AS I SEE IT 6/25: Tastelessness, thy name is McMahon

AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com

What kind of utter crap was
that last Monday night? Even after the real-life death of Sherri Martel,
couldn't Vince McMahon have scaled back his macabre death fantasy and murder
mystery...even for a couple of nights?



Nope, we got it in turned up even louder. And of course, we had to have the
tearful Stephanie McMahon coming out and "honoring" her father to end RAW to
crowd boos.

And....if the 136 replays of Vince's car and the fake McMemorials weren't
enough, we have yet ANOTHER 3 hour McMassive Mock Memorial Service later
tonight.

They finally got around to mentioning Sherri Martel's death at 10:20 pm ET
last Monday, buried far enough inside the show that few even saw it. Was it
REALLY asking that much of WWE to give fans a weekend, or even a night, free
of this crap...and taken the time to give Sherri Martel's death a REAL
acknowledgement? Would it have been THAT hard to put Shawn Michaels on a
remote and ask him to say a few things about her? Or Flair? or any of the
many people Sherri's worked with?

What's even worse is the beginning of a murder mystery by "Federal
investigators"...at the same time that there an actual investigation into
Sherri Martel's death. While there are no toxicology reports as of this
writing, in news that seems to have largely fallen beneath the radar; a
bombshell was let loose last night by Dave Meltzer on his Wrestling Observer
Live radio show when he made the statement on his Wrestling Observer Live
radio show June 17 that Sherri Martel's death "was not a typical wrestler's
death," was "not a suicide" and "she did not die of natural causes."

You figure out what he meant, readers.

But Vince has to continue on with his murder mystery, even under those
circumstances.

WWE is now even going so far as to have an official "I did it" t-shirt on
WWE.com.

;>

Here's the text of the ad:

On June 11, 2007, the unimaginable occurred when Vincent Kennedy
McMahon's limo exploded as he left Rawʼs McMahon Appreciation Night leaving
the question: WHO DID IT? As we continue to mourn this sudden loss,
suspicions are arising.

Everyone knows Mr. McMahon had a multitude of enemies, maybe it was YOU!
Declare yourself the presumed killer by owning the I DID IT T-shirt today!
Black. 100% cotton. Screen-printed in the USA. Imported.

LOVEly...

Tastelessness, thy name is McMahon.

Some fans are also more than a little unhappy with this angle:

From Jen Powell:

"Ya know I was fine with the McMahon angle until 2 things happened. First
the bell being rung at ECW and Smackdown. I donʼt even care about the
WWE.com promoted it to a point but I will mention that. I have tuned in to
many times and cried tears listening to the bells ring. And to tune in and
hear them for a storyline is just messed up. That is when I knew they were
gonna mess this up and take it to far.

The second thing was Sherri's passing. Her death was second rate on WWE.com.
She was a great star and deserved more respect than that.

I respect the right of WWE to run a storyline.. stupid or not.. but damn
have some class. To me this is more tasteless than using a dead wrestler's
name to promote storylines."

From Duane Pischke :

"After watching Raw tonight, I just feel ill. I watched the tribute shows
when Owen and Eddie passed away, and they were honorable, emotional events.
To see Vince, in my humble opinion, bastardize them and any other wrestler's
death for this stupid storyline, is just wrong. Let alone they didn't have
the memorium pop up for Sherri Martel until 1020E. I guess you can't have it
at the start of the show, one has to have wrestlers in the ring doing the
'whodunnit' thing first. Instead of trying to show up the Sopranos, Vince
should've just got in the limo, and 'rode off into the sunset'...."

From "Jodie"

"I love reading your As I See It Column on PWBTS. I believe a lot what
you say about TNA. As I amwatching Raw right now, I noticed that they
haven't even MENTIONED Sherri Martel. Of course its only the beginning of
the show, but still, they are hyping up the 'death' of Mr. McMahon. As a
fan I am insulted that they actually think I am that stupid to not see that
it was a complete set up.

The only good thing that has happened with the WWE was the draft. Raw got
an awesome combination with the tag team of London and Kendrick. Those two
bring so much energy to any show that they work. Also with the Great Khali
going to Smackdown leads to another feud with Kane. Despite his non
existence ring skills, he does carry a presence that rivals that of The Big
Show in size. Also with Mr. Kennedy going to Raw is big. You love to hate
the guy but you respect him because of his great skills on the mic and in
the ring.

WWECW even has a chance to get better with the addition of an ECW Original
Chris Benoit, and Raw gets a better mix of challengers for the WWE
Championship with Lashley and Booker T (I really hope they get rid of that
King Booker crap because it is just insulting).

That is the only good thing going on right now. This crappy storyline is an
insult to wrestling fans and degrades the memories of fallen wrestling stars
who have passed away, especially the memories of Owen Hart and Eddie
Guerrero and now Sherri Martel, whom they STILL haven't acknowledged as
having passed away."

Until next time...

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