{"id":70778,"date":"2018-11-30T15:48:05","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T21:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=70778"},"modified":"2018-11-30T15:48:05","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T21:48:05","slug":"snowflake-wwes-completely-unnecessary-tastelessness-undercuts-their-consistent-efforts-to-brand-themselves-as-a-wonderful-corporate-doing-wonderful-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/11\/30\/snowflake-wwes-completely-unnecessary-tastelessness-undercuts-their-consistent-efforts-to-brand-themselves-as-a-wonderful-corporate-doing-wonderful-things\/","title":{"rendered":"SNOWFLAKE: WWE&#8217;s completely unnecessary tastelessness undercuts their consistent efforts to brand themselves as a wonderful corporate doing wonderful things"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3552354581\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Well, here we are again.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>WWE once more made the crass decision to exploit traumatic real-life events to generate heat.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Last week\u2019s Raw featured no less than three different instances of WWE personnel referring to recent incidents to further narratives &#8211; all of which were not only in poor taste but also entirely needless.<\/p>\n<p>Stephanie McMahon used the term \u201cdismemberment\u201d &#8211; invoking the disturbing death of the U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi &#8211; as a cheeky reference to the backlash WWE faced with their Saudi Arabia deal.<\/p>\n<p>Dean Ambrose used Seth Rollins\u2019s catchphrase \u201cBurn It Down\u201d multiple times while in California which has been dealing with severe loss of life and property from wildfires in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Ambrose also invoked Roman Reigns\u2019s recent leukaemia diagnosis to garner some heel heat calling the illness karmic justice.<\/p>\n<p>Even putting aside the insensitivity of the comments, what did any of the three actually hope to achieve from a storyline perspective? The Saudi fiasco is on-hold &#8211; at least until the next show &#8211; and Ambrose has been receiving the requisite heel reactions even before this week as fans have not been reticent to boo him as they have been for other recent turns.<\/p>\n<p>All three cases were also strangely out of place in each of the promos.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not like &#8220;dismemberment&#8221; is a particularly common term used by WWE, and the timing of the comment is at the very least suspect, especially given the context in linking it to being &#8220;a corporate liability.&#8221; This wasn&#8217;t a wrestler saying it about an opponent, it was an executive saying it in reference to negatively affecting a business.<\/p>\n<p>Even both of Ambrose\u2019s comments seemed strange. Aside from his entrance music, Seth\u2019s catchphrase doesn\u2019t get spoken aloud on TV regularly, at least not as frequently as it was uttered on this episode of Raw, while the comment about Reigns\u2019s illness being some form of karmic retribution seemed a bit extreme. I know the Shield weren\u2019t the nicest of fellows throughout their initial heel run, but their actions were hardly deserving of a life-threatening illness.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1178616235\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>So even if WWE had reason to exploit these events, none of them seemed to actually fit the narrative or theme of the show which makes the decision to script these lines as even more puzzling.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Actually, scratch that. It makes complete sense because this is Vince McMahon we\u2019re talking about.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Portraying Sgt. Slaughter as an Iraqi sympathizer during the Gulf War, making fun of Jim Ross\u2019s Bell\u2019s Palsy, having Randy Orton claim Eddie Guerrero was in hell mere months after Eddie&#8217;s death (to a close friend of Eddie\u2019s no-less), using Reid Flair\u2019s death in a Charlotte-Paige program, need I go on?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Any one of those would be telling of a person\u2019s character, but all of them, transpiring over three decades, is incontrovertible evidence that to Vince McMahon &#8211; and by extension WWE &#8211; other people\u2019s trauma is nothing more than an opportunity to make money (or maybe just a laugh, in the case of J.R., or a not-so-sly way of telling critics to bugger off in the dismemberment case).<\/p>\n<p>Side note: Even using the phrase \u201cdismemberment case\u201d evokes the Khashoggi case in my head. I find it impossible to entertain the idea that Stephanie\u2019s use of the word was coincidental.<\/p>\n<p>I suppose then that I\u2019ve answered my own musing. This week\u2019s scripting was not done to generate heat.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It wasn\u2019t so that people would boo Ambrose or appreciate Stephanie\u2019s cleverness.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It was simply so that Vince McMahon can show his bravado and make a point to anyone who would dare say to him that something is off-limits.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Given this man thinks a sneeze is a sign of weakness, making fun of a prominent international murder, or poking fun at a national disaster, or exploiting your employee&#8217;s (sorry, \u201cindependent contractor&#8217;s\u201d) very serious illness, is just another a day at the office.<\/p>\n<p>At what point does this kind of coarse behavior create a fuss that\u2019s too much to ignore and forces a culture change at WWE?<\/p>\n<p>When do sponsors, and more importantly the charities WWE likes to associate with, say that they don\u2019t want to be tied to a company which exploits trauma for storylines?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We\u2019ve seen similar backlash happen with Snickers and Fabulous Moolah, so is it possible Red Cross or Susan G. Komen cut ties with WWE if they continue to use tragic events which those very charities exist to eradicate and\/or mitigate?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s bad enough WWE indulge themselves in this nonsense, but, at the same time they like to portray themselves as the champions of the good cause and as lovely corporate citizens everyone wants to work with, they are actively undermining their own marketing &#8211; ahem, I mean philanthropy.<\/p>\n<p>Is it at all possible that Fox and\/or USA decide that they don\u2019t want content like this on their channel?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I don\u2019t know if any of that is possible, but I don\u2019t believe it\u2019s likely.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>WWE have gotten away with this immaturity for decades, but I can only hope that a more sensitive culture in 2018 can force Vince McMahon\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, a pre-emptive rebuttal to the likely criticism of this piece (which I have already seen on social media) that Roman Reigns was most likely consulted and consented to the use of his illness in Ambrose\u2019s promo.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>To those who want to make that argument, I won\u2019t even mention the troubling history of people consenting to be made fun of in popular culture but simply this: Did they consult Jamal Khashoggi\u2019s family?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Did they consult the thousands of people who have lost loved ones and their homes in the California wildfires? Did they consult other people battling cancer or parents of the children suffering from cancer who sent Reigns get-well messages that aired on Raw?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it is time WWE change the E in its name from Entertainment to Exploitation because that episode of Raw was certainly not entertaining &#8211; no chance in hell.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-906889780\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/10\/08\/snowflake-as-evolution-approaches-wwe-continues-to-fall-short-when-it-comes-to-presenting-female-wrestlers-and-its-womens-division\/\">SNOWFLAKE: As Evolution approaches, WWE continues to fall short when it comes to presenting female wrestlers and its Women\u2019s Division<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1750212597\"><div id=\"pwtor-861693300\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Well, here we are again.\u00a0 WWE once more made the crass decision to exploit traumatic real-life events to generate heat.\u00a0 Last week\u2019s Raw featured no less than three different instances of WWE personnel referring to <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/11\/30\/snowflake-wwes-completely-unnecessary-tastelessness-undercuts-their-consistent-efforts-to-brand-themselves-as-a-wonderful-corporate-doing-wonderful-things\/\" title=\"SNOWFLAKE: WWE&#8217;s completely unnecessary tastelessness undercuts their consistent efforts to brand themselves as a wonderful corporate doing wonderful things\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,6076,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-snowflake","category-specialists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2018\/11\/WWE_SusanGKomen_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70781,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70778\/revisions\/70781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}