The Real Reason WWE May Be Kicked Out Of California
It was on February 10th 1989 that Vince McMahon committed the most heinous assault on the history of pro wrestling, so said the promoters he'd already left in the dust that decade.
In a then-controversial contravention of kayfabe, McMahon referred to professional wrestling as "an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for the purposes of providing entertainment to spectators rather than conducting a bona fide athletic contest" in front of the New Jersey State Senate. His endgame was ending a tax regulation in the state that, loosely speaking, saw wrestling charged the same as a sport rather than an entertainment. He'd already gone to the trouble of forcing both those worlds together in his branding - this was the admin that saw his dreams of legal tax avoidance hopefully realised in one of his biggest North East markets.
The unspoken mystique of professional wrestling wasn't exactly blabbed for the first time ever that day, but McMahon was willing to chuck limitless legacies under the bus all the same if it meant pocketing a little extra from the sportsmanlike hard graft of his grizzled roster.
What made matters worse was the eventual outcome; McMahon had lifted the curtain only for the Senate to pull the rug. It took another eight years of pestering before then-Governor Christine Todd Whitman pushed it through herself. If you have any recollection of that name, it's because WWE were so thrilled that they featured her on f*cking television and pay-per-view to toast paying a bit less tax. Between SummerSlams 1989 and 1997, the group didn't run a single supercard in the state - Vince was able to exert pettiness, if not power.
Nothing seemingly thrilled him more than the eventual outcome. All Elite Wrestling may be coming for his television ratings and mainstream domination, but he may have to enter into an entirely different wrestling war with the 'Golden State' if he wants to avoid this latest call to completely reimagine how he does business. Or, he could finally reclassify his wrestlers and spend some of that big bad fortune on bigger, better changes within his organisation.
War it is then.