Name: World Wrestling Entertainment
Age: 67
Occupation: sports entertainment corporation
Last Seen: Stamford, CT
Bee-otched For: broken wings
-Age: 67
Occupation: sports entertainment corporation
Last Seen: Stamford, CT
Bee-otched For: broken wings
As a fan of professional wrestling, I couldn't be more happier that the WWE is no longer a virtual monopoly.
It was a sad day when Vince McMahon bought out World Championship Wrestling from Time Warner nearly 20 years ago. It was at the zenith of the Attitude era, and it was all downhill from there. WWE expatriate Jeff Jarrett started TNA Wrestling - now Impact Wrestling - in 2002 in hopes of being the WWE's biggest competitor, but it did go downhill in recent years thanks to changes in channels and management. The show called Impact! is now seen Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. on the AXS Network, which is now owned by Impact parent Canadian-based Anthem Sports and Entertainment.
Anyway, for years, the WWE pretty much had the wrestling world to themselves. They had some competition in TNA/Impact (which once had Hulk Hogan and Rick Flair) and Ring of Honor (owned by mega-conservative broadcaster Sinclair). But in the past several months, Impact has been beefed up thanks to Anthem buying AXS, returning Impact to a more-respectable TV home. Then, there's the 71-year-old National Wrestling Alliance, which is owned by Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins. And oh, yes, All Elite Wrestling, owned by the Khan family, which owns the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.
When AEW signed with TNT, it was the first time in some 15 years that the WWE was given real, legitimate competition. The WWE should be shaking in their boots, but good 'ol Vince McMahon is making the same, fucked-up mistakes over and over.
Last week, the WWE flew to Saudi Arabia for a pay-per-view event called Crown Jewel. Part of the reason for the event is that the WWE is quite popular over there. Since the McMahon family are a bunch of fucking Repukes and doing business with the enemy is something they love to do, well, let's say that their Crown Jewel event turned into broken glass pretty quickly.
Sources claim that the Saudi government owe the WWE somewhere around $500 million, and it led to a giant smackdown between the two parties. As a result, Vince McMahon allegedly cut the feed of Crown Jewel to Saudi Arabian audiences.
Well, things got out of hand. After the PPV ended, McMahon and his posse took his private jet back to Connecticut. WWE Champion Brock Lesnar, his sidekick and Raw executive producer Paul Heyman, Hulk Hogan, Rick Flair and Jimmy Hart all took a jet chartered by Lesnar. The rest of the WWE cast and crew, well, that's a totally different story.
Allegedly, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman sent out military police to force the other wrestlers off the plane and to stand on the tarmac for several hours. After those hours passed, the passengers were allowed to board the jet to return home. As a result, the WWE was forced to use superstars from their NXT brand to take over for the absent wrestlers on Smackdown! the next evening.
(And surprise! That episode of Smackdown! had higher-than-average ratings that evening.)
According to the WWE, they claimed that the wrestlers' plane had mechanical issues. They even urged the stranded wrestlers to post on social media videos proving that mechanical issues were grounding them. However, there were others who claimed that they would never go to Saudi Arabia ever again. And needless to say, Vince better be shitting his britches.
The reality is that wrestling fans are loyal to the "sport" (and yes, it's fake, but still fun to watch) and are fucking tired of the milquetoast bullshit that McMahon has been producing since the TV-PG era began. But thankfully, the Khans, Billy Corgan, Anthem Sports and Entertainment and others have listened. With what Vince did 35 years ago by spitting on his father's grave by breaking up the territories and other shenanigans he's pulled over the years, I'm happy that he's got competition. The fact that he's also one of Drumpf's good buddies also hurts him big time.
Of course, some good news has come from all this, and it's the fact that Saudi Arabia has given the WWE $60 million to help pay their debts to the corporation. The WWE plans to do two events per year in the oil-rich nation for the next eight years.
But with the excess competition, WILL the WWE last another eight years?
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Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
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