"What if" time mofos. If you read this blog consistently, you might have picked up on the fact that Vincent Kennedy McMahon absolutely fascinates me. He's an eccentric and egomanical over the top genius, encapsulated in a circus like wrestling bubble where he hold all the power. Everything about him interests me...his psyche, his decision making and thought process, his ego, his obsession with bodybuilding, his apparent embarrassment about being a wrestling promoter, his obsession with making fun of JR, etc. This question will explore some of those things.
Just a jumpoff, go nuts.
Side Vince tangent...how fucking weird is it that the guy gets pissed off about not being able to control his sneezing? I've been getting into Kellers podcasts with ex wwe writers and the fucking amount of random quirky
stories they tell about Vince is just mind boggling.
What if Vince McMahons non wrestling ventures, primarily the WBF, XFL, WWE movies, had been truly successful and significantly profitable? How would this have effected the WWE?
Things to consider
- Quick facts and time references: according to Wiki, the WBF was in business from mid 1990-1992. The XFL, from 2000-2001. WWE films was established in 2002.
- Would a WBF, XFL, or a WWE film boom have helped WWE, if so to what extent? Does it become easier for the wrestling product to get mainstream acceptance, attract celebrity big names to participate, etc.
- Would Vince become so enamored with another promotional success that he loses focus on the WWE? If so, to what extent? Would the product suffer? Would he have given the reigns to Shane or Steph or try and do everything himself?
- Did the XFL, WBF, or WWE movies ever have a shot in hell at becoming long term sustainable entities? How much stigma was attached to them for being associated with a "wrasslin" company?
- Lastly, and most interesting to me, would Vince have bailed on WWE as soon as he recognized he could be profitable in a different industry? Is Vince really embarrassed to be a wrasslin promoter as people claim?
Just a jumpoff, go nuts.
Side Vince tangent...how fucking weird is it that the guy gets pissed off about not being able to control his sneezing? I've been getting into Kellers podcasts with ex wwe writers and the fucking amount of random quirky
stories they tell about Vince is just mind boggling.
If they turned a profit, Vince would still send some of his XFL guys to be wrestlers for WWE, similar to how Lex got the job in the 90s.
ReplyDeleteAs far as WWE films go...he would need to use the cash to get some good screenwriters to write films people would actually want to see.
WBF: Vince is still getting tried for steroids pretty soon, so it was doomed to removal. Best case is Mr. Olympia paying a few dollars to "merge" the WBF into the Olympia fold. Any success would be short lived, and unlikely to be expanded on any level.
ReplyDeleteXFL: If anything, Vince was too early on this one. Doing this a couple years ago, during the near NFL "strike", and among fears from some that the NFL is truly going "soft" might have had a chance for more than one season. But then again, this IS Vince McMahon trying to run a "legitimate" sport. The media still ignores it, and it still goes nowhere fast. Oh, and something about concussions.
WWE Films: The only real chance for success Vince had, and by some measurements it has been "successful". It's still a functioning limb of WWE, right? But WWE Films somehow making it into the top level of movie studios... only robs the wrestling side of whatever talent succeeds in film. I'll leave it up to others to decide if that would be a good thing, or bad thing.
As for Vince's role... yeah, "mainstream" movies might have been enough of a lure to pull him... and with luck, "creative", out of the wrestling side... but more likely Vince would just have the same group doing both things, to the detriment of the wrestling product. And he would not give a shit.
Sidetrack: You know what I could see Vince trying to do someday, before he dies?
ReplyDelete"Trade" the WWE for a "real" sports franchise... if he could find an owner willing to take a wrestling product.
The XFL things always perplexed me to a point. I think there absolutely is absolutely market for a secondary football league in the summer...how can there not be with the ratings the nfl pulls in. Granted, it would have to be good solid football, but I figured just the novelty of another football league on a major cable network would keep it sustainable for at least a few years. The rate at which people tuned out on it always kinda amazed me
ReplyDelete"Good solid football"... that's where the issue comes in. Any league coming in behind the NFL will always be seen as "inferior", to the point where short of directly raiding the NFL the talent will be seen as "never coulds and has beens".
