Editing WWE (section)

====Boom period (1982–1992)====
{{Main|1980s professional wrestling boom}}
[[File:Vince McMahon, 1986.png|thumb|left|upright|[[Vince McMahon|Vincent K. McMahon]], former majority owner and executive chairman of WWE, in 1986.]]
The younger McMahon bought Capitol from his father in 1982, effectively seizing control of the company. The actual date of sale is still unknown but the generally accepted date is June 6, 1982; however, this was likely only the date the deal was struck but not finalized. On WWF television, Capitol Wrestling Corporation maintained copyrights and ownership past the June 1982 date. The World Wrestling Federation was not solely owned by Vincent J. McMahon but also by [[Gorilla Monsoon]], [[Arnold Skaaland]] and Phil Zacko. The deal between the two McMahons was a monthly payment basis, in which if a single payment was missed, ownership would revert to the elder McMahon and his business partners. Looking to seal the deal quickly, McMahon took several loans and deals with other promoters and the business partners (including the promise of a job for life) in order to take full ownership by May or June 1983 for an estimated total of roughly $1 million with the three business partners receiving roughly $815,000 among them and Vincent J. McMahon receiving roughly $185,000.<ref>Death of the Territories: Expansion, Betrayal and the War that Changed Pro Wrestling Forever by Tim Hornbaker. September 2018.</ref> Seeking to make the WWF the premier wrestling promotion in the country, and eventually, the world, he began an expansion process that fundamentally changed the wrestling business.<ref name=si>{{cite magazine|first=William|last=Johnson|title=Wrestling With Success|magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]]|date=March 25, 1991|access-date=April 20, 2014|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1119010/2/index.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130918090310/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1119010/2/index.htm|archive-date=September 18, 2013}}</ref>

At the annual meeting of the NWA in 1983, the McMahons and former Capitol employee [[Jim Barnett (wrestling)|Jim Barnett]] all withdrew from the organization.<ref name=won2011/> McMahon also worked to get WWF programming on syndicated television all across the United States. This angered other promoters and disrupted the well-established boundaries of the different wrestling promotions, eventually ending the territory system, which was in use since the founding of the NWA in the 1940s. In addition, the company used income generated by advertising, television deals, and tape sales to secure talent from rival promoters. In an interview with ''[[Sports Illustrated]]'', McMahon was quoted as saying: "In the old days, there were wrestling fiefdoms all over the country, each with its own little lord in charge. Each little lord respected the rights of his neighboring little lord. No takeovers or raids were allowed. There were maybe 30 of these tiny kingdoms in the U.S. and if I hadn't bought out my dad, there would still be 30 of them, fragmented and struggling. I, of course, had no allegiance to those little lords."<ref name=si/>

McMahon gained significant traction when he hired [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) talent [[Hulk Hogan]], who had achieved popularity outside of wrestling, notably for his appearance in the film ''[[Rocky III]]''.<ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q241504|id=tt0084602}}</ref> McMahon signed [[Roddy Piper]] as Hogan's rival, and then shortly afterward [[Jesse Ventura]] as an announcer. Other wrestlers joined the roster, such as [[The Iron Sheik]], [[Nikolai Volkoff]], [[Junkyard Dog]], [[Paul Orndorff]], [[Greg Valentine]], and [[Ricky Steamboat]], joining existing stars such as [[Jimmy Snuka]], [[Don Muraco]], [[Sgt Slaughter|Sgt. Slaughter]] and [[André the Giant]]. Many of the wrestlers who would later join the WWF were former AWA or NWA talent.
[[File:Hulk Hogan Pointing.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Hulk Hogan]], pictured in 1989, was the WWF's top star during the [[1980s professional wrestling boom]].]]
The WWF would tour nationally in a venture that would require a huge capital investment, one that placed the WWF on the verge of financial collapse. The future of McMahon's experiment came down to the success or failure of McMahon's groundbreaking concept, [[WrestleMania]]. WrestleMania was a major success and was (and still is) marketed as the [[Super Bowl]] of professional wrestling. The concept of a wrestling [[Card (sports)|supercard]] was nothing new in North America; the NWA had begun running [[Starrcade]] a few years prior. In McMahon's eyes, however, what separated WrestleMania from other supercards was that it was intended to be accessible to those who did not watch wrestling. He invited celebrities such as [[Mr. T]], [[Muhammad Ali]], and [[Cyndi Lauper]] to participate in the event, as well as securing a deal with [[MTV]] to provide coverage. The event and hype surrounding it led to the term ''[[Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection]]'', due to the cross-promotion of [[popular culture]] and professional wrestling.

The WWF business expanded significantly on the shoulders of McMahon and his [[face (professional wrestling)|babyface]] hero Hulk Hogan for the next several years after defeating [[The Iron Sheik]] at Madison Square Garden on January 23, 1984.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hulk-hogan-beats-iron-sheik-to-win-first-wwf-title | title=Hulk Hogan beats Iron Sheik to win first WWF title | date=November 16, 2009 }}</ref> The introduction of ''[[Saturday Night's Main Event]]'' on [[NBC]] in 1985 marked the first time that professional wrestling had been broadcast on network television since the 1950s when the now-defunct [[DuMont Television Network]] broadcast matches of Vincent J. McMahon's Capitol Wrestling Corporation. The 1980s "Wrestling Boom" peaked with the [[WrestleMania III]] pay-per-view at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1987, which set an attendance record of 93,173 for the WWF for 29 years until [[WrestleMania 32|2016]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/wrestlemania-32--record-and-reputations-tumble-075620564.html|title=Wrestlemania 32: Record and reputations tumble|date=April 4, 2016 |access-date=March 15, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161007061259/https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/wrestlemania-32--record-and-reputations-tumble-075620564.html|archive-date=October 7, 2016}}</ref> A rematch of the WrestleMania III main event between WWF champion Hulk Hogan and [[André the Giant]] took place on ''[[The Main Event I]]'' in 1988 and was seen by 33 million people, the most-watched wrestling match in North American television history.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Wrestlemania20/WrestleMania3.html|title=Steamboat&nbsp;– Savage rule WrestleMania 3|last=Powell|first=John|publisher=SLAM! Wrestling|access-date=October 14, 2007|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120629102306/http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Wrestlemania20/WrestleMania3.html|archive-date=June 29, 2012}}</ref>

In 1983, Titan moved its offices to [[Stamford, Connecticut]]. Subsequently, a new Titan Sports, Inc. (originally WWF, Inc.) was established in [[Delaware]] in 1987 and was consolidated with the Massachusetts entity in February 1988.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1091907/000095013099005812/0000950130-99-005812.txt |title=Archived copy |access-date=September 17, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710093918/https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1091907/000095013099005812/0000950130-99-005812.txt |archive-date=July 10, 2017}}</ref>