chessarmy
Guest
Hi again, remember me? I haven't written in about two months, and the reason why is because my interest in wrestling is at an all-time low right now. WWE is a total mess these days, in front of the camera, and behind it. Raw has been a mostly horrendous show since the draft in April. The best show, Smackdown, is the one on Friday nights that nobody watches. And that's a shame, because it's been a damn good show for about the past two months. We have guys getting fired left and right, rumors of possible suspensions, wrestlers that seemingly get injured walking to the bathroom in the morning, and talent that has just plain had enough. It's enough to make your head spin. You need a scorecard to keep track of who's coming, and who's going in WWE. And after this week, you better get a bigger scorecard.
Vickie Guerrero is the reason I came back to write this column today. I was so disgusted and repulsed by what I saw on Raw this past Monday, and the disgraceful way she was treated on the way out of a company that she has worked with for the better part of the past three years. Vickie reportedly gave her notice a while back, and last night was her final appearance with the company. She was said to be tired of the travel, and just wanted to be home with her teenage daughters. You can definitely understand and appreciate that. It's rare to see someone in wrestling that puts their family first. It's family and her new responsibility as a single mother, after the shocking and untimely death of her husband Eddie Guerrero in November 2005, that is the reason Vickie became part of WWE in the first place.
Out of what was likely a combination of guilt and responsibility, Vince McMahon made her a television performer on Smackdown in 2006. And that was something he certainly didn't have to do. But then again, maybe he did have to do it. Maybe it was just the right thing to do. Vickie started out involving herself in a feud between Rey Mysterio and her nephew Chavo Guerrero. And let's not sugarcoat the past, she was an awful performer at first. But you certainly couldn't hold that against her. She was someone that was thrown on a worldwide television show with no previous experience in the wrestling business, and no acting experience, or anything of that sort. She was just a mother that was offered a job, and an opportunity to help feed her family. Anyone in that position would have made the easy choice. Earn a six figure income for working one day a week, perhaps two on PPV weeks. It's a slam dunk for most anyone with half a brain.
Vickie became the General Manager of Smackdown in 2007, which is when her association with Edge began. As time went by, and she gained more experience, and got more comfortable in her role, she became better at it. She didn't just grab her paycheck and run, she made a concerted effort to improve herself as a performer, even reportedly taking acting lessons at one point. Surprise of all surprises, she actually ended up becoming a pretty damn good television performer. She became one of the most over heel performers in the company, arguably more than some top male wrestlers. All she would have to do is come out, say what became her trademark catchphrase, “Excuse me!â€, and she would instantly generate a caustic heel reaction from the fans. Some might call that “go away†heat, but I would wholeheartedly disagree with that. She became the person the fans loved to hate, and she did it because she became good at her job.
Her interactions and scheming with Edge on Smackdown in 2007 and 2008 was some of the best, most entertaining stuff happening in WWE at the time. Vickie played the classic heel authority figure, in the mold of past WWE GM's like Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman, screwing the babyfaces at every turn, whether it was The Undertaker, John Cena, Triple H, Batista, Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy, and so on. Her and Edge broke up and got back together so many times they could have had their own soap opera. It was silly and hokey at times, but it was fun. That was the main thing. It wasn't insulting to your intelligence, or something that made you just roll your eyes. It was harmless, over the top wrestling soap opera. And Vickie helped make it work, and helped make Smackdown an entertaining show to watch every week.
During her time as GM, she became involved physically in the storylines on many occasions. She was Tombstoned by The Undertaker, she was given the 619 by Rey Mysterio, she was speared by Edge, just to name a few incidents. She always ended up in a wheelchair with a neck brace on, playing up the over the top nature of the character. Just this past Sunday at the Extreme Rules PPV, she rolled around in the mud and slop with Santina Marella and Chavo, in a segment that most of us that saw the PPV wish we hadn't seen. Vickie was a good sport. She went well above and beyond what could have been expected from someone that had never done anything in the wrestling business before. She did everything they could have asked from her, and then some.
That's why it's really sad to see the way the company repaid her for her hard work and her effort. Obviously, it doesn't take a degree from Harvard to recognize that Vickie doesn't look like all the other divas on the WWE roster. She doesn't have blonde hair, huge fake tits, and six pack abs. She looks like what she is, a 41 year old mother of two. But you see, that doesn't fly in WWE, the land of silicone and Botox. Where Vince McMahon wants every diva to look like they just stepped off the cover of the latest Playboy or fitness magazine. Vickie Guerrero certainly doesn't fit that look, and the company made sure we knew that every chance they got.
Almost from day one, Vickie was ridiculed and humiliated on air because of the way she looked. Whether it was guys like Triple H or John Cena making crass, unfunny jokes about her weight, or the most recent trend where she has been referred to as a pig. The mentality of those in WWE is like that of a high school locker room. Hey, let's make fun of the fat girl! And no one has a more overbearing, juvenile sense of humor than the boss himself, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. This is the guy that thinks things like necrophilia and people having skid marks on their underwear are hilarious. You have the mentality of a 7 year old boy in the body of a 63 year old man. That's the type of person you're dealing with at the very top of the company. The type of person that thinks degrading and embarrassing someone like Vickie Guerrero on a weekly basis is downright hysterical.
