Has Vincent Kennedy McMahon lost his mind?

[EVAN BOURNE=WWE Ledgend]

The direction of the wwe has been terrible over the last 2 months. Smackdown is plummeting and so is raw in the ratings catagory. decisions are being made that baffle people.

Vince Mcmahon is behind some the majority of these problems as he is the head of the WWE.

#1: He has no intent on allowing christian to win the mitb match. We thought that he was a main contender for the contract and match but now that has bascically become a dream. News has surfaced that vince had to be convinced to even allow captain charima into the match. I guess he doen't like that he isn't buff or something. We all know that christian has soo much charisma that vince doesn't even see.

#2: He has changed WWE to a PG network of tv shows. He now wants to target the children and all aspects of them. Again, this baffles all of us as wrestling has always dominated the teen and adult demographics. Some parents don't even let their kids watch wwe because of the violence, let alone order a ppv.

#3: Vince decided to create ecw as a full fledged brand 2 years ago. Now the brand has become a piece of scum to vince and he puts 0 work into it. THere are great wrestlers their that he refuses to use and now there isn't even a title match.

READ:Regarding plans for the ECW Championship at WrestleMania XXV, well, there aren't any.

Unless plans change just before the show (or they do a dark match), ECW Champion Jack Swagger will not be defending his belt at the pay-per-view.

Vince McMahon lost faith in Swagger after his lackluster outing with Finlay at last month's No Way Out pay-per-view. While McMahon still wants to push him, they don't feel he's ready for live television quite yet.

Had McMahon decided on letting Swagger compete at WrestleMania, his opponent would have been Evan Bourne. As a result, he will be left off the card too.

In another sign indicating the company has no plans on having an ECW Championship match take place at WrestleMania, company officials opted to make next week's edition of ECW on Sci Fi an "All-Divas" special promoting the 25-Diva Battle Royal instead of building towards something regarding the ECW Championship at the event. Following next week's show, there will only be one week to go and almost no time to build up an ECW match at WrestleMania. WWE wanted to make use of next week's episode of ECW to at least promote something relevant regarding WrestleMania, hence the "All-Divas" special.


NOW I ask you what is vince thinking. Also adress other wacky things hes been doing as of late.

 

[nthomas504]

I See wat ur sayin bout all of dis. But understand, Vince's whole thing is to surprise the fan, smarks alike. How many expected Edge to lose his title in the EC match, then get it back the same night. He is all about surprises.

I imagine that there will be a dark match for the ECW title if nuthin else, he wants to do this because there is nuthin he can afford to get rid of on the match-card for WM.

Ever since 2003, i have felt that the WWE have tried to get the PG rating. Its offical now, but its been lyk this for quite a while. When Vince created the Character known as John Cena (no offense, i love Cena), the WWE has taken a turn back to its 80's and early 90's. While i fully believe that there will be another attitude era if TNA ever gets tht popular. Rite now, its kiddy land to tha fullest

 

[Big Fella]

The direction of the wwe has been terrible over the last 2 months.

Vince Mcmahon is behind some the majority of these problems as he is the head of the WWE.

#1: He has no intent on allowing christian to win the mitb match.

#2: He has changed WWE to a PG network of tv shows.

#3: Vince decided to create ecw as a full fledged brand 2 years ago.

READ:Regarding plans for the ECW Championship at WrestleMania XXV, well, there aren't any.

Had McMahon decided on letting Swagger compete at WrestleMania, his opponent would have been Evan Bourne. As a result, he will be left off the card too.

I don't think that McMahon is "going crazy," but even if he was your list of support (the effect) would not match the cause (McMahon's craziness) under the timeline you have provided.

The vast majority of the reasoning you provided has been going on longer than 2 months. So perhaps it is likely that the reasons you provided are the reasons you are less than enamored with the direction of the company, but would in no way indicate McMahon is going crazy.

I agree that it would be nice for Christian to get a push. Christian is a nice talent, perhaps a borderline main-event guy in the WWE. That said, he is not such an over and obvious talent not pushing him could be considered, "crazy."

Point number two about the G-rating is also less than crazy. I disagree vehemently about the majority of the fan-base being adults. It has almost always been driven by kids. I think part of the reason ratings are going down right now is because the base of children fans has eroded over the past decade since the Attitude Era.

I think that most fans at some point in their lives move on and quit following Wrestling. I know at age 26, most of my friends have followed wrestling and have since stopped. I myself have stopped watching over the span of a year or two a few times in my life. With adults, priorities change, interests change, and the fan base eventually fades away.

