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Professional wrestling throughout the 1940's to the late 1980's was not considered what some people might call a niche sub-culture that would fade away in due time, but it was quite the opposite. Wrestling fans were rabid during that time and the emotions they expressed during the live shows was as real as a fan could get. There are major news reports that tell real stories of how intimate and enthusiastic fans would be at a live wrestling show; they would physically and verbally harm the portrayed 'bad guy' wrestler because he was literally seen as that, a real-life bad guy. One fan on May 24, 1976 felt so much hatred towards a top heel named Ole Anderson that he jumped the barricade separating the fans from the ring and stabbed him with a knife almost ending Anderson's life.1 The amount of animosity and emotion wrestling fans have built up throughout the years of pro wrestling has increased exponentially, although it is more verbal than physical, the voice of the crowd is heard more now than ever before in the history of professional wrestling. .
When professional wrestling was gaining popularity in the 1940's and 1950's, WWE had not even been created, Vince McMahon was just a young child, and Vince McMahon Sr. was one of the top wrestling promoters in the nation. Vince McMahon Sr., father of Vince McMahon, was loved and respected by all of his competition for his considerate business manners and his positive attitude towards failing promotions. Wrestling during that time was so different than what it is today; the business went from a comic-strip style of wrestling taking place in various Midwestern halls in the 1930's to becoming televisions most successful enterprise by the 1990's.2 Between the years 1948 to 1955, top executives for the three major television networks were all on a quest for low-cost programming that was easy to understand and inexpensive to produce, "requiring only an announcer and a camera focused on a twenty-by-twenty ring.