Take up thy wrestling boots and walk - Has Vince lost what makes him Vince?
Submitted by Pt2 on Sunday, September 4, 2005 at 4:36 PM EST





Think back to the nineteenth of January, 1992. For those of you reading this who were actually at the 1992 Royal Rumble, the Knickerbocker arena in Albany, New York will have fond memories. You’ll probably remember the excitement surrounding a vacant title, joy at witnessing first hand Rowdy Roddy Piper’s capturing his first title since joining the WWE, and possibly, just possibly, you’ll remember an incredible run - where Ric Flair entered the Rumble third, and was the last man standing in the ring to capture the WWE title. Truly an incredibly performance by Ric Flair, and that performance will be one of the things that makes that Rumble match stand out as one of the greatest ever to this day.

But it’s not the only thing. In the words of Ric Flair himself, here is the other factor:

“Just about every other guy in the ring - including Piper, Shawn Michaels, “British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Savage, Hogan, Kerry Von Erich - was a star, a phenomenon that I feel doesn’t exist today.”

Flair has a point. All the names he points out were incredibly popular wrestlers, and there are some others that are equally big stars in that Rumble that he neglects to mention. Ted DiBiase for one. Bret Hart, just to name another. Sid Justice was massively popular going into the Rumble, so popular that to ensure his heel turn, it has been strongly suggested that the WWE had to edit the crowd reaction, to remove cheers for Sid and heat for Hogan. All of these men, at the time massive superstars were in the Rumble, and without a doubt, that much talent in a ring will make for an incredible night. I don’t think it’d ever really been done to that level before - the presence of Flair and the return of Piper added to the already star studded WWE line up and kicked this Rumble up another couple of gears.

Unfortunately, also, I don’t think it’s ever been done again.

Mick Foley entering the 1998 Royal Rumble three times may have been a funny interlude, but what it doesn’t hide all that well is the lack of real star power in there. The Headbangers, Marc Mero, Ahmed Johnson (after a long absence from the ring), Savio Vega and Tom Brandi stand as some of the smallest names on the list, and trying to find superstars to compare with the 1992 line up is tough - only Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley, Owen Hart and Vader can even hold their own. The year after, at the commercial peak of the Attitude era, the presence of Dan Severn, Mabel, Mark Henry, Billy Gunn and the Blue Meanie doesn’t really compare with 1992’s Haku, Tito Santana, Greg Valentine, Jake Roberts and Jimmy Snuka.

Considering that this is a thirty man match, as opposed to a singles match or even a tag/multi person tag match, I’d consider it safe to say that the Royal Rumble match is an accurate reflection of the level of star power in the company. The 1992 roster was stacked with wrestling stars, either made by Vince McMahon or older stars inherited from the territories. In 2001, the WWE’s talent acquisition over the previous few years shows off an improved Rumble line up from previous years, with Tazz, Raven, Perry Saturn and Big Show adding to the established WWE stars of the Hardys, Steve Austin, The Rock and The Undertaker.

The key point there, is that it is talent acquisition that boosted the star power of the WWE come 2001. The stealing away of ECW stars, and from WCW recognisable wrestlers like the Radicalz, Chris Jericho, Haku and The Big Show stacked the WWE roster and gave it the appearance that it had been lacking in the fan friendly “no steroids here” years of the mid nineties, where terrified of pressure from the outside, Vince McMahon (currently featured at www.wrestlingfanshof.co.uk - the wrestling FAN’s hall of fame ) turned his product into Diaper match and Dean Douglas land. By investing in the rival talent, Vince had a roster full of superstars.

But unlike most of the late eighties/early nineties, he didn’t make them himself, and hasn’t since then. You think of the current RAW/Smackdown rosters, and how many of them are actual superstars, in the way Randy Savage was a superstar? I’m going to go with Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair and Chris Benoit. And there will be people who’ll debate Triple H and Benoit with me until I’m in my sixties.

The question I have then, why is Vince McMahon’s success rate so much lower than it was back in the eighties? Has Vince McMahon actually lost his ability to be the “Einstein of Pro wrestling” as Hulk Hogan calls him? I remember reading on WWE.com, there was a feature with Jim Ross called “10 things not to say to Vince McMahon”, and one of them was “Not even YOU can get that guy over”. The Vince McMahon of the nineteen eighties would probably have taken that as a personal slight, and gone absolutely mental to prove you wrong. Face facts, he got the Honky Tonk Man over, he got the Ultimate Warrior over, and he got the Bushwhackers over. Not exactly gentlemen loaded with ring skills or charisma, but Vince found the niche for all of them, and made them pretty popular, and in the case of the Ultimate Warrior, incredibly popular for a short while.

