WWE

Thursday

Jack Hunter

RIP Hulk Hogan, the omnipresent Eighties icon

Hulk Hogan, who died today at 71, will be sorely missed. But in July 1996, arguably the most famous and beloved pro wrestler of all time was standing in a ring as fans booed and threw trash at him. He had just turned into a bad guy for the first time ever.  This was the second time Hogan would take professional wrestling to unprecedented heights.  Nearly 30 years ago, Hogan formed the villainous “New World Order” (NWO) for Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Because of Hogan’s group, WCW would beat the former top wrestling company, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for 83 straight weeks in the TV ratings.  No other company had ever beaten WWE in the ratings.

hulk hogan

Thursday

Ben Sixsmith

Vince McMahon is a great American survivor

You might think that as Vince McMahon, veteran boss of World Wrestling Entertainment, returned to public life after a brief period in exile following allegations of sexual misconduct and hush-money agreements, he would want to present a sober and serious image. Not a bit of it. The seventy-seven-year-old emerged to announce the sale of WWE to Endeavor Group Holdings with blackened hair and a pencil mustache — resembling Dick Dastardly on a shit ton of steroids. McMahon is a showman. I’m sure there is some extent to which he wanted his mustache to become the story. Get ‘em talking about the image and they might not focus on those dark mutterings about sexual harassment and assault.

vince mcmahon

Monday

Art Tavana

Vince McMahon: the modern-day P.T. Barnum who changed America

Book reviews should be like Car & Driver: flip over the page to a concrete, plainly written piece — no writerly words or literary drivel — by someone who’s test-driven the book and punched up a nuts-and-bolts guide. The reader should get a look under the hood: polished steel and chrome cylinders. Does it hum? Vroom, we’re off the races. I say this because I’m reporting on a prototype I’m afraid of driving: an advance reader’s edition, uncorrected, not for sale or quotation. I can’t rev this baby for you, or even kick the tires, but here goes.

ringmaster

Monday

Art Tavana

Vince McMahon’s final act

Vince McMahon displays a T-Rex skull in his office. It is mounted against blood-colored walls. But is it real? It doesn’t matter, as it’s authentically Vince McMahon to mount such a garish display of masculine bravado on his wall. It’s the kind of over-the-top centerpiece you’d expect from the mogul who built World Wrestling Entertainment into the behemoth it is today. A giant of a man, McMahon has spent four decades laughing maniacally as he feasted on the flesh of his puny competition. “It’s on my wall and symbolic of my voracious appetite for life,” he tweeted. There’s also prophetic symbolism to the dead-dinosaur skull. In June, the Wall Street Journal reported that the WWE board was investigating a “secret $3 million hush pact by CEO Vince McMahon.

McMahon

Tuesday

Ben Sixsmith

Steve Austin and the age of the antihero

Having been fired from World Championship Wrestling, Steve Austin entered the World Wrestling Federation with the godawful gimmick of 'the Ringmaster’. He looked no more memorable than a Big Mac. Austin knew that something had to change. He wanted to adopt an edgier, more cold-blooded character. The WWF’s creative team, displaying the genius that had inspired 'Mantaur’, a wrestler who dressed up as a Minotaur, and 'the Gobbledy Gooker’, proposed such names as 'Otto Von Ruthless’ and 'Chilly McFreeze’. According to wrestling legend, Austin was at home when his wife told him to drink his tea before it turned 'stone cold’. Stone Cold Steve Austin was born. He quickly flourished.

stone cold steve austin

Wednesday

Melissa Chen

John Cena’s car-crash Taiwan apology

In an unforgivably cringeworthy mea culpa delivered in surprisingly fluent Mandarin, John Cena has apologized to his fans in China. He had said in a promotional interview with a Taiwanese media outlet that Taiwan would be 'the first country that can watch' his new Fast & Furious movie, F9. Uh oh. To the Chinese Communist party and a billion Chinese citizens, the slightest hint of Taiwan’s sovereignty is considered blasphemy in the highest order. 'I made a mistake,' the former WWE champion said in a groveling video posted to the Chinese social media platform, Weibo. 'Now I have to say one thing which is very, very, very important: I love and respect China and Chinese people.' He continued: 'I’m very sorry for my mistakes. Sorry. Sorry. I’m really sorry.

john cena

Thursday

Jack Hunter

The Michael Cohen hearing was pure pro wrestling

How many watched the Michael Cohen hearings and thought it was simply faithful civil servants trying to do what was best for their country? Yeah, me neither. How many thought it was just self-aggrandizing political figures putting on a show? In the lead role, of course, was Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and longtime confidant who has now ‘turned heel’ against his former boss. ‘The last time I appeared before Congress, I came to protect Mr Trump. Today I am here to tell the truth about Mr Trump,’ Cohen declared. What was that truth? ‘He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat,’ Cohen said of the president, presenting his case for each. All of these things may or may not be true.

michael cohen hearing kayfabe