That Was Then 12.15.06: The Twin Warzones Of WWE And Iraq
Posted by Stuart Carapola on 12.15.2006
There's a lot of people who don't like the job Vince McMahon is doing. Similarly, there's a lot of people who don't like the job President Bush is doing. One can draw a lot of parallels between the two. But is WWE turning into the wrestling equivalent of the Iraq War?
WWE recently made their annual trip to visit the US troops overseas and perform live for them, as they do every holiday season. Everyone has their opinion about the war and the general state of the relations the US has with outlanders these days. While I am not going to go into my own personal political beliefs (so while emails discussing the subject are welcome and encouraged as always, the opinions presented here are not necessarily my own, so please no hate mail calling me a dirty Bush lover/hater), I was sitting at work the other day and was a fly on the wall for a conversation between a couple of co-workers who were discussing the situation in Iraq. Perhaps because it was topical considering their recent venture out of there, I was listening to the anti-Bush co-worker, and as I listened to him talk, I was able to draw an amazing number of parallels between President Bush (as presented by the co-worker) and Vince McMahon (as presented by nearly everyone in the IWC). So I thought it would be fun to play devil's advocate and compare the Commander-In-Chief with the Genetic Jackhammer and see what we come up with. Again, these are not necessarily my own views, so please no hate mail.
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving the United States as the sole superpower in the world.
In large part because of the Soviet republics desiring greater freedom to act independently as well as undermining of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union, once one of the two most powerful nations on the planet, collapsed from within in late 1991.
In 2001, World Championship Wrestling ceased operations, leaving the WWF as the sole major promotion in the United States.
In large part because of the talent acting independently because of guaranteed contracts with creative control, as well as undermining of WCW President Eric Bischoff and booker Vince Russo, WCW, once one of the two most powerful promotions in the US, collapsed in early 2001 and was sold for pocket change to the WWF.
President Bush has squandered the support the American people gave him in the wake of the September 11th attacks by drifting away from the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden and instead turning his attention to a meaningless invasion in Iraq.
The American people were alive with more patriotism than at any other point in my lifetime following 9/11, and when we first moved into Afghanistan, the Americans were almost unanimously gung-ho about flexing our military muscle and squashing the Muslim terrorists in a quick, decisive strike to show them that they made a terrible mistake by attacking us. Instead, Bin Laden has eluded capture and the President has turned his attention to what appears on the surface to be little more than a personal vendetta against a country that was not an immediate threat.
Vince McMahon has squandered the support the wrestling fans gave him in the wake of the death of WCW by drifting away from the awesome matches and storylines that defined the Attitude Era and instead turned his creative plans to a combination of ego-stroking, pushing the wrong people, and ridiculous storylines.
As reviled as Vince McMahon is these days, make no mistake, the wrestling fandom in general was largely singing the praises of Vince and the WWF, the owner and promotion who could do no wrong, as they stood upon the charred remains of their hated rival in 2001. Now without WCW to promote the crappy product they had been pushing for years, wrestling fans were gung-ho about the only player in town continuing the quality work that won the war. Instead, McMahon booked a poorly thought out, disappointing, politically motivated and one-sided invasion angle with the former WCW crew, and has now almost totally moved away from the formula that took him to victory over WCW in the first place.
Despite his inability to restore order in the tumultuous Iraq, President Bush vainly continues trying the same things he's been trying since the day we marched in there and is unwilling to alter his strategy because he is convinced that his plan is the road to victory.
Although we won a quick and decisive victory over the old Hussein regime, things have quickly gone downhill since then. Rather than restore order, the situation in Iraq has reached a plateau. Soldiers are dying on a regular basis, with the insurgents no closer to being brought under control than they were the day we declared major military operations to be over in 2003. Bush seems clueless as to how to improve the situation, and so continues using the same tactics, either because he doesn't know what else to do or is unwilling to admit that his ideas were wrong.
Despite his inability to restore WWE to the levels of popularity it experienced during the Attitude Era, Vince McMahon vainly continues pushing the same types of wrestlers and storylines he's been pushing since the day WCW died and is unwilling to alter his strategy because he is convinced that his plan will bring WWE back to the level it was at in 1998-2001.
Vince has shown himself to be completely unwilling to try anything new. Whenever things get rough, he always defaults back to the big guys, whether they're getting over or not. He forces all his wrestlers to work the same style and makes them stop doing anything that will make them stand out. Rather than go back to booking wrestling storylines, he insists on booking Hollywood-style stuff, and even goes so far as to specifically screen any wrestling fans out of the group of eligible applicants for creative jobs.
Because of his refusal to change his approach to operations in Iraq, countless soldiers have lost their lives or been terribly injured.
As of a few weeks ago, US military deaths in Iraq hit the 3000 mark. That's more people than died in the initial terrorist attacks in 2001. President Bush has been heavily criticized for not only sending people's sons and daughters to fight a war that we don't really know the purpose of in the first place, but also for not changing his approach in an effort to cut back or eliminate the number of casualties.
Because of his refusal to change his approach to creative, countless promising wrestlers have been damaged to the point where they'll never be able to draw in the future.
Let's get the big two out of the way right off, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. Yes, they both got World Title reigns, but they were both treated as an afterthought to the Triple H Show. Even just looking at the current roster, Charlie Haas, Shelton Benjamin, Nick Dinsmore, Jamie Noble, Matt Hardy (although that was also partially his own fault), all busted down to the point where they're little more than glorified jobbers when they had the potential (based on their earlier work or work elsewhere) to be incredibly over performers if booked correctly, and now it will be difficult if even possible for anyone to take them seriously ever again. Go to TNA, Rhino and Christian are main eventers now after repeatedly being either buried or choked with start-and-stop booking.
