The greatest trick the devil ever pull was convincing the world he didn’t exist, his second greatest trick, was convincing a lot pro-wrestlers he was the father figure they never had.
Vince McMahon had the weird trick, similar to the Jedi mind trick from the Star Wars franchise, and convince wrestlers he has under contract that he is a father figure to them. Wrestlers like Mox have talked about this in the past.
This idea of Vince McMahon being a father figure has made wrestlers contracted to him and those under legends contract to ignore a lot of the negative things has done in the past. This idea also created the famous “JR (or the person in charge of talent relations) hated me, but Vince loved me” line.
Vince McMahon is a ruthless man, and no father figure mind trick should never make forget that. If screwing over all his contracted wrestlers made him more money, he would do it on an instant, that’s no father figure. Vince cares about himself and his actual family first.
Triple H, Vince’s son-in-law, has been able to somewhat inherit this ability from Vince, and with the peculiarity of Vince taking over the JR role- “Triple H loved me, but Vince hated me.” A reversal from the formula that worked for Vince for so many years, how will this for Triple H with him being gone is an interesting question for another day.
Wrestlers being desperate for father figures is not surprising considering most wrestlers had wrestling as a way to escape difficult childhoods, but it created toxic relations with Vince. The best example is wrestlers’ takes regarding Vince’s retirement, please keep in mind he retired to due the allegations made by him and not this lie about being too old. Trying to defend a man accuse of some very serious allegations.
