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GUEST EDITORIAL
By Daniel J. Patrick of Vernon Hills, Ill.
PWTorch.com Reader

After months of greatness with the Shawn Michaels-Jericho feud, we are now treated to his latest feud with JBL. On paper, this looks like the makings of a great feud. JBL has needed some fire for a long time and given Michaels's ability to rekindle Jericho's stalled return, Michaels looks like the perfect guy to bring heat back onto JBL after months of shoddy failed title shots.

Again, what looks great on paper is a feud based on the real-life economic troubles. People are losing their jobs, their houses, and their livelihoods thanks to an economy in serious trouble. But where paper disconnects with reality is the income level of a top-level wrestler like Michaels who has been a main-eventer for over 20 years.

Michaels's so-called "money troubles" is a crass and downright insulting storyline to real wrestling fans who have real money troubles. Most of us have no tolerance for professional athletes such as the Jose Cansecos and the Mike Tysons of the world who spent away more money than most will see in a lifetime. And if Michaels truly spent away his considerable money, I would have no tolerance for him either.

So, just for fun, let's do a little math. Based on what Kurt Angle said when he jumped to TNA, Angle said the most money he ever made in the WWE was about $2.5 million in a year. So, for the sake of argument (and easy math), let's assume that Vince McMahon ignored the excellence of the Michaels-Jericho feud and paid Michaels "just" $1 million in 2008.

According to a 1040 Tax Calculator, the federal income tax rate for a person at Michaels' income level is 35-percent. Since his family's home state of Texas has no state income tax, we can assume that Michaels has about $650,000 left in his pocket every year after taxes. Again, for the sake of argument, let's say that Michaels spent an additional $150,000 (which is a crazy number, but hey, it makes for easy math) on food, insurance, and the travel expenses. That leaves us with a nice round number of $500,000. This gives him a monthly income of $41,666, a weekly income of $9,615, and a daily income of $1,373.57.

I don't know about you, but Michaels makes more in one day than I do in a week as a newspaper reporter. If he put half of his remaining wages in a college fund, our "broke" superstar could put both the Hickenbottom children through Harvard at $47,215 a year with just over 18 months of savings. With Michaels undoubtedly making more than the numbers I've suggested, such a storyline becomes even more unbelievable.

Part of what makes wrestling enjoyable is its escapism. But to bring a serious topic like a failing economy into a storyline, especially with one of the promotion's highest profile (and therefore highest paid) stars, it becomes not only insulting, it becomes disgusting.

RELATED STORY at PWTorch.com: "Pro" argument - enjoy the mic work.

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[Shawn Michaels art by Grant Gould (c) PWTorch]

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