An Open Rant / Letter to Vincent Kennedy McMahon

Those who know me personally are aware of my shameful little secret... I enjoy watching wrestling on the television. I just cannot help myself. As a boy, of about 10 or 11 years old, I came across a televised wrestling show, hosted by Gordon Solie, and I was instantly hooked. On my screen I saw characters who were like super heroes, but weren't simply animations on a page - they were real flesh and blood human beings. Chief Wahoo McDaniels, Bruiser Brody, Adrian Street, The Brisco Brothers, Harley Race... Bigger than life characters who piqued my curiosity and pulled me in.

It was magical. It is intended to be magical. It is theater, after all. Some folks become spell bound watching plays, or the opera... For me it was watching Jimmy Snuka fly off the top of a cage. I lacked the words to explain the magic, then, and I still, for the most part, lack them now.

And, yes... oh God, yes... I know it is scripted. I know it is, in all honesty, little more than a highly refined circus side show act - taken to stellar levels with pyrotechnics and loud music. But, even knowing, I still get caught up.

As a fan I've lived through the days of televised wrestling events coming from school auditoriums and small clubs. I've lived through Monday Night wars. I remember the days, before the lawsuits, when my favorite company was the WWF. I also remember when I couldn't bear to watch Hulk Hogan telling me to eat my vitamins, while wearing neon clothing - causing me to turn off the WWF and begin watching WCW.

I remember the attitude era.

I remember discovering ECW and forsaking both of the big two.

I remember the "invasion" that brought me home to the WWF - only to have to retrain my brain, shortly thereafter, into thinking of it as the WWE.

Over the years I have come and gone from the fold of fanhood. Currently I do not have cable and am constantly thinking about the poor decision, on your part, to have all of your programming on cable networks... The number of fans you are missing is probably substantial. But I've never judged that, business is business, after all. Still, it is not uncommon for me, on Monday nights, to find myself wishing I did have the extra cash to throw at cable - and wondering just what is happening on RAW.

Not a day goes by that I don't check the online dirt sheets to read about your product Mr. McMahon. Not a single day. I still keep up with it, even as a 44 year old man. Even after watching for more than three decades, buying numerous PPV events, and attending a few live ones... I have not burned out yet. My DVD collection is cluttered with your products, and I watch them often. I am what your demographic sheets don't seem to be able to peg down with simple numbers. Mr. McMahon, I am a die hard, life long fan.

So, imagine my surprise when I wake up today and come across an article that includes this:

Whoooa Nellie! When Brands Go Horribly Wrong: Psst--Vince McMahon and the WWE Are No Longer In the Wrestling Business. Publicist Alerts the Media.

Next thing I know, I’ve received an email from one Kellie Baldyga, a publicist for WWE, DEMANDING that we correct the story. She also copied our owner, Rance Crain, on the email.

What had drawn her ire was the headline. Baldyga wrote in her email, “We are no longer a wrestling company but rather a global entertainment company with a movie studio, international licensing deals, publisher of three magazines, consumer good distributor and more.”

Sour ce

The basis of the article is that a writer penned an article questioning Drew Carey being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame - and he used the word "wrestling" in said article. A WWE publicist contacted him and asked him to remove the word "wrestling" immediately.

Her statement was that they don't call their events "wrestling". They call them "entertainments".

What???

Mr. McMahon do you recall how much fun you had making fun of Ted Turner when he banned the words "foreign object" from WCW, ruling that the word "foreign" MUST be replaced with the word "international"? Do you recall you and your staff having a field day discussing wrestlers bringing "international objects" into the ring?

I do.

Now this? Mr. McMahon, it is my humble and respectful opinion that you have lost touch with the core of what it is that your fans want and think. Just as Ted Turner once did. Your company IS WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT! The word wrestling is in there. While I completely understand your desire to branch out and to become a fully fledged movie studio / record label / total media company, I cannot begin to fathom how you'd try to downplay the very nature of this branch of your empire???

