Heartwarming / Vince McMahon

For all the bridges Vince McMahon has legitimately burned over the years, many names in the game can attest to his humanity.

• Before Wrestlemania III, Vince wanted something huge. So he was trying to convince André the Giant to come out of retirement to face Hulk Hogan for the main event. Andre declined, as he had severe degenerative issues in his back that caused him great pain. Vince convinced him to talk to the best doctors in the country about a radical surgery, vowing to pay for it whether or not Andre competed. He came through on his word, not only giving Andre an unforgettable send-off, but relieving him of an immense amount of pain at the same time.
• Keeping the widow of Freddie Blassie on WWE's payroll the rest of her life after "Classy" passed away. Blassie – along with Gorilla Monsoon – were among Vince's closest confidants and friends and he loved them and looked to them for advice in running his company.
• When Razor Ramon left his Intercontinental Championship belt with a terminally ill fan in a surprise appearance on The Jerry Springer Show, Vince backed him on the act, and promptly ordered him a new belt.
• Mick Foley was in the middle of an amazing run as his Mankind character. He could have milked it for a lot longer, but he didn't. Vince gave Mick the chance to wrestle as his boyhood persona of Dude Love. Not just for a night, but permanently. He was willing to give up a known success just to give Mick the chance to live his dream. Here it is. In a similar vein, according to the "For All Mankind" WWE documentary on Mick, Vince was the one who came up with the idea of inserting Mick in the WrestleMania 2000 main event, even though it didn't make much storyline sense, because Vince thought Mick deserved to be in a WrestleMania main event before he retired.
  • Mick has mentioned when he was setting up to schedule his debut with WWE with Vince, he noted he had made some commitments in Japan that he planned to honor before debuting with WWE. Vince asked if a contract had been signed and Mick noted there wasn’t but he had given the promoter his word and he planned to honor it. Expecting Vince to scoff at the idea of honoring a verbal commitment with no contract when it would effectively prevent him from making more money during that time with WWE, Vince simply stated “That’s the kind of man I want working for me” and blessed off on Mick keeping those commitments in Japan. Later, Mick realized with Vince’s experience of wrestlers like Lex Luger and others who’d screwed Vince over by leaving the company via underhanded tactics that Mick’s integrity and commitment to his word was something he deeply appreciated.
  • Every story Mick Foley has of putting his health in danger includes Vince either telling him not to do it or trying to tell him not to do it again with zero judgement and purely out of concern for Mick’s well-being. The "For All Mankind" DVD documentary has Mick say that Vince told him "That's it, you're done." the moment Mick told him his many injuries/concussions had led to memory problems in mid-1999. By Mick's own admission, he was in the middle of the hugely loved and successful Rock n' Sock Connection storyline, and Vince was willing to scrap it on the spot because he was concerned about Mick's health. Granted, Mick ended up staying on due to the absences of Austin and Undertaker in late '99, but the thought was there.
• When Sensational Sherri Martell passed away, it was well known at the time that her former charge Booker T had paid for her funeral. Later, however, it came out that Vince had personally paid for her headstone, and had demanded he receive no credit for it.
• Quite a lot of Vince's former employees have had kind things to say about his attitude towards the talent. Spike Dudley noted in shoot interviews that one of the reasons the cruiserweight division in WWE never rose to the heights the WCW version did was that Vince was genuinely worried the style would end up severely injuring someone. Likewise, when Joey Mercury was originally let go from WWE, Vince apparently personally sat down with him and told him that he (and the company) were genuinely worried Joey would die due to his drug issues if WWE continued to subject him to the rigours of a full touring schedule.
  • Even the biggest curmudgeon in the business— Jim Cornette— has noted he holds zero ill will towards Vince, that Vince never lied to him and Vince always honored his word when he promised Cornette something.
• A story in Hardcore Holly's book tells of Vince's generous reaction when the Federation stopped sponsoring the NASCAR race car that went with his Sparkplug gimmick: Vince sold it, the engines and spare parts (six figures' worth) to Holly — a massive racing fan for real — for a dollar.
• Say what you will about Super Cena, but one of the main reasons Vince has refused to give him a Face–Heel Turn (and lose out on the huge possible profits that might lie therein) is because Cena loves doing charity work (especially for the Make a Wish Foundation) and being a heel would interfere with it.
• When his son Shane made his massively unexpected and shocking return to the WWE on Feb 22, 2016, Vince was obviously still playing the heel role, treating Shane with disdain and setting him up for a Hell in a Cell match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32 if he wants control of Raw... but when Shane climbs into the ring and the screaming crowd is chanting his name, then going to chants of "HOLY SHIT!" and "THIS IS AWESOME!", Vince just can't fully keep up the act, unable to stop a smile from creeping onto his face at the reception his boy is getting after so many years away.
  • As if that wasn't enough, after Shane's subsequent match (which he lost, but did good in), WWE posted this backstage video of Shane and Vince.
• When Vince restarted the Women's Championship in 1993, he gave Madusa a contract partially because she was homeless at the time and living on the streets. When Madusa mentioned that she owed the IRS $80,000 at the time, he wrote her a check covering her entire debt.
• The Young Bucks revealed that before their ladder war with the Hardys in Ring of Honor, (the last match the Hardys would have before going back to WWE) the Hardys passed along a message to them from Vince asking them to take care of the Hardys, even though he knows the Bucks are really good. It says a lot about the Bucks that Vince trusted them to keep Matt and Jeff Hardy safe even though they don't work for him.
• When Harley Race passed away, it came to light via Trevor Murdoch (a former WWE superstar and student of Race's) that he needed to be transported by helicopter to receive treatment for his failing condition. His insurance wouldn't even entertain the thought of spending the money for it, so out of desperation, a call was made to WWE. 10 minutes later, the flight was paid in full. Vince would have undoubtedly had a word in that decision and as Murdoch put it, "He didn't even blink an eye. He wanted to make sure Harley was taken care of".
• It was rumored that after Brock Lesnar broke The Undertaker's Streak, the latter collapsed backstage and was rushed to the hospital. In 2020's Undertaker: The Last Ride, it was not only confirmed that Vince and Lesnar both went to his hospital, they also followed the ambulance that 'Taker was in. Vince left the biggest show of his company just to make sure Undertaker was alright.
• After he left WWE, Bryan Danielson (who had nothing but good things to say about Vince and his time in WWE) revealed in an interview that Vince was very protective of him in an almost fatherly way. His match against Drew Gulak at Elimination Chamber 2020 made Vince very upset with the-then Daniel Bryan when he came backstage afterwards- not because the match wasn't good, but because during it Bryan had taken a German suplex from Gulak badly and landed on his head (always something scary with Bryan having only returned from a medically-mandated retirement a few years earlier). Vince told Bryan "The match was great, but you can't do that!"