While the World Wrestling Federation claims to have been the leader in "sports entertainment for over fifty years," the WWF really was formed in the early 1980s when Vince McMahon Jr. took over his ailing father's regional wrestling promotion and transformed it into an international marketing success story. McMahon Jr. is credited with taking professional wrestling out of the "smoke-filled arenas" and putting it on the map as family entertainment.

McMahon's father started the WWF (then called the WWWF) in 1963, breaking away from the National Wrestling Alliance over disagreements about the booking of the World Champion. McMahon Sr.'s home base was New York's Madison Square Garden, and he ran shows all along the East Coast. Playing to the heavy ethnic composition of his customers, he installed Italian strongman Bruno Sammartino as his World Champion, and the promotion was off and running. McMahon Sr...