AMusings

The Selective Love of Vince McMahon

With the death of former pro wrestler Andrew “Test” Martin on Friday, it got me thinking about all of the wrestlers that have died prior to their 60th birthday in the last few years.

Let me stop there and promise that this blog is not about pro wrestling. Even if you don’t like wrestling, you may still enjoy the blog, so don’t stop reading just because you still have a grudge against Vince McMahon for the XFL.

The thing that really sticks out about the deaths of these wrestlers is that, for the most part, none of them were main eventers. (For those of you who are not familiar with the world of pro wrestling, a main eventer is a wrestler like Hulk Hogan or The Rock. Big names who bring a lot of people to live shows, and therefore make the company a lot of money.)

I know wrestling isn’t real, so these men don’t become main eventers by winning matches, but they are given that job by management. They’re given the job because if you are the champion, you are the main event, you are the reason people are coming to the shows. The management wouldn’t dare put the title on a person who couldn’t bring in a crowd.

It does not surprise me that people like Hulk Hogan, “The Macho Man” Randy Savage, Ric Flair, The Ultimate Warrior, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin are alive and well. Why wouldn’t Vince McMahon keep a close eye on these men to make sure they are not doing anything to harm themselves? The longer they live and continue making appearances for his WWE, the more money he makes.

What about the men and women who worked for the WWE or their main rival in the 1990’s WCW, that have died prior to 60 years old since the year 2000? According to my count there are 29 men and women who fall in that category. Only 3 of them ever held the WWE or WCW world championships.

First was the 600 pound, 2 time WWE champion, Yokozuna, who died of a massive heart attack in 2000. I can not say that a 600 pound man dying of a heart attack is a huge surprise, so we are going to say that this death was not at all related to wrestling.

Our second world champion was Chris Benoit. We all know his story. He went crazy and killed his wife (A professional wrestler known as “Woman”) and his son. He was set to win WWE’s ECW world championship the night he was found dead. The reason he was not at the show that evening was because Chairman McMahon granted Chris time at home to deal with his “personal issues”. Why would Vince do that? Was it because at the time of his death Chris Benoit was a hugely popular attraction and big money draw? Maybe.

Our third, and final former champion is Eddie Guerrero. Eddie died in 2005 of a heart attack caused by several years of drug abuse. Eddie was sober and clean at the time of his death, and had been for a couple of years. Why was Eddie clean and sober? Because Chairman McMahon paid for Eddie to go to rehab and straighten himself out. Eddie, who was hugely popular with the WWE’s sizeable Hispanic fan base, won the WWE championship soon after his stint in rehab. Coincidence? Probably not.

So, in the 29 wrestlers that have died since 2000 prior to the age of 60, only 3 were former champions, and 2 of them had had Vince McMahon attempt to save their lives. As for the other 26? Names that all of us grew up with, people like Curt “Mr. Perfect” Hennig, The Big Bossman, Miss Elizabeth, Hercules Hernandez, Chris “Skip” Candido, “The British Bulldog” Davy Boy Smith, “Sensational” Sherri Martel, Brian “Crush” Adams, Scott “Bam Bam” Bigelow and “Road Warrior Hawk”, were they just not bringing in enough money for Vince? Were they not selling enough t-shirts?

After the Chris Benoit tragedy, Vince offered help to any former employee of World Wrestling Entertainment if they wanted it. It was a see through attempt at taking the responsibility off of a man who narrowly escaped jail time in the early 90’s for providing steroids to his employees. Because one of his champions went nuts and killed his family, Vince offered help. Not because 24 of the 29 people on this list had died in the 6 years prior, but because McMahon was getting bad press.

If McMahon wants to say that wrestling is “sports entertainment” and not an actual sport so that he can escape things like drug testing and boxing and wrestling commissions, then so be it. It is his company, and he can do with it as he pleases, but he had better start thinking about the fact that due to his attitude, and blind eyes, he has allowed and, in my opinion, contributed to the deaths of too many young people for too long of a time.

It has been a problem for a while, but it has gotten much worse recently. In the 90’s, 12 men died prior to their 60’s, and amazingly, none of them were former champions. (For those of you who were wondering, in 1998 WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” and WCW’s “Monday Nitro” would draw a combined 15 million viewers each Monday night…there was too much on the line to let champions die then.)

In the 80’s, when steroids were rampant in the wrestling industry, and shows like “Wrestlemania III” could sell 97,000 tickets, 4 former WWE superstars died before they were 60, and none of them were even close to winning a title.

So what does all of this mean? It’s plain and simple: When Vince needs money, he makes damn sure the people bringing it in are healthy. When Vince stops making money, he could care less what happens to anyone. If he truly is the “god” of professional wrestling, maybe he should start caring a little more about his people. He’s not going to have any left at this rate.