Vincent K. McMahon, the "Chairman of the Board" of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), told a rowdy crowd in Ames Courtroom at Harvard Law School (HLS) yesterday that his travails as a wrestling mogul have given him a crash course on the First Amendment.

McMahon spoke candidly on subjects ranging from the way his "performers" behave in the ring to his competition with Ted Turner to his unhappy childhood in North Carolina.

"My background is a bit checkered," the 54-year-old McMahon said. He said he was physically beaten by several step-fathers.

"[By] the number of beatings I received as a child, you would have though that it'd just stop [being outspoken] but I had to speak my mind,' he said.

McMahon's father, Vince Sr., was a successful promoter of staged shows in the Northeast. In 1982, McMahon bought his father's wrestling promotion company and turned it into Titan Sports.

McMahon presided over wrestling's renaissance in the 1980s, making Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and Randy "The Macho Man" Savage into household names.

However, McMahon said, "with success comes scrutiny."

He said New York Daily News columnist Phil Mushnick "began to write a number of things that were totally untrue" and damaging to his reputation, McMahon said.

Among them, according to McMahon: Mushnick's accusation that the WWF was saturated with steroid users and that McMahon himself had been associated with child molesters.

In 1993, McMahon and Titan Sports were indicted by the federal government on charges they helped distribute steroids. After a trial in 1994, McMohan and Titan were found innocent.

Building to the high point of his speech, McMahon talked about his frustration at being harassed with requests for a plea bargain. He said he chose to challenge the government, which eventually lead to his acquittal.

McMahon said he told the government that he had to stick by his principles--"[I told them to] fuck off," he said.

The crowd roared in response.

In more recent years, McMahon has fought a battle for ratings with rival wrestling promoter and media king Ted

Turner. In 1995, Turner began to assert controlover World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the othermajor wrestling “league."

Recounting what happened in 1995, McMahon said,"Ted has...the resources. Ted decides he wants tocompete with us. I lose."