Former WWE star Maven: “I don’t think professional wrestling is a better product without Vince McMahon at the helm”

To the performers—I know the time, I know the work you put into it, and I don’t blame you. I just blame a product that has moved in the completely wrong direction. Why? I don’t know.

And I get it—there probably is a fan base that enjoys that. There probably is a segment of the audience that tunes in for that style. I realize I’m probably in the minority here. And the take I’m giving you might not be the one you want to hear—it might not be popular. And I’m sure right now you’re going down in the comments to tell me how old, out of touch, and out of tune I am. And that’s fine. Agree with that or don’t.

I came up in a time when, in the ring, you listened. And if something wasn’t working—because the fans weren’t reacting—you did something else. And if that didn’t work, well, hell, you did something else again. If you stuck with what you had planned and it wasn’t working, you were going to get your ass chewed the moment you got backstage. And the first person to chew your ass was definitely Vince McMahon. And that actually leads me to my next point—and I guarantee this will be controversial.

Now, I don’t think professional wrestling is a better product without Vince at the helm. Hold on—let me explain. I’m well aware of the allegations, and no part of me is insinuating that WWE should bring Vince back. I don’t think so, and I don’t co-sign on anything he did. But Vince had two things going for him. One, he was an amazing businessman. Did he have some misses? Of course. You swing that many times in the business world, you’re going to miss occasionally. But second—and probably most important—Vince was a fan. Vince, like most wrestling fans, grew up around the business. He grew up watching his dad, and he grew up knowing how to put shows together. And remember, they started before entertainment was what it is today.

I don’t know who the decision-makers are at TKO, but sometimes I feel as though their main driving force is the almighty dollar before the showmanship of professional wrestling. Yeah, they still have storylines, and obviously the wrestlers are still amazing—but I don’t think they focus quite as much as they used to.

These days, wrestling’s almost become too glam. It’s almost more of a show that’s out to stun the audience—make you say, ‘Wow, did you see that 10-minute entrance so-and-so had?’ And these days, it almost feels as though it’s lost that blood, sweat, and tears—that grimy aspect. The show almost looks too clean these days. It almost looks too much like Cirque du Soleil in a wrestling ring rather than a real fight—a bad guy versus a good guy. And I’m not saying that Hunter [Triple H]’s not doing a good job. I think Hunter’s doing a great job. I don’t think anybody knows the wrestling business better than Hunter. But Hunter has bosses. He has people he reports to. And I don’t know this to be true—I just know it is. I guarantee you, Hunter would change and go back to when wrestling shows were more fan-driven—listening to the audience, having the audience dictate where a match was going—and probably get away from all the glitz, glam, and 15-minute entrances. He’d go back to that rugged professional wrestling that we all—well, people of my age anyway—grew up loving.”