>>14568896Vince's Great Grandpa Roderick Sr. was a rich guy from Ireland. He came to America and owned Hotels in Manhattan in the 19th century. Almost certainly connected to Irish organized crime. Vince's Grandpa Roderick Jr. (Jess McMahon) and his brother Edward were sent to College to be Bankers. They didn't make it as Bankers though, so they bought some Boxing clubs in Harlem and promoted fights. Boxing went out of favor, often due to rumors of mob involvement and matchfixing. They sold the boxing clubs and bought the Lincoln Giants, a Negro League baseball team. Then they sold the Giants and poached the best players for a knockoff team. Somehow in 1915, they booked and promoted Jack Johnson V. Jess Willard, a very controversial boxing match Johnson claims to have thrown at various times in his later life. By the 30s they own a casino promoting... more boxing in low income black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Jess bought into wrestling in 1915, but people of the time would have primarily remembered him as a boxing and black baseball promoter. His real success in wrestling didn't come until the 30s when his elaborate network of sketchy contacts allowed him to access enough talent to turn the Northeast into a single wrestling territory. Disgruntled rival promoters sang to the New York Times that wrestling was a work, killing the previous promoters in the territory, so all the wrestlers had no one to go to but Jess, who had plenty of other revenue from casinos, negro league baseball, boxing, and being on staff at the Garden. Before he died he liquidated his assets, formed Capital Wrestling Corporation and gave it to Vince's Dad, Vince Sr.
