bradshaw Layfield.
Vince McMahon will always be recognized in the business world as the founder of WWE. Although he achieved the most success in professional wrestling promotion, it was not the only business venture McMahon attempted to launch. Whether discussing the World Bodybuilding Federation, the XFL, Alpha Entertainment, or his early promotional ventures outside of WWE, Vince never achieved the same level of success as he did when promoting the medium he would dub “sports entertainment.” Still, McMahon believed in his ability to succeed, even if all these ventures might not have been as successful as he wanted.
Speaking on the latest “Something to Wrestle” podcast, JBL discussed how Vince McMahon turned down the opportunity to buy the UFC decades ago. He explained that McMahon’s philosophy was never to invest in things he didn’t understand, which included investments like real estate.
“Yeah, it is,” JBL said when asked if it was weird to see TKO promoting UFC, WWE, and boxing simultaneously without Vince McMahon leading the charge. “Smart guys come to the same conclusions when they look at a problem, you know? So, you don’t own the answer sometimes, but Vince certainly had the answers for this. I think a lot of this you see was that Vince had a vision. Now, he never got into boxing, so it was never that he thought enough to do it. He had a chance to buy UFC, and he turned it down.
“I talked to Vince a lot about business, and Vince always told me, ‘I don’t do things where I don’t know how to make money.’ So he had real estate people in New York that were trying to talk him into investing in real estate, and Vince said, ‘I could make money with it. I don’t understand that. I don’t put money in things I don’t understand,’ and so that’s why he took chances on things that he did.”
Recently, McMahon launched a private investment firm with a focus on sports, media, and entertainment. Learn more about that here.
Serious allegations have impacted McMahon’s legacy. Janel Grant, a former WWE employee, filed a lawsuit in January 2024 against Vince McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis. The lawsuit accuses McMahon of sexual assault and sex trafficking. McMahon resigned from TKO/WWE after the lawsuit was filed. Laurinaitis has since been removed from the lawsuit. The case remains active.
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