IT'S WRESTLING MR. MCMAHON! If you require me to call them superstars and divas? So be it. If you wish that I think and speak in euphemism and call it "sports entertainment"? Fine. But to sick publicists on writers who use the "W" word in any context while describing your product? Poor form Mr. McMahon. Very poor form.

You can easily distance your movie and music products from the "sports entertainment" arm of your empire. Doing this would not upset the fans at all. Even if we all know that you do use the wrestling arm of your company as a means of building these other ventures. You put SUPERSTARS in your movies so that your SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT (WRESTLING) FANS WILL BE A BUILT IN AUDIENCE!

But this... This Mr. McMahon feels like you are ashamed of us, the fans of this product. And, frankly, the event has left me wondering if I care to patronize your product on any level, at all. If you are that embarrassed of me, a wrestling fan, who has always stood by your product, even when others mocked it and me for liking it... For you to act ashamed of me? I find it disturbing.

If I were you I think I might make some peace with the word "wrestling". After all it is the word that made you rich.

Even so, I do thank you for 30 years of enjoyment. Now it's up to you whether I'll have 30 more.

~Heff

Nice rant

I am not a fan of wrestling but i know many people who are. I know it's scripted as well. I could just never get in to it.

So he doesn't want to call it wrestling but entertainment?


Oh Mr. McMahon could you please take your wrestling OFF my SyFy network please. Thank You.

reply to post by Hefficide


Nice rant and absolutely called for.
The biggest travesty in wrestling history was when they gave David Arquette the title to promote his movie.

Even though it is entertainment there is a reason it says wrestling on the marquee out front.
Wrestling was kinda my first conspiracy which is why I went and got trained for it.
Sadly politics and money rule the business much like many other things.
Again,nice rant.

I also would like to point out that this all started back in 1985 when he started calling it sports entertainment.
Ever since then celebrities have been a big part of drawing money for major events.
The list of celebrities have been anyone from Pam Anderson to Donald Trump to Mike Tyson.
With this type of history it is sadly almost a natural progression.

reply to post by Hefficide


You brought me back for a minute man. Im nowhere near as old as you are but I remember all of that...and the best part was I was a little kid when it was all so exciting and wrestling was at its peak, so I actually thought it was real lol. I can still remember the Rock and Stone Colds match at wrestlemania that one time, ahhhhhhhhh it almost brings tears to my eyes (and I know thats stupid but if you could understand how excited I was as a kid...)

Originally posted by strawberry91
Im nowhere near as old as you are but I remember all of that..

lol. What a nice thing to say.
reply to post by Hefficide

I have not been a fan for probably about 10 years, but I too used to be into it hard-core, for many years. Didn't wanna miss anything.

And, yes... oh God, yes... I know it is scripted

I never liked it when people would say, "It's all fake."
Scripted? yes, but fake? no. Fake wouldn't hurt. Scripted still hurts.

Personally, I didn't entirely understand the point for changing the 'F' to an 'E'. Of course it's entertainment, but people don't need to be told that to know it. So are they just gonna kick a 'W' out and start calling it 'WE'? I don't know. Vince is just greedy.

Anyways, you just caused me to take a short trip down memory lane.




You may have already seen this. I never was a fan of The Rock, but this clip of his return, really is a very 'electrifying moment.'
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I remember the tomahawk chop too
You're probably too young to remember the "German invasion" with Kurt Von Hess or Haystacks Calhoun, Pamparo Firpo (the "wild man" from Borneo) and some of the older classic wrestling entertainers. Those were fun days before the sport got too entertainment oriented.
I'll tell you a secret: my friends and I used to pretend we were professional wrestlers. We'd put on hoods and do everything but jump from turnbuckles and hit each other with folding chairs. Then I turned 13 and got interested in girls and it all ended.
We all have our pecadillos Heff, You're a bigger man than I for admitting yours.
I mean, you wouldn't catch me dead telling everyone about my GI Joe fetish

