A lot went down on tonight’s edition of Monday Night RAW. The WWE Draft served its purpose – whatever it was – at a period of time in a company where things are so watered down with three drafts that intertwine just about every week. I guess I was supposed to be excited that “tag teams could be split apart” which is hard to do when the former RAW Tag Champs (The Hardys) are on different brands; I suppose I was to shout out loud and scream with shock when one of the champions got drafted to another brand, which is even harder to do considering he’s fought on that brand almost on weekly basis for the past couple of months. You get the point. The Draft was necessary as a shake-up though, and I feel that could result in some good potential, as long as they take the right direction. We all know how that goes in WWE though.
What was way more important to me tonight was the apparent write-off of one of the biggest characters in professional wrestling in the past decade and a half. Of course you can tweak it around all you want, and talk about the cheap shot at the Sopranos’ ending, as well as the ridiculous idea for the audience to believe that Vince is actually dead. I mean, hey, we saw Austin drop Triple H from 30 feet in the air in a car that was lifted up in a crane, and he was okay. You all remember Paul Bearer’s incidents, and not to forget the nWo running over The Rock in an ambulance with an eighteen-wheeler. So why should we believe Vince is really dead or gone? How dumb are we to watch wrestling and believe in these things, right?
If you actually feel that way about tonight’s ending of RAW, then you missed the point big time. You didn’t get it. Yes, the Mr. McMahon character write-off was a shot at the Sopranos. You are right, it was a cheap way out, and you might even see Vince McMahon on television again some day. That’s beside the point, but one thing that is rare happened today – the writers and creative team got one on everyone.
The appreciation night, the thoughts from just about everyone involved with Vince in the past twenty years, the walk to the ring and back, the entrance into the limo – it was all a part of history, and it all had a purpose that probably few were able to catch. First off, how many of you out there noticed that every time they interviewed someone for Vince McMahon Appreciation Night, it was always negative if the person was involved in a storyline with Vince (Bob Costas fell under that category too), and every time it was a real-life person who had nothing to do with the character Mr. McMahon (example – Mark Cuban), they had nothing but positives to say? If you caught it, that’s a solid start of where the writers were headed with the final storyline. How about the promo to open up the show of a calm Mr. McMahon with his glasses on, who seemed older and out of place, and had no trouble hiding that. All of those episodes combined, my friends, is what we call wrestling foreshadowing, and it was Vince’s acting ability that wrapped the storyline up into perfection.
From the get-go, the writers were trying to get sympathy for Vince. The show ended on a sad note although one of the biggest heels in company’s history was killed off. Nobody was celebrating at the end of the evening. They had ran down every single big storyline and moment of pro wrestling McMahon has been a part of, subconsciously making you realize his importance of the business, as well as his ability to entertain – something he’s done well on many of occasions, after all. Did you notice that every WWE superstar interacted with Vince tonight? If they didn’t talk about him in a vignette, they were ALL (including some development talent, even) in the back when he took his final bow. And how appropriate is it that the last two people he walked by were Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco? To back up for a second – did you catch his last words in front of an audience, as his hand was shaking when holding the microphone? It was simple – “Thank you.”
What we witnessed tonight was a wrap-up of history. The end of an era filled with money, wars, ego, and most important of all – entertainment. Vince McMahon will go down in history of pro wrestling as the strongest promoter of all time, but Mr. McMahon – whose last appearance we witnessed tonight – will be remembered as one of the most entertaining characters the business has ever seen.
In retrospect, after so many years on screen, Mr. McMahon had done it all. If the phrase “We ran out of things” was ever perfect, it was tonight. There’s simply nothing for Mr. McMahon to do. And of course I won’t be shocked if Vince McMahon appears on RAW again some day, and your subconscious mind that went through everything tonight will definitely cheer. However, one thing is for sure – Mr. McMahon is dead, and for once that’s not an insulting storyline, a Russo rating spur, or a writers’ rain check – it actually makes perfect sense.
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