Sports Time Radio

Now I know we mentioned it a time or two when we were doing the Sports Time Radio podcast, but I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned here that I used to be a professional wrestler. Now I was never a big star and I never made it to WWE, but I wrestled for a very long time, and I enjoyed my time in the business. I also don’t believe that I’ve ever written about professional wrestling here, but with what has and is going on in WWE I figure it’s a good time to change that.

Now in case you don’t know it was The Wall Street Journal that broke the story of WWE owner and CEO Vince McMahon paying woman to keep quiet about relationships that they had with him over the years. And when we’re saying paying these women were paid over a million dollars to not say anything. As of right now it’s unclear exactly how many women there were, but apparently there is still some more investigating being done.

Now since WWE is a publicly traded company it became clear that Vince McMahon would have to step away from any role with the company and he made what was looked at as his last appearance on television recently. Now all he did in this appearance was repeat the WWE tagline of Then, Now and Forever, but there was more to it that didn’t air on television. Reports came out that when McMahon got backstage from his last appearance he yelled “Fuck Them” multiple times in the backstage area. Now it’s unclear who he was referring to and he could’ve been speaking to quite a few different people, but it wasn’t anyone in the backstage area.

With it clear that Vince McMahon would have to be removed as CEO his daughter Stephanie will be taking over that role, but in what seemed like an odd twist Vince McMahon announced his retirement. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m very skeptical that Vince McMahon will actually be able to walk away from a company he built.

Obviously with his daughter in the CEO position and her husband, Vince’s son-in-law Paul Levesque apparently taking over creative control of the company would it really be that difficult for Vince to continue to run things behind the scenes through his daughter and son-in-law?

Interestingly enough Levesque was in charge of the WWE’s developmental territory NXT, but Vince changed the direction of that territory and while Levesque was never officially removed from his position there the brand was completely changed right underneath him by his father-in-law. That makes me wonder just how much creative control Levesque actually has.

Now depending on how old you are changes the way you look at what Vince McMahon did for professional wrestling. If you’re actually old enough to remember when there were territories, you might not like that McMahon either bought them out or just drove them out of business by signing their best talent. Now if you’re a little younger WWE might be the only wrestling you ever knew, so you’ll have to let me know what side of this you’re on.

You might remember that professional wrestling was a very guarded business, and it was Vince McMahon who admitted that it was in fact an act or fake as some people call it. While people always had their suspicions about professional wrestling McMahon was the first well known person involved in wrestling to admit to this.

So, tell me what you think. Is Vince McMahon really retired? Or do you think this is just what WWE had to announce to pacify their shareholders? I’m also interested to know if you think the creative direction of WWE will change. Just about a week ago WWE announced that their television shows are now PG-14, so will we see more adult content?

Please let me know what you think in the comments section.

Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.