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CALDWELL: ESPN's WWE story pulls back the curtain to reveal traveling circus's respectable freak show (w/VIDEO) Apr 15, 2009 - 8:30:14 AM
ESPN's E:60 newsmagazine show featured a first-segment, "main event" piece on WWE and Vince McMahon that revealed nothing new to passionate wrestling fans such as Torch readers, but changed the tone of the conversation about WWE's place in the entertainment industry.
The interview certainly opened a few eyes in the mainstream public on just who Vince McMahon is. Rather, the prideful and combative Vince McMahon that he allows people to see himself as.
The fast-paced "documentary" on WWE leading to WrestleMania 25 that aired on Tuesday night weaved together interviews with Vince McMahon, Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan, and Mike Mooneyham to create a picture of what WWE is offering, the challenges the company faces, and WWE's history of controversy.
Casual fans who only know what they see on Raw, Smackdown, and ECW were awakened to backstage meetings with Michael Hayes describing storyline plots for The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels feud.
For passionate fans, the real takeaway was Vince McMahon maintaining his bravado by saying he'll never die as long as WWE is around.
Taken literally, McMahon was full of hubris in saying the laws of mortality don't apply to him.
Taken philosophically, McMahon suggested that his legacy as the man who transformed the wrestling business - for better or worse - will live on well past his death. The current "entertainment" in "WWE" will reflect his vision as long as WWE is around.
In the video I included below, Jeremy Schaap talked in-depth about his impression of WWE after interviewing McMahon and wrestling people who have worked with him or covered his business.
Schaap comes across very well-informed about his piece on WWE and it's refreshing to hear an ESPN story on WWE treated with a serious tone, as if the newsmagazine made a conscious to truly understand how the WWE machine operates. It wasn't a "WWE is so silly" piece that was flippantly tossed out on national TV.
WWE will always have an image issue as long as over-blown storylines, jacked-up wrestlers, plastic divas, and midgets are regularly featured on WWE programming. However, WWE benefited from ESPN taking a second, more-serious look at the WWE enterprise out of respect for the entertainment dollars Vince McMahon commands for his traveling circus.
The goal of the piece to pull back the curtain just a little bit more than what WWE has publicly allowed, which only revealed more surface-level stories for the general public to fit together.
Should there be steroid testing? Is Vince McMahon a genius or a horrible person who has corrupted the lives of wrestlers? Is WWE the greatest show on earth? ESPN's viewers were given snippets of information in a 15-minute story that really requires two hours to truly have a meaningful conversation on the subject.
For 15 minutes, though, ESPN put together a story that at the very least created respect for what WWE and Vince McMahon have done by making the circus a worldwide entertainment brand.
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