10 Indisputable Reasons Why Vince McMahon Is Not A Genius
6. He Doesnt Have a Very Good Eye For Talent
Just look at the independent scene right now. Due to WWEs near monopoly on the business, there are a lot of really talented wrestlers without big paychecks. In a company filled with Great Khalis, Hornswoggles, Eva Maries and Camerons, could he not have made room for AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Michael Elgin, Alex Shelley, Ricochet and plenty of others?
If McMahon were a genius, hed be able to get the most of out his talent, but in the case of everyone not named John Cena, he fails to some degree. Just recently, he had a potential monster in Brodus Clay playing a dancing fool, he has Damien Sandow as an increasingly unfunny comedy character, and he couldnt think up anything interesting to do with Drew McIntyre over the past five years.
This failure to put people in the right position to excel extends to backstage. He replaced Paul Heyman (a man who has created many stars in his career) with Michael Hayes as the head writer on SmackDown. He took the legendary Randy Savage out of the ring and made him an announcer (where his voice got obnoxious to listen to after a good 15 minutes). He also dumped Jim Ross for Michael Cole. Jim Ross for Michael Cole. Just think about that point alone!
Likewise, he showed that over the years other companies knew how to use many of his former contracted wrestlers better than he ever could. For example, look at the WWE careers of Raven, Tazz, Diamond Dallas Page, Lo Ki, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, Mike Awesome, The Sandman, Sabu, Justin Credible, Ultimo Dragon, Dr. Death and dozens more for proof.
Yes, he has created some genuine stars like Steve Austin (who was given the dead on arrival Ringmaster gimmick on his debut), The Rock (who was given the gimmick of an obnoxious smiling babyface on his arrival) and John Cena (the standard wear the color of the hometown team gimmick as a rookie). But it was only through a series of failures, luck, talent perseverance and yes some good booking on occasion, that made them household names.
Now just imagine when Breaking Bad was on the air if Anthony Hopkins showed up for a season and Vince Gilligan had no idea what to do with him, gave him no character development, and instead had him play a comedy figure. It would fail to create any more interest in the show and be a waste of a great actor. Thats basically what Vince has done time and time again with the talent hes been given. Hes like a coach who can get the best out his top couple stars, but isnt interested in getting anything out of the rest of the team on the bench.