In the wake of Vince McMahon's not-in-any-way-retirement on Friday, they follow the usual script of any powerful and wealthy man's career coming to an end. His offenses, crimes, and responsibility for the misery and violation of so many come under his accomplishments. Being rich is the ultimate achievement of all. We value someone's bank account more than just about anything, especially women and low level workers, and usually mistake it for some genius we couldn't possibly achieve. It gets muddy if the only genius involved is having all the money.
Vince McMahon was a genius. He was left alone in the industry of wrestling because there was no one else who could provide an alternative for decades, and he had more money than everyone else. He has always been known as a wrestling promoter and his failures in any other line tell his own story.
Wrestling was a fractured business before McMahon "unified" them. The first wrestling promoter to see the power of cable television was McMahon. McMahon was able to rise to that position of power because he pissed all over the agreements and rules the territories had so that they could all survive and prosper. Is being prepared to do whatever it takes to get more money really a mark of genius? It is in this country. If they could just play the game that way, they would be just as ruthless as if they had just been given a chance.
In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, no wrestling company had hit the mainstream in a similar way as WWF. They were the only game here. The biggest event in wrestling history was created by McMahon. He was the only one who could do that. All of it was created because of the mass appeal of the two stars of history at the time. Thanks to the platform that McMahon provided, both Hogan and Andre were stars in the industry before they took WWF to new heights. Six in one is most likely.
McMahon was able to railroad and run over anyone he wanted because he had money. He could rape his company's first female referee in a limo, crush any chance of his workers forming a union, and put them on a work schedule where their only salvations were painkillers. That is the way it works here.
The Rock and John Cena are some of the biggest stars in the world, thanks to the help of Vince and the World Wrestling Entertainment. How much was Vince and how much was the natural gifts of the two wrestlers? We didn't have a reference for sure. They couldn't go to see what else they could do. It's not fair, as it's been years since Vince cared about putting out an interesting product, but seeing how both Bryan Danielson and CM Punk have continued their careers unfettered while in their 40s in AEW makes one wonder if it wasn't more of a career choice
There was competition. The WCW ran. Vince outmaneuvered them and that didn't mean it failed. The company collapsed under the weight of its own incompetence, a process hurried along by a Time Warner-AOL merger that saw wrestling off the conglomerate's list of priorities. Vince bought it after the death of WPcW. He had his money. There is a real visionary thinker. Vince paid for ECW with his money. The tent needed to feed itself.
The Mania era of Hogan, the Attitude era of Stone Cold and The Rock, and so on, will be defined by the various phases of Vince's "art" These were the only things available. Did they look good because there wasn't anything else nearby or did they look good because there wasn't anything else?
He was allowed to do more as the Vince Express continued. He was able to make more money and do more of what he was already doing because he was able to fire more workers and make more money. For a long time, Vince and his business was the only one of its kind in the area. Most people stood because it was the best. Is it true?
McMahon will get to duck out before it's too late. He will be able to retire and live in whichever of his mansions he chooses, instead of being fired or imprisoned for any of his crimes. While his employees complain about how unfair it is, he will have his daughter leading cheers from his cult in Boston. They don't have enough money.
The true American dream is that. Success that only you can achieve, that keeps growing on a cycle because of your position, and there are no consequences for what you do. You can't have a new idea for a long time because your status is so high. McMahon had a lot of money and it hurt a lot of people when they put out a garbage product. He was self-made and that doesn't matter. Being in the right place at the right time is what made that "made".
He won't get what we think he deserves, but he has gotten what he thinks he does billions of times over, and that's what really matters.
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