Remember when everyone thought Vince McMahon was about to buy Newcastle United?
23This one was one of the more prolific newspaper rumours back in the day.
WWE owner and wrestling magnate Vincent Kennedy McMahon was rumoured, in 2014, to be considering a chokeslam to the hearts of rival clubs with a bid at full ownership of Newcastle United.
Despite the rumours either being completely baseless or not getting off the ground even remotely – it hasn’t stopped speculation running wild, kinda like Hulkamania did back in the day.
Would we see The Rock be a rock in defence, would we see Stone Cold raise some hell in midfield, or opposition defenders fail to see John Cena running down the wing?
No – they are professional wrestlers and not footballers.
And despite the wildly hilarious mock-up one to elevens full of your Rey Mysterios, Kanes and The Undertakers – it was unfortunately never going to happen.
But it’s not like Vince McMahon hasn’t delved outside of wrestling before.
He tried once in 2001 and then again in 2020 to launch his own American Football league – the XFL – and failed both times.
He owned the World Bodybuilding Federation in the early 1990s, but his U.S. Steroid trial put pay to that and it folded in 1992.
McMahon had even owned Ice Hockey team Cape Cod Buccaneers but they, like the WWF New York restaurant in Times’ Square and so many other endeavours, were quickly folded – deleted after a season in 1982.
Would McMahon have got it right at Newcastle?
Would St. James’ Park have held a WrestleMania?
Would there be powerbombs, piledrivers and elbow drops?
#WWE #VinceMcMahon #NUFC
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Voice: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
Illustrations: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
Words: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
Edit: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
What If Football is a form of footballing storytelling that takes the audience down a different path to our current reality.
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