ReplyDeleteFor every Tommy Maddox, there's 40 Pat Barnes or Marcus Crandalls.
Yea. The nfl is always gonna make another league look amateurish from a talent perspective. It's not a perfect comparison but look at college sports, the talent level is eons away from the talent of their pro leagues but they still draw ratings.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely the XFL on field product wasn't good, I just always ways ways thought they must have really mismanagement other aspects of it, marketing wise, advertising, whatever for it to essentially be DOA by week 4
I agree with OfficerFarva. The XFL would have worked in the middle of the summer when people are jonesing for football.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is with WWE films they had the perfect person to launch that with Dwayne Johnson but it never truly came to pass. Oh well.
The ONLY chance a "minor" league would have would be under the NFL's umbrella. And we know how well Vince plays with others...
ReplyDeleteCollege has the "hometown" advantage, especially from the "history" standpoint.
ReplyDeleteNow, if the NCAA were to collapse under it's own weight, I could see the NFL creating its own minor league using the players who would usually be college-bound.
The XFL was never going to work the way Vince envisioned it. The NFL is too much of a behemoth, and they monopolize all of the talent anyone wants to watch. Trying to build a league around national television isn't going to work, and to survive you'd basically have to copy the Arena League's basic business model, which would have been pointless for WWE.
ReplyDeleteThe Arena League going SPLAT made me sadder than the XFL's demise.
ReplyDeletePlus, college has the "prospects" that don't yet have access to the NFL. Trying to carve out a niche between the two just gives you the dregs of talent that doesn't have college eligibility left but isn't good enough for the NFL.
ReplyDeleteI'm not old enough to really remember fuck all about the WBF, but does anyone else think the WWE Films would have been really counterproductive for WWE? Like, if they actually managed to make half a dozen of their guys legit movie stars, that those guys would have gone the Rock route and left wrestling for full time acting?
ReplyDeleteI mention that in my answers at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good point actually
ReplyDeleteTJ: Ladies and gentlemen, another episode of PEOPLE ARE STUPID.
ReplyDeleteToday's episode: Greg Maddux isn't a Hall of Famer? REALLY? http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/42689/fans-dont-show-greg-maddux-respect
This is one case where I'm happy to let the Dougie's of the sports writing world be the sole HoF voters.
ReplyDeleteWe don't live in a world where the WBF would have ever been successful.
ReplyDeleteThe XFL thing is the most interesting because there was a HUGE audience for it...as evident by the mega-number they drew for the opening game. But they f'd it up so bad.
If the XFL had lasted a few years, until the onslaught of cable sports networks, there'd be HUGE money in it.
And if the XFL was still around, the WWE Network could actually be a viable thing since it'd have the XFL & WWE.
The XFL is the biggest missed opportunity in WWE history. They came along at the PERFECT time, right as football was taking off as the #1 television property of them all thanks to the wave of DVRs and the Internet...and they plain blew it.
Also, would anything be more entertaining in a train wreck, I can't look away, fashion then a Vince McMahon produced/pitched reality show?
ReplyDeleteTotal Divas?
ReplyDeleteYea. Just thought of that after I pushed post. Never watched a minute of it. I always pictured a VKM reality show involving people having to eat ridiculous disgusting shit and tthen run an obstacle course.
ReplyDeleteVince likes for a person to have total control over all bodily functions. How else could he sell us stuff like: 'He's gonna puke! He's gonna puke! He's gonna puke!'? Guy needed a tag team partner.
ReplyDeleteI think that if anything he tried had gotten huge, he would have eventually handed the wrestling part off to someone else, or perhaps even sold it; mainly because he seems to have such a jones to separate himself from the "wrestling" label.
ReplyDeleteThis would not surprise me on any level.
ReplyDelete