One of the primary goals in every business to attract children. This is so for several reasons. While parents do not want their children to watch television for periods at a time, most parents are happy to put on a program for an hour or two that will entertain and pacify their children. Over the past decade this hasn't been the case with WWE, this could be in the future.

Also, the more children a business attracts, the better chance a business has into turning those fans into life-long fans, which is the goal of every business. The G-rating would be a poor example of VKM's craziness.

 

[makeitvab]

Am I the only one that finds these "christian is a piece of crap i want to rape him and murder his family!" to be a red herring?

I feel like Vince is aware of online leaks and to further shock us, is making it look like Christian winning mitb is about as likely as cmpunk being fired for heroin abuse.

Raw this week was kinda "meh" imo, wasnt bad, wasnt great, but eh. I typically dont watch smackdown so cant comment.

To answer your question, no. I dont believe these recent happenings are any indication of some great calamity about to bestow itself upon the WWE. I'm a cynic first and a fan last, and while WM25 isnt shaping upto our hopes and expectations, thats really only our fault for thinking it should be something special...even though they advertise it as such. I mean we have HHH admitting hes married to stephanie, hbk vs taker.... ok thats it.

 

[Jersey Wannabe]

While i will agree with your statement about the WWEs recent downturn, I dont think Vince is crazy.

We as wrestling fans watch wrestling,thats what we do.
VKM and company are searching for that all important casual fan or non fan.
If by changing his M.o. he can lure new fans that is what he will try to do.
We watched WWE when it was good, and we continue to watch it when its bad.
Its the new ones he is trying to attract with a softer product.

And as for your statement on ECW and its lack of a title match, who cares.
Ecw is dead, it died the moment it became property of WWE.
I actually wish they would stop calling it ECW and change it to something else.
Ecw is just an hour long commercial for raw,smackdown and the ppv of the month.

Evan Bourne is decent, but the only reason he seems so good is because the WWE got rid of the cruiserweight division and all the talented workers in it.
I guarantee you, that if you were to throw Bourne into the cruiseweight division of WCW circa 97-00 he would be just another face in the crowd.

As for Swagger, he can wrestle but he is just another cookie cutter superstar. If he disappeared tomorrow no one would notice, and when they finally did , they wouldnt care.

 

[Phoenix]

I think the ECW Championship should be defended at Wrestlemania, it had it's first defense last year, albeit in an awful 6 second match, but at least do something credible with it. But the plus side of the ECW Championship not being on the card is having room for a decent lengthed Intercontinental Championship match, bringing some long awaited respect and prestige to a belt with a long long history, I hope it's a start of things to come.

I think if Vince McMahon didn't take Christian seriously to be in the Main Event, why did a. he rehire him? b. Christian sign a contract with the WWE? While it could be believed that it's true, but with so many releases happening, they didn't have to hire Christian, so why did they? Because Vince knows he is credible enough and chose to come back because he hated the way he was used towards the end of TNA and the product not being good enough.

Whilst I heard that Vince didn't want to have any ECW Superstars in MITB (I'm aware about Mark Henry), a fair choice with most of them being newbies to the business, I can think that he surely would Christian in there because he will put on some great ladder spots, but also to have a credible chance of winning.

I don't think he's lost his mind, he went crazy a number of years back - Katie Vick anyone?

 

[HBK-aholic]

I'd completely disagree with you thinking that the WWE has been terrible these last 2 months. There is a lot on the show that's exciting - Legacy for one. Matches are great, the build to Wrestlemania is making me more and mroe excited about it. They purposely gave us a big break in between the last PPV and WM to make sure everything could be set our properly, which I would argue is a smart move by McMahon.

 

[Age of Orton]

I actually enjoy ECW more then Smackdown, I rarely even watch Smackdown.. but this weeks was decent (500 episode) but ECW is run perfectly, they have Finlay on there who's in the mix and Christian, along with the new breed coming through, I'll admit tho I don't buy into Swagger one bit, I generally don't feel like he's got Championship materiel, IF WWE mess up at Mania 25 and don't have the ECW Title defended or even on the show then it's showing how much they actually want to push they're product.. personally I think they'll do a Mania 24, Rumble before the show and a title change at the show just not as a quick.

 

[GameOver]

WWE direction makes a hell of a lot more sens the what the "opposition" is doing

now to Christian i never expected him to get straight back into a world title hunt so i'm pretty sure alot of others didn't. He left for the opposition for one thing and was never in the world title picture when he left.

