Source: The Herald-Citizen
This week, the lead story is what could turn out to be the most conterversial storyline in wrestling history. First of all, let me say that if you have any doubt, Vince McMahon is alive and well. After his limo exploded last week, the television station in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., where Raw was being broadcast from was flooded with calls wanting to know about Vince’s condition.
At least one radio station picked up on the story and actually reported that Vince had died. When you go to WWE.com, you are greeted by all kinds of information about the bombing including “federal officials” investigating the blast. A newspaper contacted the FBI and was told that they were not involved and if there had been a bombing, they would have known about it.
For years, I have said that wrestling is like a soap opera and know we are going to get to see why. Shows like Days Of Our Lives have had characters return from the dead and this is what we will see from this storyline. Of course, the WWE has has wrestlers thrown off of bridges, buried alive and been in infernos before; however, their website did not say they were “presumed dead”.
If you were wondering how they pulled off the stunt, the actual explosion was done on Sunday as the WWE had a permit for that purpose from the local police and fire departments. Everything was live right up until the time Vince stepped into the limo, then footage of the Sunday blast was spliced in to the live shot. This is going to set up a “who killed Vince” storyline similiar to the “who shot J.R.” storyline from the television show “Dallas” in the 80s. Only this time, there will be many more suspects.
There are two things about the storyline that bothers me. One is the number of younger kids and children who saw this. I know Raw has a TV-14 rating; however, I know alot of younger children had to see this. What bothers me most is the method used and that is a carbomb. With so many of our brave men and women around the world being killed and injured in real bombings, I believe that is pretty disrespectful of them and their families who may have viewed it either live or on television.
The storyline has been mentioned in passing on several networks and searches of “Vince McMahon” on Yahoo was up almost 3,000 percent since Monday.
In a sad note, WWE Hall of Famer Sherri Martel died on Thursday at the age of 49. No cause of death was immediately listed. She passed away at her mother’s home in Birmingham, Ala. She made her mark as a wrestler early in her career; however she ended up being one of the most sucessful managers of all time, leading wrestlers such as Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, The Million Dollar Man, Randy Savage, and Booker T and brother Stevie Ray when they were “Harlem Heat.” She was known for her high pitched scream and “Sensational Sherrie” would do whatever needed to help her man win the match.
The WWE announced this week that Diva winner Ashley has been suspended until futher notice. Several reports have said that Ashley will be a contestant on the next CBS Survivor show that will soon begin filming for next season. It would appear that Titan is working with her in her appearance on the show.
