Planet Kayfabe: ‘Business As Usual’? No Chance.
Planet Kayfabe: Business As Usual? No Chance.
By: “KCA” Paul Matthews
Lewis County, Wash.
7/12/2022
Hello everyone and thanks again for reading Planet Kayfabe. It’s been a pretty wild month. Initially, I was going to air out some frustrations with Jeff Hardy who is really no different than Sunny at this point other than he has been lucky enough to not kill someone yet. Then shortly thereafter, the news broke of Vince McMahon secretly paying off women to whom of which he engaged in sexual affairs with. The type of sleazy shit that has taken down many more powerful men than Vince McMahon, so it got the wrestling world and the mainstream news wondering if this was it for him.
After the story broke, Vince McMahon temporarily stepped down as chairman and CEO, placing Stephanie McMahon-Levesque in his spot as interim CEO. Vince has remained at his duties as head of creative and is still on the road for Raw and Smackdown. I’m glad it has taken me this long to write about this story, because had I written about this story when the news first broke, I probably would have just said “yeah, it’s wrong but if he didn’t use company money he’ll probably find a way out of this mess”… and if it was simply that, I’d probably stick by that opinion, but as time goes on there are more layers added to the story. Initially, I figured John Laurinaitis will be the good soldier to fall on the sword for Vince, but this time that may not be enough. The line the company initially threw out there was it will be “business as usual” but business could be without a McMahon running it for the first time in 70 years.
The most recent allegations, none of which have been disputed by WWE so far, were unsolicited nude photos sent to a female employee (or talent since someone was listed as a contractor) and coercion for oral sex. That’s pretty damning for anyone in any position of power. Once the investigation is complete, I’m assuming the board will vote to remove Vince McMahon or try to convince him to step down voluntarily to save him some dignity instead of having to be removed from his own company. Do I think Vince will step down? Fuck no. He’s going to fight this because he can. He has the voting power. The board can vote him out, but all he has to do is say “I’m not leaving” and there’s nothing they can do but use their leverage to try and convince him that its for the betterment of his business, and major sponsors might get involved, too. With that being said, this could still very well be the beginning of the story.
Either way, I don’t take much joy in this for multiple reasons. One, I’m glad I’m not one of these fucking geek fans that bowed to this guy on camera when his music hit, defiant against the allegations, and just showing his face on TV to say “I’m not going anywhere”. Whether you think he did anything illegal or not, it’s pretty fucked up to have extramarital affairs for decades and use your position of power to take advantage of women to please your own sexual desires. Second of all, Vince is a legend and the most successful wrestling promoter in the history of this world. It’s sad to see someone who I once saw as such a powerful figure be taken down over a fucking sex scandal. Like, dude, you’re Vince McMahon, even if I were one to excuse his affairs outside his marriage, you can probably have any woman you want without having to bribe her or dangle career advancement or destruction over her head.
That’s where some of the truly disgusting nature of this story comes in. The fact that Vince could easily find a woman by traditional and consensual means, but instead what really gets him off is using his power to get what he wants. Yeah… hot broads are nice and all, but have you ever made a bonafide 10 suck your dick because you have a top-rated cable TV show that you can push her on and toss her a few million dollars to keep her pretty mouth shut? That’ll really get your rocks off.
As for the people who stand by the opinion of “this is just two adults having consensual sex nothing to see here”, then I have almost no words for you other than it’s best to keep that to yourself and wait until you’re mature enough to understand this level of a situation and adult enough to have this conversation. There’s no use in debating you if you don’t grasp the fundamental problem when someone in Vince’s power uses that position to make or break a woman’s career at the whims of his own sexual desires. If you don’t see how that is wrong, then I ask what if it was your wife, mother, sister or even just you personally and you heard a story that their boss said “suck my dick and I’ll give you a raise” and she said, “I did it even though I didn’t want to because I just got a place in fucking Connecticut and needed that money”. I’m sure you’d say “wow, that’s pretty fucked up” if you had any basic understanding of the situation. Take off the celebrity goggles and look at Vince McMahon the way you would the owner of any other major corporation and maybe you won’t bow down next time his music hits. Again, I have all the respect I can for Vince as a promoter and as a TV character he was one of the best heels ever during their hottest period ever, but this is real life
A quick little take on Jeff Hardy…
Get help. Beyond that, at this point, he should be doing jail time as well. It’s sad and ridiculous that in 20-fucking-22 I’m still writing about another Jeff Hardy drunk driving incident. You know how this story ends. I’ll be writing about it until he either kills someone or himself and is doing more than a simple dry-up in jail. He needs to accept responsibility before he can truly change and considering he blew almost 4 times above the legal limit and still plead not guilty to all three charges, he’s clearly far from doing that.
Thanks again for reading, everyone. Leave a comment below on what you think will happen with Vince McMahon. I don’t think he will get away with this, but I also don’t think he will step down quietly. It’s going to be a fight and we just maybe getting started.
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Enjoy your summer, take care and God bless.