As much as i like Christian's charisma, he's too small to be a world champ. and i don't count Rey Mysterio that was a joke. Now Christian could be an ECW champ cause that makes no difference who wins that.

ECW, ok well that was weird why he even bothered keeping that alive if he had no intention of making it any more than a Heat type show, then again it takes a hell of a lot of money to put on a show like Raw aor Smackdown so why would you bother when it's watched by the minority.

RAW and Smackdown have lost ratings, but thats wrestling in general. TNA barely beats ECW ratings and they are still making money apparently. Popularity of anything ebbs and flows over the yrs, Wrestling has gone from nothing to phemon to nothing to OK to surviving. It's nature

Personally my take is there's too much emphasis on the story and not enough on the match that story leads too. and that is definately something that is atleast in some part Vince's doing. to quote Jim Cornette in a radio show, Vince killed wrestling when he decided to admit that it was fixed and that WWE was about making movies not fooling people with fake rassling, oh and the killing of the promotion regions and that is true to a large extent.

If we wanted to watch movies we'd go to the cinema's or a video store.

Anyway i digress, i disagree that it has been terrible in the past few months, i actually think the compelte opposite, it was terrible the last few yrs but since Royal Rumble things have picked up from where they were. Sure there's stuff that is boring, stuff that is going nowhere. ie Jericho/JBL/Khozlov. But atleast the storylines makes some sense and the action is still there.

It's a damn site better that whats going on in the other organisation Now that makes absolutely no sense but thats another topic

 

[Mustang Sally]

One of the primary goals in every business to attract children....... Over the past decade this hasn't been the case with WWE, this could be in the future.

Point well taken. While it's true that children can't order PPV's and that catering to them may hurt buy rates at present, it could be a good move for the future. On the other hand, if WWE loses their more mature fan base, they should understand why PPV buys are down. You gain in one area and lose in another.

As for Vince McMahon, I think he's too close to the situation to see it clearly. When you read wrestling forums, one trend that seems to stick out is that this guy is constantly angry. You read about how he's furious at a wrestler for botching a spot, how he screamed in Mick Foley's earpiece, how he reaches a state of apoplexy when a PPV had less buys than it did the year before. (Clinically, a man in his 60's shouldn't indulge in rage.... at least not too often).

Perhaps he should consider stepping away for awhile. His company and it's employees don't benefit from his keeping them scared to death of getting yelled at and fearful of losing their jobs. Of course, if he feels that the company won't survive without him, even for a little while, then WWE's doom is sealed because the man ain't gonna live forever.

Take it easy, Vinnie Mac.

 

[Tastycles]

McMahon isn't stupid enough not to have an ECW match at wrestlemania, unless he is planning on killing the brand. I think Christian would have had it, but now Bourne has returned, and they have one of the most popular wrestlers in the company to fall back on, I think you can expect to see Bourne take on Swagger.

Swagger hasn't been forgotten, but at the moment there's nothing for him to do. The week after next I expect to see him be challenged by Bourne for the title. The ECW championship match was never going to get many buys, so they can leave it this late.

Smackdown's ratings are going down because they have put it on a dogshit network that nobody has, and nobody watches at any other time, so what can they be expected to do. The content of the show is far better, and the matches far stronger than they have ever been on Smackdown and stronger than they have been since the attitude era on Raw.

ECW has no recognized superstars whatsoever. Until Christian returned it had gone nearly a year without any former World Champions, and yet it still draws more than TNA, which has, in Kurt Angle, one of the most recognisable wrestlers there is. ECW is my favourite programme right now, and it is my flatmates', who aren't wrestling fans, favourite also. That would imply they're doing something right.

Raw is drawing in the high threes, which is better than it was doing at the same point last year, so I don't think the content is too bad there either.

Finally, the PG thing. For the time being, they will make more in merchandising with the rating at PG. Advertisers avoid professional wrestling for adults, because the image of a professional wrestling fan is of a toothless yokel married to his sister. Kids advertising in pro wrestling is fine,because kids watch wrestling without stigma. As the ratings of wrestling is generally low, it is better to appease the networks by pulling in more adverts, even if they are for a traditionally low money demographic.

If TNA start pulling in 2.0 ratings with their more adult orientated product, then WWE will immediately switch tacks. For the time being, do you really care if someone is hit with a chair, rather than hit with it until they bleed?

