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The Specialists
KEY MOMENT OF THE WEEK: Vince McMahon Sets Return Date - why McMahon disappeared in the first place Jan 11, 2009 - 2:13:57 PM
"We don't use guns, we don't use knives. There's no portrayal of murder. There's no portrayal of rape. We do what we do, and we have a lot of fun with it."
-- Vince McMahon on HBO's On the Record, March 14, 2001
At a time when the U.S. Government has renewed its interest in cleaning up pro wrestling, Vince McMahon will appear on television for the first time in six months.
On July 23, 2008 Vince McMahon was hosting a Million Dollar Mania segment on Raw. Bizarrely, the Chairman of the WWE was using his company's flagship show as a vehicle for a prize giveaway that would appear in every other segment.
After awarding one caller with $500,000, a piece of the Raw set fell, barely missing him. There was smoke and explosions as Vince collapsed to the floor. Then, in a stunt that seemed far too dangerous, a huge piece of the Million Dollar Mania set fell on top of him. Wrestlers broke character to come to the aid of McMahon, who himself was screaming, "Paul, I can't feel my legs." The whole angle was truly stunning.
Impressive as the sight of Vince McMahon being crushed by his own set was, it was difficult to enjoy. The whole angle smacked of bad taste. Anyone who has followed pro wrestling over the last ten to twenty years is aware that there have been enough tragedies off screen without having to simulate attempted murder.
But this was not the first time that such an incident had occurred. A year earlier, McMahon "died" on screen by getting into a limo that promptly exploded. This lead to episodes of ECW and Smackdown that amounted some of most tasteless and self-indulgent pieces of television you are ever likely to see, in which McMahon was given a ten bell salute and tribute videos from WWE wrestlers.
Vince McMahon went beyond the bounds of common decency in the past, but even for the WWE this was a new low. He had forgotten his own pledge in 2001 that murder would never be portrayed onscreen. It was difficult to see exactly what WWE was trying to achieve by parodying the tribute shows of fallen wrestlers like Eddie Guerrero and Owen Hart. We will never know.
The deaths of Chris, Nancy, and Daniel Benoit meant WWE dropped any pre-tense that Vince McMahon had died, which was a testament to how crass the storyline was in the first place. However, a year later, Vince seemingly believed that enough time had elapsed to enable his attempted murder to be portrayed on-screen yet again. We will be treated to yet another whodunit angle.
Forgetting the issue of good taste, do we really need Vince McMahon to become the focal point of Raw once again? The attempted murder of Vince McMahon is a far bigger storyline than anything else on WWE TV at the moment, so Raw in coming weeks and months will be focused not on an active wrester, but on a 63-year-old man who rarely competes. McMahon may be one of the best promos in the business, but since his feud with Steve Austin ran its course, his continued presence on TV has served no purpose.
The Vince McMahon character works extremely well as an authority figure when used sparingly, as everyone knows that he is legitimately in charge of the company. Anything more than a peripheral role is counter productive. Unfortunately, it seems as though McMahon is determined to be the biggest star on his own show, and his way of achieving this is involving himself in ever more tasteless angles.
Portraying his own attempted murder on television twice in little over a year undoubtedly makes McMahon the most important character on the show, but this came at the price of any integrity that the WWE had left.
Vince McMahon should review his attitude from 2001, when his business was more successful.
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