OMG, did I just hit reply?!!
Cheers, ATA

reply to post by Asktheanimals


GI Joe with the facial scar? The 10 inch tall one with the kung-fu grip??? Yeah, ummm, add that to my list of embarrassing confessions...

reply to post by BrokenCircles


Ah Mick Foley! One of my favorites! I reread "Have A Nice Day" about once a year! I live in Atlanta and, by way of work, met many of the WCW wrestlers. Lex Luger and Sting were two who patronized the restaurant I managed. In fact Lex Lugers daughter was born on the same night, and in the same hospital as my son was. So that was a bizarre night.

The reason that they changed from WWF to WWE is that the World Wildlife Fund sued them and the court decided that the World Wildlife Fund took precedence and had the right to be called WWF.

Hawk and Animal! The Legion of Doom! The Road Warriors! One of my all time favorite tag teams!

And I did Youtube all of the videos pertaining to the Rocks return, including the banter between him and Cena building up to and following it. Very entertaining stuff!

~Heff

Hey OP, I grew up watching Mid South Wrestling, Junkyard Dog, Hacksaw Jim Dugan, Von Erich's, Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorf, Ted Debiase (sp??), etc...

Here's a classic, (not midsouth but still classic) -

reply to post by Hefficide

Ok, that makes a little more sense for why the name was changed. I never actually tried to look it up and figure out why. I guess I just assumed they were just tired of people saying it's fake lol, so they started officially calling it 'Entertainment.'

For the most part, I was always a bigger fan of NWA & WCW, than the WWF.
L.O.D. and Sting were among my favorites. I always liked the Steiners too.

Nicely said, Heff!

I've been a fan for longer than I'm willing to admit (and, yes, I'm considerably older than you...lol) but with all the added "extras" it's getting harder to remain that way.

Those names surely brought back memories I remember HHH making his debut at NWA as Jacques LeBlanc, the debut of Ricky "the Steamboat" dragon. Heck, I even remember watching Mae Young and "The Fabulous" Moolah wrestle (uh oh, think I'll hush now).

Great post! Hey, why not submit it to WWE's HQ?? Who knows, maybe it'll snow in July and Vince will read it...lol

Originally posted by TNTarheel
the debut of Ricky "the Steamboat" dragon.

Now that's a name I hadn't heard of or even thought about, for a very long time.
So I had to do a search.


I can kind of remember an ongoing feud he had with Jake The Snake.

This thread is taking me back.

I wonder if these sports shows would have been popular if they used the actual name...

Mens Ballet...

Thems some intense ballerinas!

Originally posted by BrokenCircles

Originally posted by TNTarheel
the debut of Ricky "the Steamboat" dragon.

Now that's a name I hadn't heard of or even thought about, for a very long time.
So I had to do a search.

I can kind of remember an ongoing feud he had with Jake The Snake.

This thread is taking me back.

Had a senior moment, didn't I?!! It was actually Ricky "the dragon" Steamboat.

He and Jake had some awesome matches!! On one episode, if memory serves me correctly, Ricky's mongoose appeared to eat Jake's snake (I think that particular snake's name was Damian).

And let's don't forget Randy "Macho Man" Savage...a true character indeed

reply to post by TNTarheel

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I honestly didn't even notice that you switched the words around until you just now pointed it out. I just meant I hadn't heard his name for a long time lol.

I watched this one earlier. Not really worthy of an embed, in my opinion, but it is Jake "The Snake" Vs. Earthquake. Earthquake smashes Damien.
(In the bag, which was momentarily under the ring, and they still cut off the video before his big butt landed on the garden hose or whatever that was actually inside the bag)

Mr. and Mrs. Macho....
Ok I'm 2 1/2 minutes into this wedding, there better be a fight soon lol.
Sid comes in to save the day.



reply to post by Hefficide

A couple months ago, I watched the Biography of Mick Foley, on The Biography Channel. They had quite a bit about that 'Hell In The Cell' match. Some of that S&*$ is just beyond crazy, but he loves it.