WWE could be better, but the fact of the matter is that it is as strong now as it was a year ago. If McMahon has lost the plot, he lost it years ago.

 

[Savage1]

For those of you who doubt Christian and those of you who said he was no where near the world title when he left I beg to differ. I do believe Christian was in a fued with Cena and Jericho when Cena was drafted to RAW originally. Cena was the WWE champ then and he and Christian fueded for a while actually. I do think its ridiculous for Vince to shaft Christian however. He is a top tier guy in my eyes...great charisma, great mic work, good ring work, and good promos. He would make a good champ for sure, whether he is face or heel, either way he will do a good job. I think the choices for this years MITB match are horrible. I dont wanna see Mark Henry in ANY match especially a match made to have big spots and lots of high spots in it. What is 400lbs of slow boring Mark Henry gonna do on a ladder besides cripple the damn thing?! And while I wish Kane was used in a better fashion on tv every week I dont think he is a good fit for the MITB match either. Im not against big guys in this match all together but these two are not the guys I would choose. I think Vince is losing touch with his own product and what the fans want...but thats the thing with wrestling, no matter what someone is gonna be unhappy.

 

[rolltide_pisco]

Obviously Vince McMahon feels that the older wrestling fans like myself who made him and his company so much money through watching RAW, buying ppv's and merchandise that he's fulfilled his obligation to us. He feels the business recycles and we start all over with new, younger fans who are not smart to the business and we build on them. Unfortunately, Vince probably does not read the internet and see how big it's impact is on ALL fans of age. The younger fans are coming up just as we are. They will get on the internet and will smarten themselves up as well. Now I'm old school. I came with the NWA and the whole illusion of it being legit wrestling and not entertainment. I will say that through the original ECW and the internet, I have a different outlook and perspective on the way they do things.

The older fans still have to matter to the WWE and TNA. We're the ones with the money, not the children and with all the recent deaths and steroid talks over the last few years, why would a parent let their kids watch? What do you say as a parent to their son who wears his Chris Benoit t-shirt cause he was his favorite wrestler?

It's gotten to the point that maybe Vince feels that since there is no legit competition right now (yeah TNA) he can put out whatever he wants on tv and ppv that we'll just swallow it cause it's the only show in town. Can TNA compete someday? Yes but it'll take a great storyline and live television to do it. I think that there was more wrestling fans in our generation (the ECW/WWF Attitude Era) than there is now and if WWE loses that older audience, everything does drop cause the whole idea of kayfabe and it being a secret business is gone. I don't watch WWE that much anymore because of the lack of entertainment. I am now with Wrestlemania coming around and Taker/HBK match has been years in the making for WM, but in all I don't watch it. It don't matter how much you love wrestling since you were a kid, someday you will walk away cause it was just time to.

 

[Razor Blade Dream]

Obviously Vince McMahon feels that the older wrestling fans like myself who made him and his company so much money through watching RAW, buying ppv's and merchandise that he's fulfilled his obligation to us. He feels the business recycles and we start all over with new, younger fans who are not smart to the business and we build on them. Unfortunately, Vince probably does not read the internet and see how big it's impact is on ALL fans of age. The younger fans are coming up just as we are. They will get on the internet and will smarten themselves up as well. Now I'm old school. I came with the NWA and the whole illusion of it being legit wrestling and not entertainment. I will say that through the original ECW and the internet, I have a different outlook and perspective on the way they do things.

The older fans still have to matter to the WWE and TNA. We're the ones with the money, not the children and with all the recent deaths and steroid talks over the last few years, why would a parent let their kids watch? What do you say as a parent to their son who wears his Chris Benoit t-shirt cause he was his favorite wrestler?

It's gotten to the point that maybe Vince feels that since there is no legit competition right now (yeah TNA) he can put out whatever he wants on tv and ppv that we'll just swallow it cause it's the only show in town. Can TNA compete someday? Yes but it'll take a great storyline and live television to do it. I think that there was more wrestling fans in our generation (the ECW/WWF Attitude Era) than there is now and if WWE loses that older audience, everything does drop cause the whole idea of kayfabe and it being a secret business is gone. I don't watch WWE that much anymore because of the lack of entertainment. I am now with Wrestlemania coming around and Taker/HBK match has been years in the making for WM, but in all I don't watch it. It don't matter how much you love wrestling since you were a kid, someday you will walk away cause it was just time to.