President Bush left Donald Rumsfeld to work out the details of military operations in Iraq, and Rumsfeld repeatedly bungled the whole thing, making a bad situation worse.
While I'm not totally up on the whole Rumsfeld situation, Anti-Bush Co-Worker seemed pretty adamant that the departure of Rumsfeld was a good thing, and also mentioned how Rumsfeld's recommendation for a change in approach mere days before resigning was too little too late being that he had been running the war for nearly four years.
Vince McMahon left his daughter Stephanie to work out the details of WWE Creative, and Stephanie repeatedly bungled the whole thing, making a bad product worse.
Ever since Stephanie took over Creative, the quality of the storylines has been steadily dropping. You could see it almost from the moment she took over with the way the Angle-Triple H feud played out. She has actively taken storylines in a more Hollywood-esque direction, much to the chagrin of WWE fans who have been disappearing in droves. Much like her father, she is totally unwilling to accept any vision but her own, and in her obsession with turning WWE into a weekly movie instead of a wrestling product, WWE has gotten so bad that it's spoken of in much the same way WCW was five years ago. The unfortunate difference between Stephanie and Rumsfeld is that I don't expect Stephanie to resign anytime soon.
Whenever anybody has questioned President Bush's plans for the direction in Iraq, they have had their patriotism called into question.
It's unfortunate that President Bush has a "with us or against us" mentality, because by doing that he automatically alienates a pretty large chunk of the American public. It doesn't help when he all but calls dissenters Communists. In a lot of ways, it sometimes feels like Bush tries to shame us into following him rather than giving us solid, positive reasons to do so.
Whenever anybody has questioned Vince McMahon's plans for the direction of WWE, they have been publicly humiliated and often buried.
There have been many reports of people arguing with Vince in creative meetings only to be completely embarrassed. When Paul London begged Vince to allow him to do the 450 splash and shooting star press after they were banned, he had the Cruiserweight Title taken from him and he was buried to make an example out of him. Simply put, where WWE is concerned, Vince is the decision maker, and he also has a "with us or against us" view, and since there are few other viable options, any wrestler who wants to "make it" has to work for him, and that leaves him with ultimate power to treat them as well or poorly as he sees fit.
In addition to pursuing a questionable at best war in Iraq, President Bush is faced with a growing threat from North Korea.
While President Bush has been spinning his wheels in Iraq, North Korea has come on the scene as a player in the nuclear arms world. While they are likely still far away from being able to present a serious threat to the US and American interests, the message has come through loud and clear that they are not to be ignored.
In addition to pursuing a questionable at best competition with UFC, Vince McMahon is faced with a growing threat from TNA.
Vince McMahon is certainly aware of TNA and what they're doing, but has instead chosen to focus on competing for ratings with UFC, which took over their spot as the centerpiece of SpikeTV. Though they see themselves as being in different businesses, Vince has chosen to overlook TNA and instead concentrate on a "ratings war" with UFC. TNA, in the meantime, ahs been quietly gaining support and momentum and, even on its worst day, is putting on a product light years ahead of anything WWE is doing. ECW, which was recreated in part to be the TNA Killer, has stalled creatively and is now nothing more than Heat with a TV slot.
President Bush's lack of success in Iraq and the War On Terror and unwillingness to give Americans the withdrawal from Iraq that is largely desired has turned many Americans against him, allowing the Democrats to gain control of the Senate and House and also the majority of state Governorships.
Up to this point, Bush has been able to basically do what he wanted because the Federal government was filled with a bunch of Republican yes-men. Whether he is unwilling or unable, Bush has not produced to the satisfaction of the public, and this past Election Day shows the lack of confidence the people have in the President. His style will now be more controlled than it has been for the first six years of his stint, and he is now more or less a man alone and will have to spend more time compromising than deciding.
Vince McMahon's lack of creativity and unwillingness to give fans what they want has turned many fans against him, allowing TNA to gain momentum and, as they gain in power, they may very well one day take over as the top wrestling promotion in the business.
There's no doubt, Vince McMahon has taken his dominance of the wrestling industry for granted. He has done a lot more bizarre things with his product than he probably ever would have if WCW was still around because, as he sees it, wrestling fans had nowhere else to go. Well, they did, actually...they went away from wrestling altogether. Is TNA a threat to them right now? No. But it is gaining in popularity, and they're legitimized by the fact that several former WWE workers have gone there and prospered. If word on the street is any good, more may be on the way. At this point, TNA is doing almost everything right while WWE is doing almost everything wrong. For the knuckledraggers who just watch WWE because Batista's a good wrestler, this may not mean anything. But to the diehard, longtime fan, TNA is already the superior product, and with the support of SpikeTV (which is gladly rid of WWE), it certainly appears that the prosperity will come.
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Is WWE the Iraq of the wrestling world? In many ways, it is. People are there not because they want to be, but because they have to. If they had a choice in the matter, they'd probably be somewhere else, but they're still there either because they can't do anything else or because they're doing something that's important to them. But in much the same way that President Bush is losing the confidence of many Americans, Vince McMahon has lost the confidence of the wrestling fans. Is the United States in immediate danger of losing its spot as the most powerful country in the world? No. Is WWE in immediate danger of losing its spot as the most powerful wrestling company in the world? No. But unlike the US government, WWE doesn't have a stockpile of nuclear weapons at its disposal to intimidate people into doing what it wants. Their audience is a third the size of what it was during the glory days in the late 90s, and what audience remains may very well be ready, like many WWE wrestlers, to go somewhere else. Hey, it's not like switching to TNA is going to get them arrested for treason, right?
