McMahon saw the tremendous potential for growth that the professional wrestling industry had in the era following
World War II, especially with the development of
television and its need for new programming. Similar to
boxing, wrestling took place primarily within a small ring and could be covered adequately by one or two cameras, and venues for it could readily be assembled in television studios, lessening production costs. and
Bruno Sammartino in 1975 McMahon's group, the
Capitol Wrestling Corporation, which was later renamed
World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), came to dominate professional wrestling in the 1950s and 1960s in the nation's most populous area, the
Northeast. His control was primarily in Baltimore, New York, and New Jersey. Despite its name, the WWWF was, like all professional wrestling promotions of that era, mostly a regional operation. It was however the one that came to dominate the most lucrative region. In 1956, McMahon began airing his matches on television on Wednesday nights on the
DuMont Network. The telecast originated from an old barn in Washington, D.C. It was one of the struggling network's last live sports telecasts before it went out of business the following year; however, WABD, DuMont's flagship station in New York (Now Fox-owned
WNYW), kept the show after becoming an independent station, airing wrestling on Saturday nights until 1971. In her biography, wrestler
The Fabulous Moolah claimed that McMahon was one of the first promoters to split gate proceeds with his wrestlers. Unlike his son, McMahon believed that the job of a promoter should be kept backstage or behind the scenes and should never interfere with the action in the ring. As a result, McMahon almost never came down to the squared circle. He can however clearly be seen standing ringside during the infamous Madison Square Garden "Alley Fight" between
Sgt. Slaughter and
Pat Patterson. Though McMahon appeared in the movie
The Wrestler in a cast that was dominated by contemporary wrestlers, he believed that wrestlers should remain wrestlers and not branch off into other forms of media. Accordingly, he disapproved of
Hulk Hogan's appearance in
Rocky III in 1982, leading to Hogan's temporary departure from the WWF for
Verne Gagne's
American Wrestling Association. When his son purchased the WWF, he felt differently than his father on the issue. He rehired Hogan as his top star and avidly supported wrestlers branching out into other fields, as well as cross-promotions with various musicians, actors, and other personalities outside of wrestling. , In 1982, McMahon sold the parent company of the World Wrestling Federation to his son
Vincent K. McMahon and his company
Titan Sports, Inc. His son, much to his father's initial concern, set out to make the WWF national and eventually worldwide in scope. "Had my father known what I was going to do", the younger McMahon told
Sports Illustrated in 1991, "he never would have sold his stock to me." The younger McMahon's competitive tactics were successful, and the WWF quickly became the most prominent exponent of "sports entertainment". His son Vince has been at the helm of the McMahon family promotion, which since 2002 has been called World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). McMahon's grandchildren
Shane and
Stephanie used to work for the WWF/E. McMahon was posthumously inducted into the
WWF Hall of Fame Class of 1996, by his grandson,
Shane. ==Personal life and death==