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Home  Wrestling News VINCE McMAHON TO GET STAR ON HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME TODAY
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VINCE McMAHON TO GET STAR ON HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME TODAY |
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Written by Matthew Cooper (wrestlingnewsdesk@gmail.com)
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Thursday, 13 March 2008 |
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2:58 PM EST
The story stated the following:
Vince McMahon, who transformed the Northeastern regional
professional wrestling circuit he purchased from his father into a multi-faceted
global entertainment powerhouse, will receive the 2,357th star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame today.
The late-morning ceremony in front of the Hollywood
& Highland complex will be a family affair. McMahon's son, Shane, a World
Wrestling Entertainment executive and sometime wrestler, and son-in-law, the
former World Wrestling Entertainment champion known as Triple H, will join
McMahon in speaking.
The ceremony comes 16 days before WrestleMania,
annually the World Wrestling Entertainment's largest pay per view
event.
McMahon is receiving a star in the television category. The WWE
produces original programming 52 weeks a year, airing on broadcast, cable and
Spanish- language networks in the United States and more than 130 other nations
in 22 languages.
McMahon is considered a pioneer in pay-per-view
television as the initial WrestleMania in 1985 proved the viability of the
medium.
Born Aug. 24, 1945, in Pinehurst, N.C., McMahon graduated from
East Carolina University with a business degree in 1968. He joined his father's
company, Capitol Wrestling Corp., in 1972, promoting matches in Maine and
serving as both a ring and television announcer.
In 1982, McMahon
purchased the company from his father, Vince McMahon Sr., then started to take
what had been a regional operation and growing what was then known as the World
Wrestling Federation into a national and later global business, listed on the
New York Stock Exchange.
McMahon's milestones include signing Hulk Hogan
in 1984, who went on to become a pop culture icon, and 1987's WrestleMania III,
which drew 93,173 fans to the Pontiac (Mich.) Silverdome, the most for an indoor
event.
In addition to being the chairman of the board and majority
stockholder of World Wrestling Entertainment and a longtime announcer on its
telecasts, McMahon has also been a wrestler, winning the WWF and Extreme
Championship Wrestling championships.
McMahon has also had a series of
setbacks, including a 1993 federal indictment on charges of distributing
steroids to his wrestlers. He was acquitted in 1994, but the WWF's reputation
was damaged. Its comeback would be triggered by a shift from family-friendly to
young-adult-oriented, featuring feuds and long-running storylines often
bristling with attitude.
A loss in a trademark lawsuit by the World
Wildlife Fund in 2002 forced the World Wrestling Federation to change its name
to World Wrestling Entertainment.
A year later, the WWE acquired Extreme
Championship Wrestling, becoming the sole major American professional wrestling
promotion.
Some of McMahon's attempts to branch into other ventures
proved highly unsuccessful. The World Bodybuilding Federation folded in 1992,
two years after its formation.
An even bigger failure was the XFL, a
professional football league that folded after its lone season in 2001, with
NBC's telecasts drawing some of the lowest ratings in television
history.
IN OTHER NEWS:
TO READ THE WHOLE STORY BEHIND THE LINDSAY LOHAN - WWE RUMORS, CLICK HERE
TO READ MORE ON LOHAN'S BACKSTAGE CAMEO AT WWE, CLICK HERE
TO SEE LINDSAY'S ENCOUNTER WITH MARIA
KANELLIS, CLICK HERE
TO SEE LINDSAY LOHAN BACKSTAGE AT WWE
WITHOUT HER PANTS, CLICK HERE
TO SEE A VIDEO OF STACY KEIBLER HIKING UP HER
BIKINI BOTTOMS AND DOING A TOTALLY SEXUAL BOOTY DANCE, CLICK HERE
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