What a bizzare comment. Look:
- The fact Vince McMahon owns the company does not mean he shouldn't be criticised for callously exploiting his employees.
- To be a "real wrestling fan", all I have to do is enjoy wrestling. I don't need unquestioningly support Vince McMahon whenever he is criticised, be it by the media, politicians, or whoever else. I wont be told what to think by the WWE's advertising machine and their glib, meaningless catch-cries (in this case, "Stand Up for WWE"). If you want to be a sheep, go ahead, but don't tell me I should be "ashamed" for not being a sheep too.
- You said Linda's opponents are "attacking us", i.e. attacking WWE fans. They havn't. Vince said they have in the promo video for the "Stand Up for WWE" campaign, and you unquestioningly believed it.
- You say Linda's opponents are free to "point out her flaws", but they should leave WWE alone. But the only serious administrative work Linda has ever done has been with WWE, and so it is relavent to her campaign. A spokeswoman for the Connecticut Democrats said "McMahon is campaigning on her record as WWE CEO, which includes putting her profits first, compromising the health and safety of her workers and presiding over rampant steroid and illegal drug abuse". This is not a simple pot-shot at WWE; they are calling Linda's ethics into question, accusing her of overlooking an unsafe working environment. This is directly relavent to whether or not she is fit for the Senate, of course they should talk about it. If they can't scrutinize her conduct as a WWE executive, then what the hell can they scrutinize about her? It's all she has ever done, for heavens sake.
- Linda has regularly cited her experience as WWE CEO throughout the campaign, to demonstrate that she is well qualified for the Senate. So you're saying that Linda can talk about WWE, but her opponents cant?
- It is NOT as simple as "enjoy Vince's product or don't watch it and shut up". I enjoy his product, but find the whole "Stand Up for WWE" thing to be a patently ridiculous, manipulative crock of shit.
- I wonder if you call everyone who disagrees with you a "fucker".
Fair enough. I definitely agree that he is taking steps in the right direction. If there is one silver lining to the Benoit tragedy, it's that it forced the issue into the spotlight and really put the onus on Vince to address the problem. Prior to that, wrestlers were dying all the time, but because wrestlers generally arent big celebrities, their deaths werent reported in the media, so the public had no idea about the high mortality rate among wrestlers. Vince had no reason to reform the company, because he wasnt being held accountable. Sadly, it took something undescribably horrific and tragic to get the media to start reporting on the problem.
Having said that, he still has a long way to go before working conditions in WWE can be called "satisfactory". I really hope that the initiatives you mentioned are just the start of a compehensive reform. The fact that the wrestlers "choose to work there" is neither here nor there IMO; put simply, there is an incredibly high mortality rate among his employees (7 times higher than the national average), and from a moral strandpoint he should be doing all he can to try and fix this. Until he does, he should expect all the criticism that comes his way.