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WCW IS VINCE McMAHON?

Hey Guys. I have something new to say and decided to dedicate some sort of special column to it. This little bit of work is inspired by Wrestleline columnist Dave Richard's recent rant about the recently rumored possibility of Vince McMahon purchasing the WCW. Take a quick look at it then come back here.

Dave was spot on in saying that the WWF and Vince McMahon would not be anywhere near where they are now without the WCW there to play the foil. Healthy competition is what makes free enterprise great. It forces companies to provide better, less expensive, higher quality, more entertaining products for the American consumer.

However...

Can we really consider WCW "healthy competition" for the WWF these days? Let's all be realistic, they haven't been a threat for over 18 months. Vince McMahon beat WCW soundly and continues to do so with little effort. He has nothing left to prove to world of professional wrestling. He is the king now and at the moment there isn't a promotion out there anywhere near strong enough to rip the crown from his pompadoured head.

So, to say that Vince buying WCW gives him no competition is simply short sighted. When The Simpsons first debuted, it was the only animated comedy series on prime time. The writers and producers did not give us a show that was sub par just because it was the only show in it's genre, they worked hard to compete with every other show in its timeslot and produced one of the greatest series' in recent history. 

I think now Vince sees the entire Monday/Thursday night lineups as his competition. He is ready to take on the networks now.  He's targeting shows like Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, Monday Night Football, Alley McBeal, and The West Wing. This is the brass ring for which Vince is now grabbing. This new deal with Viacom does nothing if not legitimize WWF Entertainment as a future prime time network competitor.

Don't forget, if Vince purchases WCW and moves his own key people into the organization, we may finally see the floundering promotion show signs of life. He can use Nitro as a lead-in to RAW, possibly using cross-over feuds and angles to garner interest. Imagine the possibilities this opens up. Finally we don't have to deal with seeing the same four main eventers (HHH, UT, Rock, Austin) peppered with the same three midcarders (Jericho, Benoit, Angle) facing each other over and over again. Now we can see dream matches like Flair/Rock, Goldberg/Austin, Undertaker/Steiner, and HHH/Sting. Toss Kidman, Booker T. Jeff Jarrett, Mike Awesome, and Lance Storm into the mix and now we have a roster so deep that it will take four TV programs a week to showcase them all.

Now I am not a WWF mark nor do I have any heartfelt love for Vinnie Mac. If anything, I always hoped the WCW would succeed since I always felt that they had the potential to give us some great things. Their roster was deeper and more robust than WWF's, or at least they did until Jericho and the Radicals defected. These days they have fallen into a hole that is too deep to climb from without help from outside.

Who knows how all this is going to play out in the end. It's all still speculation at this point.

I will say this, though, if it does happen, I think you'll see a few more viewers tuning into Nitro each week, if only for curiosity's sake. Just my two cents.

I am Michaelangelo and will be for a while.

Michaelangelo
[slash] wrestling

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