10 Bad Habits WWE Must Kick In 2019
1. Vince McMahon
On the walls of Vince McMahon’s office in WWE headquarters, there hangs a real fossil of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skull. McMahon tweeted this in 2013. To him, ‘Stan T. Rex’—even his ornaments are given sh*tty names—is “symbolic” of his “voracious appetite for life”.
But, watching any given episode of his apparent baby, Monday Night RAW, you cannot shake the impression that there’s no love, or passion, for sports entertainment anymore. Everything seems to annoy him. Nothing lights a fire under him beyond punishing his audience and the performers they like. This unseen version of Vince McMahon, glowering in Gorilla, is miles and miles removed from the enthusiastic carny who put over even the lamest New Generation experiments with such endearing zeal. The seen version, on the pre-Christmas RAWs, had to warily instruct the crowd not to boo him. He didn't have the appetite to win them over through his performance.
Beyond the artistic reasons for stepping down, an argument could be made that there has never, ever been a better time for this surreal-yet-inevitable passing of the torch. The business has never been more lucrative, and yet, the product has never been more unanimously unpopular. By strategic design, the core fanbase is not expanding. It must, at some point, under a new business paradigm. Under Vince, it never will. The November 26 RAW, penned in its entirety by Vince, was the most poorly-received in an age.
A succession plan, a very critically-acclaimed one, is in place—and through his signature and promotion of Ronda Rousey, Triple H has demonstrated that he has the nous to run the major arm of the company, and not just the fan service of the NXT brand. High-ranking management figures George Barrios and Michelle Wilson negotiated the insane Fox TV deal. WWE’s infrastructure boasts the answer to fan engagement and unprecedented riches.
Vince is the Ronald McDonald, piss-loving face of it—not the brains.