Vince McMahon didn't know the World Wildlife Fund existed when he implemented the WWF name.
On March 3, Vince McMahon appeared on The Pat McAfee Show for his first live interview in 15 years. During his nearly hour-and-half long appearance, WWE's Chairman of the Board explained that he tries not to listen to outside criticism and, in general, doesn't like to waste his time on negatives.
"I stay out of all of it. I'm not big on the pats on the back. it really screws with your mind. 'You're somebody...' that's who I am. If you listen to the positives, you have to listen to the negatives. I'm not big on negatives. A negative, no matter what it is, is a double negative. If you're dealing with a negative, it means you're not dealing with a positive. You put your intellectual cost in the positive, not the negative. I try and stay away from negatives as much as possible. Members of the media, they're going to say what they're going to say. There's nothing you can do to change it, really. Dealing with a negative...people think you're an asshole, you can't change that. 'No, I'm not really an asshole. I'm really a nice guy.' 'Yeah, you're an asshole.' 'Really, I'm a good guy, I love my family.' 'You're an asshole.' You can't change perception, generally, when you're a public persona. Don't bother. It doesn't bother me. I used to care about what people thought about me. I care about what the general public thinks of me, as far as the business is concerned, if people think I'm an asshole, congratulations, I guess I am," McMahon said.
He added that he spent a lot of time early in his career trying to change people's perception of him, but soon realized that he was better off focusing on positive aspects of life that he could control.
"It took a while. When you're first starting out and giving it everything you possibly can and doing it for the right reasons and people start knocking you and calling you something you're not, it bothers you at first. You try and correct it. You realize, 'this is not going to work.' I'm spending a lot of time trying to correct this poor image of me and not spending time over here and things I can do from a positive standpoint. You really do have to give it up. Not just a little bit, you really just can't care what members of the media or people who don't understand you or have an opinion no matter what. You just can't care," Vince said.
After taking over the WWWF from his father in 1982, Vince knew that he wanted to differentiate his company from everybody else's, saying that it's important to be who you want to be.
"There has always been wrestling. I want to separate us from everybody else. My dad was part of the NWA. He had his own branding, it was part of the World Wide Wrestling Federation. I thought that was brilliant. 'You're making yourself different from everybody else.' At the time, when I bought my dad's business, he would have never sold it to me if he knew what I was going to do. Separate yourself. Be who you want to be, especially the brand, which is WWE, it was WWF, but that's another story," he said.
In 2002, the WWF became WWE after a suit from the World Wildlife Fund necessitated a change. Vince acknowledges that it was a no-win situation and claims that the memorable "Get the 'F' Out' slogan took no more than 30 minutes to come up with.
"The panda got us to a certain extent. The World Wildlife Fund, which I didn't even know existed, it was another no-win lawsuit for me because we were being tried in England where they wear the wigs. I wouldn't fit in. I said, 'Okay, we'll change it.' It was pretty easy to do. It took 30 minutes at most. 'I know what I'm doing, I'll get the F out.' We have a lot of creative people around us. It's a team, it's a great team and great executives, and what have you that are really taking off in the business world. That's where I look at, we're on another plateau and platform. Creatively, I listen well. That's important because you can't learn if you're talking. I can, sometimes. I have a unique ability where, you right now listening to me, I know whether you're buying my shit. I'm listening to you, listen to me. Body language and the way you're thinking," Vince said.
Elsewhere during the interview, Vince spoke about how he enjoys physical confrontation, WWE's partnership with Saudi Arabia, as well as how he'll be inducting The Undertaker into the WWE Hall of Fame, among other things.
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