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Friday, June 14, 2019

Is Vince McMahon out of touch?

[VIDEO] I have always been a mark for the World Wrestling Federation - oh I mean WWE. I truly admire Vince McMahon who had led the former WWF to great heights since he purchased his dad's company in the early 1980s. He truly had an entrepreneurial approach to the business and brought it to the next level where wrestling is mainstream.

I saw a podcast McMahon did with one of his former top guys - one Stone Cold Steve Austin - and he tried to differentiate pro-wrestling from what he does. As he stated himself professional wrestling was what his dad Vincent J. McMahon had done back when it was the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Instead, Vince McMahon does sports entertainment and McMahon has over a 30 year record of success in that space even if he does have some periods of concern as we're seeing now.

I've been following wrestling news primarily through YouTube channels such as Wrestlelamia as you see above and WrestleTalk and they often talk about the declining ratings of WWE programming. Even now while I still tune in faithfully largely finding myself tuning out programming at home more focused on my PC or even the social network apps on my smartphone. There are some entertaining segments on the program and there are segments I could be very happy without.

BTW, since I never really talked about it the Saudi Arabian PPV SuperShow Down it seems for most fans was a disappointment. There were a few good matches from the show, however, I chose to skip the Goldberg v. Undertaker match which has many fans saying that it's time for both of those legends to hang it up. Even I bought into the hype of the Undertaker hanging it up. Yet I wouldn't mind seeing Goldberg one more time however many fans just are ready for both to enjoy their retirements and no more big money for just one more match. Also remember WWE does have an agreement with Saudi Arabia for other shows for a good period of time and the Saudi family who rules that kingdom has money to burn (and reportedly for one more match from the late Ultimate Warrior).

So anyway some people see this year's SuperShow Down as symptomatic of what's wrong with WWE programming this year. Perhaps the decline occurred as soon as the McMahon family eliminated general managers from their two marquee brands. Who knows, but perhaps things are a bit stale and as WWE had some over the years its time to revamp the programming. I'd be excited for some reinvigorating entertainment from the largest pro-wrestling/sports entertainment company in the world!