I noticed a lot of people have said, "I don't watch it as much as I used to now." I sadly, am on the same boat. It's not so much that I lost interest in wrestling, I mainly forget or I just read the recaps. The product to me has gotten stale. I'm not an Orton mark by any means. I love the RKO finisher but the "punt" is just stupid as hell. And I just don't like the character all the much. And I was an Edge fan when he was with Christian as the two dopey airheads. Now, I just don't get into his character.
I don't know what it is, I guess no one is really like the way it was with Hogan and Piper or even Rock and Austin. All of those guys had amazing personalities and knew how to work the crowd. The current crop of guys, I just can't get into them.

Anyway, I don't think Vince has lost his mind. I feel he is just trying to follow trends and move along with society. Also, after the Benoit fiasco and the "boys" dropping dead left and right, he is doing what he can to keep wrestling in a somewhat positive light. I have a little 4 year old brother, he loves wrestling but I try to have him watch WWE On Demand when they have the stuff I watched as a kid. He would probably recognize Piper and Hogan over Cena and HHH. Hell, he sings "Real American" all the time!
I do agree that Vince has sort of slacked off because of no competition. No matter when I watch it, TNA still comes off cheap to me. Maybe it is because they film most of their shows in Orlando. It's more of a thrill seeing a packed stadium in different parts of the world than seeing the same damn building each week.
People have become more and more fickle. I miss the buildup for a title match that would last for MONTHS not just a couple weeks until the next PPV. People don't have the patience for a long drawn out feud it seems. Even though the HBK/Jericho feud was fuckin amazing. It just seems that it is hard to reel in fans nowadays. I know my fiancee' doesn't care for wrestling that much. She will watch it with me but she didn't get bit by the "bug." I blame it in part to the current product. If it were even 5 years ago I know she would be hooked. . . . she also doesn't like Cena for some reason.
So yeah, I really don't know how to end this rant, so I'll just end it here.

 

[Pimpin]

You know I always wonder if Vince ever thought that the majority of the fans from the attitude era/monday night wars era were kids when they started watching(I grew up in the Attitude Era). I think that if this shit continues the PPV buyrates will drop cause the kids are no thte ones who buy the pay per views. If anything Vince has lost touch with the reality of wrestling as kayfabe has died. I just hope that sooner rather than later that Vince fixes all this mess & do something to get the ratings up cause the hardcore fans(which the majority of the fans base are adults) will turn off quickly if things don't change.

 

[bulldog76]

However, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, and Jeff Hardy are all shorter and lighter than Christian.

I enjoy wrestling stories/action more than most action movies. Wrestling actually acheived pinnacle success after it was being referred to as sports-entertainment.

My personal take on Vince is this: He doesn't take a risk he can't afford to lose. He is calcualating. He is 4 moves ahead of any of us. Most of his critics are working for less than what they would be making if they were working for him. He's not afraid to strike-out on lower caliber talent. But he will milk any potential he can out of someone he likes. He didn't defeat a business guru (Ted Turner), a creative genius (Paul Heyman) and keeps his current competition under control (TNA) by being absolutely stupid. WrestleMania is 25 years old. Vince has evolved where others refused but also stayed true to loyal audience while others have tried to hard to gain a minority. I've seen too many times where he does something that I didn't get until 2 or 3 months later.

 

[Doc Taboc]

Hey what can you say. On one hand the man must know what he is doing because he is a billionare.

But WWE stock has been in the shitter for a while now. The WWE movie line is losing money every time a new movie comes out.

My Opinion: WWE is more entertainment than sport.

He had a great opportunity with ECW but ruined that. The great thing about ECW back then was the smaller venues and spectator participation. Now its just a test show to see if he can devope other talent. I tend to DVR every episode then skim through it or just delete it. And I get mad BECAUSE I LOVED OLD ECW. Heyman must hate life watching it.

But hey....Its a great idea to help TNA get even better ratings. Say what you may...I think they have it down to a science in orlando there.

 

[OIL]

Not everything has been terrible. The Legacy angle has been great for one. It's been exciting and doing things such as HHH attacking Orton at his home was something different, and a welcome change.

However, am I meant to be led to believe that the major storyline over the World Heavyweight Championship is a love fued for Vickie Guerrero? If that's true then what the fuck? I mean seriously.. Love fued's are fine on a small scale, or if it actually involves an interesting woman who is believeable to actually be attractive compared to the other Divas. Meh, the WHC is the only one which is lacking really. Oh, and why is JBL fighting Mysterio? Those two just don't mix. Two completly different styles, and sizes, make for one boring match imo.