But what if this gift that Vince McMahon has is slipping? He’s been gifted guys with a great look over the past few years, such as Batista, Randy Orton, John Cena, Sean O’Haire, and so on, and on, and on, as the list of guys with tremendous physiques gets longer and longer. Randy Orton, probably the most promising of the bunch long term, was criminally mishandled. Batista and Cena have both reached reasonable levels of popularity, but in superstar terms, they are both really still closer to 1998 Ken Shamrock than 1998 Steve Austin, which for the world champions is a situation that isn’t ideal. There certainly hasn’t been any danger of anyone being as popular as The Rock, the last WWE megastar, since the Triple H face run in early 2002 - and Hunter had been a star for years at that point, arguably his popularity was based more on the fans being glad to have him back than on anything else.

I know it can’t be an easy job, being the head honcho at a company that moves so quickly and is so large - but the on screen product is almost certainly going to be McMahon’s priority, and lets be perfectly frank here, since the deaths of ECW and WCW, WWE tv has featured very few angles that wrestling fans have said “it’ll never work”, and then gone on to work wonderfully well. The exceptions that jump to mind have been the Booker and Goldust tag team, itself handled shockingly badly considering the teams popularity, and Eugene, a huge risk which could have blown up in the WWE’s face, but instead was handled masterfully - there we see a flash of the old McMahon instincts, but why aren’t they dotted around the roster, particularly closer to the main event?

If Vince were to be losing some of that special genius that made the WWE the mega power that it is today, it would explain a few things. A man who knows wrestling so well fundamentally that he single handed killed the territories and then years later, when threatened by the ravenous and ruthless Eric Bischoff still had the knowledge to come up with the most entertaining wrestling shows week in, week out - that man would know that putting the product in the hands of writers may be a nice way to go in theory, but he wouldn’t let them make all the calls and put in some of the soap opera stuff that doesn’t work on a wrestling show. That man would know what was good for business to the point where even if his little girl doesn’t like wrestlers coming up with ideas, he’d know the benefits that can offer and openly encourage it.

Remember, ultimately, Vince McMahon is still in charge of the WWE. He makes all the final calls. Stephanie McMahon, her team of writers, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan and whoever can say what they want, and they can try and get their way out of Vince McMahon - but the Vince McMahon who gambled everything on Wrestlemania AND Wrestlemania III and came away from it so many millions of dollars richer wouldn’t let any of them do what was bad for business. He’s established a reputation as the best business man in wrestling.

So with the one wrestling promoter that many refer to as the greatest of all time at the helm, why do we get angles like Katie Vick, like Muhammed Hassan and his thugs (which may or may not have been terrorists, but at the moment putting that on TV and expecting to get off without a shitload of complaints is as stupid as a multiracial Muslim homosexual couple making out in the middle of a Ku Klux Klan meeting),like non wrestler feuds featuring some of (but not limited to) the following: Jim Ross, The Coach, Christy Hemme, Torrie Wilson, Stacy Keibler, Vince McMahon, Steph McMahon, Shane McMahon, Linda McMahon, Eric Bischoff and Lillian Garcia. OK, Humping Viscera may not have been a feud per se, but I’m sticking with it. Why do we get these angles that anyone in their right mind could tell you wouldn’t work.

Maybe we always got them, and it’s just selective memory - we want to remember the old times as good times, so we erase the things that we’ve got no interest in seeing. I remember 1995 fondly, but that is because I think more of Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Hakushi, Diesel, Razor Ramon and Jeff Jarrett than I do of “the monotone, Drippy Dean” (Douglas - credit Mick Foley). Perhaps for every time Vince McMahon made a killing by changing Mick Foley from Cactus Jack to Mankind and cleaning up at the merchandise, he simultaneously had something running that was close to Steamboat and Flair as “Horace Hogan knows best”, soon to debut on some minor league godforsaken channel near you.
I hope that's the case. Think about it. The alternative is, that either through ego, age, a lack of hunger, or simply the creative well running dry, the man who implemented virtually every last good idea that you’ve watched on wrestling over the past twenty years, and vetoed every bad one that you didn’t, wouldn’t quite have his hands on the wheel anymore in the same way that he used to. And frankly, although everything has to change sometime, I’m not sure that I want Vince gone if the alternative is totally scripted promo’s, hollywood writers putting in Two and a half men one liners and all kinds of other stuff that doesn’t belong when the marquee says wrestling.

That’ll do it for this one. I’ll reply to all feedback sent to takeupthywrestlingboots@gmail.com

Don’t forget to check out www.wrestlingfanshof.co.uk, nominations for the Christmas induction are now being taken. Think your favourite wrestlers deserve some recognition? Nominate them today.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, take care

Pt2








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