Well imagine that. In a little less than an hour, this is going to be on The Biography Channel-

Portrait of the nice little boy who grew up to be the hated superstar "bad boy" of professional wrestling. Follows Steve's long and injury-filled rise to the top, and features the rare sight of Steve talking as himself and not his violent character, giving viewers the chance to know the real man behind the performer.

I've just spent close to an hour reliving memories at YouTube.

I ran across this tribute to fallen wrestlers...a lot of memories here



And for those of us who remember

Originally posted by BrokenCircles
reply to post by TNTarheel

 

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I honestly didn't even notice that you switched the words around until you just now pointed it out. I just meant I hadn't heard his name for a long time lol.

Sid comes in to save the day.

No worries, BC

It just kind of "jumped out" at me when I read your reply.

reply to post by Hefficide

 

A couple months ago, I watched the Biography of Mick Foley, on The Biography Channel. They had quite a bit about that 'Hell In The Cell' match. Some of that S&*$ is just beyond crazy, but he loves it.

I heard an interview with Undertaker about that match! He said it was one of the hardest matches he had ever wrestled in. Poor old Mick's tooth was sticking through his upper lip by the time it was over. GOOD match!

 

Well imagine that. In a little less than an hour, this is going to be on The Biography Channel-

Portrait of the nice little boy who grew up to be the hated superstar "bad boy" of professional wrestling. Follows Steve's long and injury-filled rise to the top, and features the rare sight of Steve talking as himself and not his violent character, giving viewers the chance to know the real man behind the performer.

I know what I'll be doing at 1pm

Thanks for the heads up!!

edit on 3/21/11 by BrokenCircles because: Stone Cold, of course

reply to post by TNTarheel

There was several in that video that I didn't know, and a few that I didn't realize were now gone. That's a long list though. It seemed like there was a lot of 2003, and even more 2007. I didn't try to keep track, but it just seemed like 2007 especially, was on there a lot more than any other year.

There was one in that video, that they called 'Renegade.' I thought it was The Ultimate Warrior, so I had to look it up on the wiki to find out. Says his name was Rick Williams. I found one sentence in the wiki that I don't really understand though.

When the Ultimate Warrior arrived in WCW in 1998, Williams used as his stunt double until the Warrior departed from the promotion soon after his debut. In late 1998, Williams was released from his contract and he retired soon after.

en.wikipedia.org...
I didn't know they used stunt doubles. As far as I know, they do their own stunts.


Giant Haystacks- I've never heard of him before, but I absolutely love that name. That's great.

Originally posted by TNTarheel
I heard an interview with Undertaker about that match! He said it was one of the hardest matches he had ever wrestled in. Poor old Mick's tooth was sticking through his upper lip by the time it was over. GOOD match!

I know what I'll be doing at 1pm

Thanks for the heads up!!

Yeah, as far as any of the matches I've seen, I'd have to say that one is by far the most extreme. The pain thresh-hold, and they just kept going.

and, no problem. I'm watching it now; Steve looks funny with hair lol.

Originally posted by BrokenCircles
reply to post by TNTarheel

 

There was several in that video that I didn't know, and a few that I didn't realize were now gone. That's a long list though. It seemed like there was a lot of 2003, and even more 2007. I didn't try to keep track, but it just seemed like 2007 especially, was on there a lot more than any other year.

1999 seemed to be another year that saw a lot of deaths.

There was one in that video, that they called 'Renegade.' I thought it was The Ultimate Warrior, so I had to look it up on the wiki to find out. Says his name was Rick Williams. I found one sentence in the wiki that I don't really understand though.

I didn't know they used stunt doubles. As far as I know, they do their own stunts.

Stunt doubles???? I also thought they did their own stunts! But, remember, that WAS the WCW. lol

Steve looks funny with hair lol.

He does, doesn't he!!