Vince McMahon turned a local wrestling promotion into a global empire by breaking the territory system in the late 1980s and signing stars like Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold Steve Austin. WWE grew to over a billion dollars in annual revenue before Endeavor bought it for $9.3 billion.
In the late '80s, Vince McMahon was running his local wrestling promotion company, Capitol Wrestling Corporation, and it was growing fast. But he ran into a huge problem. At the time, the wrestling industry operated using a territory system. In the US alone, there were around 40 territories overseen by the National Wrestling Alliance. In a move that shocked the industry, McMahon broke away from the Alliance and started poaching talent from other territories and grabbing market share all over the country. Over the next few decades, McMahon used innovative storytelling and larger-than-life characters like Hulk Hogan, and Stone Cold Steve Austin to transform his small promotion company into a household name. But what he did next made him one the greatest business minds of our generation. In just a few years, McMahon used his ruthless acquisition strategy to create one of the greatest monopolies ever. Last year, the WWE generated over a billion dollars in revenue. Then, in a shocking twist, Endeavor, the parent company of the UFC, acquired WWE for a jaw-dropping $9.3
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