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Hey, Vince McMahon Says He's Retiring
3 years ago
General
(Citation needed)
Some of you may know that WWE CEO and majority shareholder Vince McMahon has recently been in hot water after the Wall Street Journal published a couple of stories about his use of hush money and NDA's to silence women with whom he was either involved with sexuality or accused of sexually harassing/assaulting. Despite this, he's remained a beloved figure buy a lot of WWE fans because WWE is basically wrestling's version of the MAGA cult at this point, a piss poor product insulting the intelligence of its fans who have signaled that they actively want their intelligence insulted. A large part of this is that ever since McMahon bought the company from his father, Vince Senior, he's been the last word in all decisions, creative or otherwise, that happen with the company. Vince's paradoxical resentment of pro wrestling compelled him to manufacture a version of it that he infamously refers to as "Sports Entertainment" and for fans who have never watched any other professional wrestling, WWE is the beginning and end of what wrestling is.
Problem is, as with many late-70 year-olds in this country. Vince lost touch with reality decades ago, leading to a stale product reliant on overused tropes, tired gags, and a fascinatingly stringent requirement of propaganda-like terms and phrases.
In short, WWE has sucked for a long time because Vince McMahon is an old lunatic whose idea of peak entertainment is puking and short people.
He's also a known control freak, hence his stranglehold on the position of head of creative, so many of us were resigned to the idea that he would never retire, plaguing the company with his unique brand of tedium until he was dead, and frankly he seemed far too stubborn to succumb to something as trivial as mortal death.
Obviously this retirement comes as fallout for the scandal that's been plaguing him and the company for the past couple of months. Honestly, since it's Vince, I'm not comfortable saying that he's definitely for sure gonna retire for realsies this time but it's certainly some of the biggest news to hit the wrestling world since...oh I dunno, Benoit?
By all accounts, McMahon is a terrible human being who deserves to be taken down professionally and personally, so the decent human being in me hopes he gets what's coming to him in the end, but the wrestling fan in me hopes that this is the start of WWE finally being allowed to evolve conceptually into something more closely resembling what actual, professional wrestling is today. I haven't regularly watched WWE in a while now (I still check out the Pay Per Views sometimes to stay informed as a wrestling fan) but the industry has a whole benefits when the biggest promotions are putting out a product worthy of competing against. WWE more or less hit 'too big to fail' status some time ago so they've had no particular onus to be, well, good, especially given that their core audience is old people who watch out of habit, but if places like AEW are gonna continue to improve their game then a company like WWE needs to be putting out a product that's at least somewhat somewhat proportional in terms of quality as the magnitude of the company would suggest. Disney sucks as a company but are at least generally known for regularly putting out good films. WWE is kind of an oddball in that it's so known for bad wrestling that even its biggest defenders don't try to defend the match quality, arguing instead that WWE is so rich and successful that they don't need to waste their time with good wrestling (Yes, this is a literal, regularly-spouted opinion of theirs).
So I guess what I'm saying is, fuck you Vince, stay dead, figuratively first then ideally literally, and let your undeserved roster of amazing modern talent finally reach the potential we all knew they'd be capable of if they hadn't sold all their passion for this art form to you.
Some of you may know that WWE CEO and majority shareholder Vince McMahon has recently been in hot water after the Wall Street Journal published a couple of stories about his use of hush money and NDA's to silence women with whom he was either involved with sexuality or accused of sexually harassing/assaulting. Despite this, he's remained a beloved figure buy a lot of WWE fans because WWE is basically wrestling's version of the MAGA cult at this point, a piss poor product insulting the intelligence of its fans who have signaled that they actively want their intelligence insulted. A large part of this is that ever since McMahon bought the company from his father, Vince Senior, he's been the last word in all decisions, creative or otherwise, that happen with the company. Vince's paradoxical resentment of pro wrestling compelled him to manufacture a version of it that he infamously refers to as "Sports Entertainment" and for fans who have never watched any other professional wrestling, WWE is the beginning and end of what wrestling is.
Problem is, as with many late-70 year-olds in this country. Vince lost touch with reality decades ago, leading to a stale product reliant on overused tropes, tired gags, and a fascinatingly stringent requirement of propaganda-like terms and phrases.
In short, WWE has sucked for a long time because Vince McMahon is an old lunatic whose idea of peak entertainment is puking and short people.
He's also a known control freak, hence his stranglehold on the position of head of creative, so many of us were resigned to the idea that he would never retire, plaguing the company with his unique brand of tedium until he was dead, and frankly he seemed far too stubborn to succumb to something as trivial as mortal death.
Obviously this retirement comes as fallout for the scandal that's been plaguing him and the company for the past couple of months. Honestly, since it's Vince, I'm not comfortable saying that he's definitely for sure gonna retire for realsies this time but it's certainly some of the biggest news to hit the wrestling world since...oh I dunno, Benoit?
By all accounts, McMahon is a terrible human being who deserves to be taken down professionally and personally, so the decent human being in me hopes he gets what's coming to him in the end, but the wrestling fan in me hopes that this is the start of WWE finally being allowed to evolve conceptually into something more closely resembling what actual, professional wrestling is today. I haven't regularly watched WWE in a while now (I still check out the Pay Per Views sometimes to stay informed as a wrestling fan) but the industry has a whole benefits when the biggest promotions are putting out a product worthy of competing against. WWE more or less hit 'too big to fail' status some time ago so they've had no particular onus to be, well, good, especially given that their core audience is old people who watch out of habit, but if places like AEW are gonna continue to improve their game then a company like WWE needs to be putting out a product that's at least somewhat somewhat proportional in terms of quality as the magnitude of the company would suggest. Disney sucks as a company but are at least generally known for regularly putting out good films. WWE is kind of an oddball in that it's so known for bad wrestling that even its biggest defenders don't try to defend the match quality, arguing instead that WWE is so rich and successful that they don't need to waste their time with good wrestling (Yes, this is a literal, regularly-spouted opinion of theirs).
So I guess what I'm saying is, fuck you Vince, stay dead, figuratively first then ideally literally, and let your undeserved roster of amazing modern talent finally reach the potential we all knew they'd be capable of if they hadn't sold all their passion for this art form to you.
Also, I don't care if you want to even just steal one from one of my submissions but for the love of holy mother Jesus give yourself an actual icon. Talking to paintbuckets always feels like talking to an AI.