Vince McMahon's ruthless business tactics impacted WWE in the long run, according to wrestling veteran (Exclusive)

Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell recently discussed Vince McMahon's business strategies and how they impacted the promotion. Vince was the Chairman and CEO of the company for over four decades.

Throughout the 80s and 90s, Vince McMahon started a path of global expansion for WWE. In this endeavor, he grabbed talent from every small promotion, offering them better pay and leading to the eventual decline of the wrestling territories.

On a recent episode of Smack Talk, Mantell pointed out that before NXT, WWE had a developmental promotion in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) based in Louisville, KY. They also had developmental talent from FCW in Florida for a while. The veteran detailed that back in the day, Vince McMahon ran every small promotion out of business, destroying the whole feeder system for his own company.

"Before they set up NXT, they had a school in Louisville, then they took it to Tampa. Now it's NXT in Orlando. I was thinking, they had a feeder system already, except that Vince McMahon killed it all. Vince had all these territories, about five or six. Memphis was one, Texas was still in operation, Puerto Rico was still in operation, and Florida. So they had four, they didn't have to pay anybody. Of course, they could afford to. They just wanted to run everybody out of business. So if you want to be the only one there, that doesn't make sense to me. Where are you going to find talent?" [From 3:02 onwards]

WWE currently has an outstanding developmental program with NXT that has given the company several stars who have made it big on the main roster. The NXT talent has stellar mentors such as Shawn Michaels, William Regal, and even Triple H to help them get ready for the big stage.

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