For most of recorded history, professional wrestling and Vince McMahon have done everything in their power to prove itself as a legitimate sport. Back in the day, it was kayfabe to the max and wrestlers were expected to act heel or babyface 100% of the time, whether they were at a wrestling show or in everyday situations.
During public appearances, wrestlers were constantly bombarded with questions from the media. Topping the list was, is professional wrestling real?
WWE's Biggest Stars Were Asked If Wrestling Is Real
When Hulk Hogan was interviewed by Richard Belzer on 20/20, the interviewer questioned wrestling’s legitimacy, to which Hulk Hogan responded by choking him out live on camera! When John Stossel called wrestling fake not once but twice in an interview with David Schultz, he found himself on the receiving end of a right hand.
Roddy Piper famously appeared on Good Morning America proclaiming, “America, read my lips: I’m no phony! If wrestling is entertainment, and beating up people is [wrestling fans’] way of deriving entertainment, I’m one of the greatest entertainers in the world.”
There was one problem with this, however. If wrestling was real, it had to be subjected to state regulations. If it was scripted, then it wasn’t.
The McMahons Admit Professional Wrestling Is Just A "Performance"
How state commissions regulate pro wrestling can be very complicated, as there are various strange rules in place which can change from state to state, and can change depending on the whim of the commission. Some of these regulations have legitimate benefits, like the requirement of injury insurance and on-site ambulances, however these legitimate benefits are often overshadowed by some of the dumber rules, which Linda McMahon described in a 1987 testimony do little more than to benefit self-enriching bureaucrats. Linda cited that a Pennsylvania commissioner once threatened to shut down WWE shows if they didn’t get a ringside table for them and their family.
More important than these silly rules, the wrestling business has always considered the regulations as a blatant tax grab. Vince McMahon, however, saw a way to dodge the regulations. If wrestling was scripted, they could get around all the silly regulations and avoid paying taxes altogether.
In a New York Times article on February 10th 1989, “Now It Can Be Told: Those Pro Wrestlers Are Just Having Fun,” a spokesperson for the World Wrestling Federation testified before the New Jersey State Senate that pro wrestling was strictly entertainment, it was a performance rather than a legitimate sport, with the goal of deregulating professional wrestling in the state. And it worked. The deregulation bill was passed in the Senate, and just like that, after years of doing everything in their power to prove themselves as legitimate as other sports, professional wrestling had just admitted that it was scripted.
Vince and Linda McMahon both testified that WWF was scripted under oath in civil lawsuits. The bill was passed in New Jersey and the McMahons used this to get WWE away from athletic commission oversight in as many states as possible. Linda McMahon spoke before Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives and said, “Unlike professional boxers, professional wrestlers are not competing in contests where points are scored, and the winner determined, by potentially injurious blows struck at an opponent. Instead, like the skilled athletes you see in the circus or the Harlem Globetrotters, our athletes are well-conditioned professionals who are the best at what they do. And what they do is entertain people.”
Vince McMahon Invents The Term "Sports Entertainment"
When the Boston Globe asked Vince McMahon is wrestling was fake, Vince responded, “I really don’t respond to that question. I think it was done to death in the ’20s. But I hasten to say that we’re in the sports entertainment field. It’s not important to determine what wrestling is or not. It doesn’t fall into one particular category. It’s not in the category of sport, in the strictest sense of the word.”
This was the real birth of the term “Sports Entertainment,” which WWE still holds onto to this very day. It was an unprecedented turn of events. So many wrestlers for so long had done their best to promote wrestling as 100% legitimate. Yet here was Vince McMahon proudly proclaiming that it was and always had been a performance just to escape tax and state regulations. In a vacuum it would seem like an admission like that would hinder professional wrestling as a whole. Vince McMahon had just outed wrestling as not being legitimate, how could anybody expect to take it seriously now?
It turns out, nobody really cared. Fans didn’t care if it wasn’t real as long as they were enjoying what they were seeing. Professional wrestling would become more popular than it ever had been, even after an admission that it was all scripted.