Sometimes Wrong but Never in Doubt: How a Cuban Kid from Queens Transformed WWE

From the Inner City to Billion-Dollar Deals

George Barrios helped transform WWE from an $800 million wrestling company into a $9.3 billion global sports and entertainment powerhouse. For the son of Cuban immigrants who grew up in a cramped Queens apartment near LaGuardia Airport and nearly flunked out of high school, the climb to the corporate boardroom was anything but obvious.

Barrios’s story blends grit, reinvention, and bold bets. He went from a 2nd grader forging a letter from his parent...