WWE Trades Ruthless Aggression For PG | Wrestling Timelines
June 2-9, 2008 | Million Dollar Mania
Vince McMahon, never known for his patience, decides to give away some of his personal fortune live on Monday Night Raw in on-air sweepstakes segments.
He’s grown sick and tired of the media coverage. Despite promising to play nice in the shareholder meeting, Vince immediately gets defensive on June 2 when cutting a rambling, quasi-insane promo during which he inadequately describes how all of this will work. Vince says that he’s tired of all these “elitists”. They don’t like wrestling, and they don’t like you. Vince apparently wants to unify his existing fanbase and create a siege mentality.
This seems like a stupid idea, since Vince by his own admission needs to monetise WWE through better outside sponsorship. The media don’t watch WWE, but even if they did, they aren’t about to pen glowing editorials because Vince is screaming at them. Million Dollar Mania reeks of desperation, and he’s only giving away one million dollars incrementally.
He gives away unsexy sums of money a bit at a time, but only when he, in a very suboptimal comparison to ‘The Simpsons’’ Montgomery Burns, takes far longer than anybody else on the planet to correctly use a telephone. It’s just as well the media aren’t watching, because on June 9, Vince gets ‘Rickrolled’, and as an out of touch geezer nearing traditional retirement age, he has no clue that he has been trolled by an internet craze inescapable to anybody who resides in the real world.
WWE was desperate before starting Million Dollar Mania. Within minutes, the promotion becomes even less cool in front of its fans, and no new fans are made because the ratings stunt does not work.