EXPOSING The Biggest Myth In Modern Wrestling
It isn’t 1996 anymore.
Vince McMahon thrives—feeds—off competition.
Emboldened by territorial competition in the early 1980s, Vince systematically destroyed it and refashioned the dominant, mainstream WWF using its ashes. Once the cycle of popularity waned, and his WWF reached a risible 1995 nadir, Vince became a man out of time. He continued to make cartoons where all around him were making graphic novels; the laughable gimmick-first approach, his anointed main event disasters, the whole residual, red-white-and-blue aesthetic: the WWF was in dire need of philosophical change, and the rising wave of ECW and WCW inspired it.
Vince came to outlast the competition by perfecting it; folding the blood and the guts and the reality into the hammy, hilarious Attitude Era, Vince rode this second dawn and floated his company into a state of perpetuity.
This narrative doubles as both retrospective glorification and a promise of the future. Vince welcomes competition, various WWE personnel say, because he can’t even lose a game of pool to his flesh and blood without blowing one of his trademark gaskets. If something comes along, Vince would love it! He loves competition!
AEW will be good for the entire industry, so sayeth John Cena on Canadian TV recently.
“I think competition is great because it forces you to step up or step aside and I think that is fantastic.”
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