Monday, November 5, 2012

Does Vince McMahon really want his wife in the Senate?

With Election Day looming tomorrow, it seems the Presidential election is the furthest thing from the mind of at least one man........Vince McMahon.

For the 2nd time in 3 years, Vince's wife, Linda, is running as a Republican candidate for United States Senator out of Connecticut. However, the local Democrats have again made things difficult, questioning why Linda, who resigned as CEO of WWE in order to make her first run for the Senate 2 years ago, would even be qualified to serve in the first place. Unfortunately, as was the case in 2010, Vince may be unwittingly sabotaging his wife's campaign via the product presented on television.

One of the key storylines on Monday Night Raw involves 20-something A. J. Lee, who was ousted as the youngest figurehead executive in company history two weeks ago amid curious allegations of a "inappropriate" relationship with fellow wrestler John Cena. The charges were raised by Vickie Guerrero, whose character is that of a chronic offender that gets drunk on power every time she is given the opportunity to be a general manager or, in this case, a "managing supervisor", despite the fact that the widow's act has been stale for, oh, I don't know, three years?

Vickie's antics this time reek of hypocrisy, and it casts her on the whole as a bully toward A. J., and this runs counter to the Be A Star anti-bullying program the WWE has been very involved in for over a year. When Guerrero was appointed as "managing supervisor" on 10/23, the ratings dropped to a 2.4, the lowest since the dawn of the "Attitude Era" 15 years ago. What that should tell Vince McMahon is that Vickie is toxic in terms of ratings, and that she has more than worn out her welcome as an on-camera performer after 5 years. No redeeming qualities that would enable a face turn. No remorse. No shame. No admitting that 2 years ago, Guerrero was in a "inappropriate" relationship of her own with a man she still manages, Dolph Ziggler. The sad part is that in the storyline, the WWE's Board of Directors seems to look the other way and let Guerrero have chance after chance, despite the fact that:

1. The fans absolutely hate her. This is not Vickie doing her job. This is the public deciding that they are tired of her act. Right now, moldy bread would taste good with bananas and peanut butter, by comparison.

2. In 2009, Guerrero wilted under the pressure of doing a live broadcast every Monday (tonight's show is on same-day tape from England), and quit in June, taking a 4 month vacation to spend time with her daughters before returning to work in October.

3. She has been a bully in an administrative role in every instance. Think back to the winter of 2009-10, when she was placed in a position as a sort of corporate snitch against Smackdown general manager Teddy Long. Vickie, along with LayCool (Layla El & Michele McCool) relentlessly bullied and harassed former champion Mickie James (now with TNA), who ended up being cut in April 2010. It was juvenile, high school level drama that didn't belong on WWE television. As an "executive consultant", this is something that Vickie shouldn't have indulged in, but, again, the Board looked the other way and let her get away with it.

4. A year later, after a failed palace coup against Long, Guerrero & Ziggler were "fired" within a week of each other, but inexplicably returned on Raw, with Guerrero now billed as Ziggler's "business partner". This is the part that is going to come back to haunt Guerrero in short order, because all that is needed is for Cena to pull the footage from the archives, and let the world see that Vickie's just as guilty.

That having been said, McMahon has to pull the plug on this "scandalous" storyline, because it isn't working. If a simple guy like me can figure it out, so can the rest of the audience, especially those of us who don't forget past angles. With the election tomorrow, the last thing he wants to do is blow it for his wife again. In 2010, McMahon made a cameo appearance in what amounted to a dream sequence, but that put the final nail in the coffin for Linda, as she lost the election.

Tonight, I'm going to do something a little radical. I'm not watching Raw. I've got better things to do to kill time before Monday Night Football, and, for that matter, this jaded fan is tired of railing against McMahon for being too stubborn to see that his ideas don't work that well anymore. Even when they recap Raw's key angles during Smackdown, I'm changing the channel until they go back to in-ring action. I'm not all-in with WWE anymore. TNA doesn't excite me. That leaves Ring of Honor on Saturday nights. That's really all I need now.

As for tomorrow, I'd not be surprised to read if Linda McMahon fails again. I wrote back in 2010 about all the non-WWE projects Vince took on that failed, and this is one of them. I don't need to quote Santayana again, as I've done that in relation to McMahon enough times, but he's not getting the message. He will, once the ratings fall to, oh, maybe, 1.0? Then, again, he's bound to do something even more stupid next week. He always does......

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