Vince McMahon Says TNA Wrestling Does Some "Reprehensible" Things On Impact

The Hollywood Reporter has an interview with Vince McMahon today promoting Wrestlemania XXV. Here are some highlights from the interview:

If UFC and other mixed martial arts programming has had an impact on WWE: “Most people thought at one point that we would be competitors. But it turns out they are not competition to us at all, or hardly at all. They are sport, we are entertainment; it’s a huge difference. The revenue they have cut into is that of boxing.”

If it’s okay to show Triple H invading Randy Orton’s home with a sledgehammer: “Right. What we try to do in situations like that is use things that you can’t find around the house. You will never see us use a baseball bat. You don’t find folding metal chairs around the house. We are very selective. You can go up to the line. It’s storytelling; that’s how our business thrives. If you have well-defined characters and put them in the right story line against other characters, people care about their welfare.”

If he’s concerned with the ratings in recent weeks: “Quite frankly our TV ratings have been very good. We averaged over a 4, I think, three weeks ago. Last week and the week before it was a bit less so because of a number of factors: how many people watched TV and one-off events. What you have to look at is our overall reach in the course of a week. On TV, we reach over 15 million people each and every week, 52 weeks a year.”

Whether he is concerned with rival promotion TNA Wrestling as competition: “My concern with TNA is not in terms of competition. My concern with TNA is that they are TV-14, and we are PG. They have to change with the times. I think some of the things they do on television are reprehensible, but it is a TV-14 rating. That’s the only bone I have to pick with them. Their TV ratings are a fraction of ours.”

McMahon also discusses using celebrities at WrestleMania, how the business has changed since the first WrestleMania, how his company has diversified itself, and more. Click here to read the interview in its entirety.

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