13 Ups & 9 Downs For WWE In 2022
1. Vince McMahon Resigns In Disgrace
On July 22nd of this year, Vince McMahon made two mistakes in a tweet that instantly became an historic piece of pro wrestling documentation.
The first was that the stupid idiot got his own age wrong. But the second was to confirm that he was retiring from all duties within WWE. He meant to type "resign", but perhaps the years advancing even quicker in his mind than his body are at fault for that. Either way, he was gone and nothing would ever be quite the same.
The story behind the story is no less dramatic, but is substantially more troubling than his polite little swansong might suggest. The Wall Street Journal reported an ongoing internal investigation into alleged payments to former staff and talent regarding NDAs and "hush money" that ran into the millions. The investigation cost WWE a small fortune, and, eventually, their former leader. These costs don't compare to the lives forever altered and/or ruined by McMahon's behaviour, but the narrative is always a more complicated one when you're not a billionaire booking it yourself.
Nothing else could be the biggest down in WWE - or indeed wrestling - this year. It is, in reality, one of the darkest things to ever emerge from pro wrestling's already-blackened auspices.
And yet, because it did...