That brings us to Monday's episode of Raw. With Vickie having given her notice, they wrote her off of Raw by having her quit as GM in a tirade that got by far the most heel heat of anything on the show. Vickie went out in a blaze of glory with that promo, and it would have been fine if they just let it stand like that, with the crowd singing the “Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye†song to her as she skulked up the ramp. That would have been a fitting end to the character that Vickie had portrayed for three years. But no, they couldn't just leave it like that. Vince had to make sure he got in a couple more shots on the way out. Just for good measure.
Edge came out and proceeded to tear Vickie apart, admitting that he married her in storyline for her power, which was hardly a revelation. He talked about how when they went out in public, people used to think Vickie was his mother. He called her worthless. He called her a pig. He called her a she-beast. He said that everytime they kissed, he'd have to run into the bathroom to dry heave. And lastly, they never had sex, because after all, who would want to have sex with a fat, disgusting pig like Vickie, right Vince? Do I have it right? Besides being tasteless, the segment did absolutely nothing for Edge, who is the top heel on Smackdown right now, and left Raw to a standing ovation after he “put Vickie in her place.†So what exactly was accomplished by doing and saying all of that? Nothing. And by the way, so much for that brand split again. What was Edge, a Smackdown wrestler, doing on Raw?
The whole scene ended with Vickie on her knees in the middle of the ring screaming and crying hysterically. Was it just me, or was that incredibly uncomfortable to watch? The entire thing was way, way over the line. And the mean spirited, humilating attacks on Vickie Guerrero were downright disgusting. I can just see everyone getting a big laugh about it watching around the monitors in the back. There was no need to sink to that level. It was inappropriate, distasteful, and classless on so many levels. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You can't expect to get class from a company run by a man that has none.
I was embarrassed to watch that segment, and everyone in that company that was involved in putting it together, and everyone in the company period should be embarrassed. It's that type of garbage that makes people embarrassed to admit they watch wrestling, and reinforces the reason why WWE will never ever get the high class advertising and sponsorship deals that they so desperately want. It's why wrestling will never be accepted as a mainstream form of entertainment, no matter how hard they try to be.
Then you have the kind of message that they're sending out to their “family friendly†audience. If someone looks a little different, and doesn't look like everyone else, it's ok to make fun of and laugh at that person. It's that type of mentality that is why wrestling will never be seen as anything more than a sideshow circus. You can dress it up all you want, and do all the public relations in the world. When you put something like the shameful degradation of Vickie Guerrero on the air like that, and a non-wrestling fan happens to see it, you just further cement every negative stereotype of professional wrestling that is out there. And you make people like myself, that has been a wrestling fan for 25 years, ashamed and embarrassed to admit that I watch.
For the people out there that say that Vickie Guerrero didn't have to work for WWE, that no one forced her to take the job, you're right. No one did. But what would you have a mother that lost her husband, and has two teenage daughters to raise, and send to college, and everything that goes with it, do? If someone said to you, we'll pay you a six figure salary, and all you have to do is show up once a week, twice a week on some occasions, you would take the job in a heartbeat. And you know you would. You'd be a complete fool if you didn't.
I'll say one good thing about Vince McMahon. It was a nice gesture for him to offer Vickie a job, and keep her employed for three years. But that didn't entitle him or give him the right to publicly humiliate and ridicule her at every possible turn, because heaven forbid, she didn't look like the models and strippers out of the catalog where John Laurinaitis is going to hire the next batch of nameless, faceless bimbos. The company word might be that Vickie was tired of the travel, and wanted to spend more time with her family, and that may all be true. But I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that she walked away because she was tired of the way she was being treated on television. And who could blame her?
What it all comes down to is Vince McMahon is a sick and twisted person. He gets off on humbling people, and humilating his employees. Ask people like Jim Ross, Lita, Howard Finkel, Nicole Bass, Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, and too many others to name. Not to mention any wrestler or television personality that has ever performed in their hometown. He has a superiority complex, and maybe it goes back to his days of living in a trailer, when he was picked on by the neighborhood kids. Back when he was Vinnie Lupton.
Now he has the power, and he wants to make sure everyone knows it, and he has to remind people on a daily basis. He's spent his career paying back those kids that picked on him by taking it out on the people that work for him, even if it's a widow looking to put food on the table for her kids, like Vickie Guerrero. He has no boundaries, and there are no lines of decency that he won't cross. And guess what Vince. Vickie Guerrero isn't the pig. You are the pig, and WWE is the pig. So throw yourself in that hog pen with the other pigs, and the mud, the slop, and the crap, you know the one that you made Vickie roll around in the other night? Because that's where you belong.
Thanks for reading. I'll be back soon with another column. I'm not sure exactly when. But do I intend to get back to writing more frequently than I had been doing. In the meantime, you can keep in touch with me on Facebook, MySpace, and of course the usual e-mail address. Even when I'm not writing on a regular basis, I'm always around.
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Your thoughts? Do you agree with the article? Personally, I thought what WWE did to Vickie was a little over the top. To make fun of her looks like that, calling her a pig, basically humiliating her on national TV. This isn't the first time Vince has done this, I'm still sick to my stomach over what happened with JR a few years ago, and of course the infamous Lita send off.
