Former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon shared a lot of information regarding his personal life and life in the company on the “Mr. McMahon” docuseries, including why it was easy for him to become his villainous “Mr. McMahon” character on WWE TV.
McMahon said, “Mr. McMahon, of course, is a character derived from, uh, Vince McMahon and is a character to someone I could relate to when I was growing up. When I was growing up, I was dirt poor. Coming from that environment, I don’t like rich people, because I was around some people who thought they were better than me because, quote, more money. So, it felt like you weren’t anybody at all. You were a nobody. You learn certain things. In those days, I could fight, and I loved to fight. If you could do that, well, now you’re somebody. I was good at fighting, but they would say, ‘You didn’t fight fair, you cheated.’ Yeah, I won. [laughs] So, with my character, Mr. McMahon, I can play someone who intimidates, because that was the way I grew up. That was the way I thought rich people were, they’d try to intimidate you. I know how to be an arrogant person that just throws his weight around and a bully and stuff like that. It was easy for me to get into that character because I knew all the things that I disliked.”
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)