Vince McMahon Changed WWE’s Rings After He Started Wrestling

Vince McMahon was once only portrayed on television as an excitable commentator. In the late 90s, McMahon became far more involved in the WWE product. Vince’s feud with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin led him to become an active competitor for the company.

McMahon has wrestled as recently as WrestleMania 38. He wrestled Pat McAfee and had a memorable throwback segment with Austin. Once Vince McMahon decided to step into the squared circle, he quickly made a change in the type of rings the company uses.

Bully Ray spoke on Busted Open about the changes Vince McMahon made to WWE’s rings after he began taking bumps. The former Dudley Boy noted that the stiffness of WWE’s rings forced the change. Vince was not aware of how much difference a hard ring could make.

“Back in the day, you had Andre the Giant and all of these much bigger men and the ring needed to be able to support these much bigger men, but when Vince eventually decided to step in the ring and trained with Dr. Tom [Prichard], Vince was bumping in these really hard rings.

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Dr. Tom decided, ‘Hey, we have a different ring down in the warehouse.’ It’s a bumping ring. It was an 18 by 18 old school, southern bumping ring and Vince started bumping in the bumping ring and he said, ‘Why aren’t our rings like this? Our rings are stiff.’ And that’s when Vince and WWE decided to re-design their rings.”

Bully Ray went on to say that wrestling in the newer-style ring could prolong a wrestler’s career. Vince McMahon agreed, he just needed to take some bumps on the harder mats to come to that conclusion. Fortunately for every WWE superstar, Vince didn’t hesitate to make the change.

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