I never thought they could top Katie Vick for sheer stupidity. Well they just managed to top that shit with Raw's ending.

Yeah, I'm done with the WWE now.

Umm..what happened?

Heh..my mom and I have had a running contest for about 20 years now. We've tried to determine which soap opera had the dumber or more outlandish plotline-- mine (WWF) or her's (General Hospital).

I originally had the title when the WWF brought out two Dave Hebners. But she won it back and has held it ever since, when GH had an ALIEN storyline in 1989 ("Casey" the friendly being from another planet). Then the GH spin-off, "Port Charles" had Vampires for awhile.

When you think about it, a fake "death" isn't that outlandish. It would work in GH and has probably been done several times. But this is frickin' WRESTLING, where eveything's known to be fake. So in that context, it seems dumb. I don't even think a mark-ish 11 year old would buy into a wrestling "death".

You should've won the title back for Undertaker, Kane, or Katie Vick.

Yeah, it was pretty bad....and it caught me off guard as fuck.

Other than that though, RAW was fucking awesome.

I thought Raw was kind of... I don't know... BOGUS. (internet high five)

The matches weren't that good, and the computer making a draft pick instead of a person was kind of stupid. At least Coachman could have read the pics a la David Stern, with some representatives forming "committees." Having a computer "randomly select" wrestlers was kind of stupid.

As was "McMahon Appreciation Night." They could have furthered all kinds of storylines, but no, we'll just talk about Vince all night

Ummm...I didn't watch RAW. And ummm...gosh, what can you even say about that.

You know, the thing I love about wrestling is fiery car explosions.

The question is... Whodunit?

Yeah, I'm not sure what to make of the ending. It could either be a rather different/interesting story for them, or it could go the way of Katie Vick (the more likely scenario).

I really hated the bit where Mae and Moolah were acting like dogs, otherwise Raw was pretty good last night.

Mae and Moolah acted like dogs, and Vince blew up? Sounds like my kinda show.


I guess the blow up story could build interest if Vince were to take an extended vacation, but seeing as he'll be back on the show in a week or so, any intrigue would be gone.

Also yet again Smackdown gets totally fucked in the draft. I'm done with that show too. They kept all the people I don't like, brought in more people I don't like and then got rid of several people I do like.

What's going to be odd is that there will be marks noticing Vince at restaurants, at the airport, and at the arena. It's going to be obvious that he's not dead

There are no marks, in that sense. WWE hasn't tried to maintain kayfabe in years.

Regardless, there are some people who still think it's real. Some kids gonna flip out when he sees Vince at an airport terminal.

Umm, would they flip out if they saw a character from another show who was supposed to be dead?

Again, this isn't LOST, it's wrestling. I now if some of the idiots I see at the local gym watching the $5 wrestling show saw Raw last night, and then saw Vince at Olive Garden, they'd shit themselves

Even their press release blurs the lines

Blur the line by comparing it to The Sopranos? Or by pitching the "whodunit" episode next week?

Face it, the only people who would believe in wrestling are VERY young children and the mentally handicapped. It has been openly scripted for ten years now. The mark as we once knew it is now dead. Smarks are the new marks. My daughter just turned 4 and fully believes that Dora is real, so maybe she would buy into it, but noone over the age of six.

They blurred the lines by comparing it to the Sopranos, and following it with this:

When someone gets whacked on the Sopranos, do they follow it with an off air mention of an investigation to find out who did it? That reads like real cops are doing the investigation?

Here's all I'm saying, kayfabe, to the internet mark, is dead. Kayfabe, to the general population is not completely dead. If you don't think anyone under 6 believes it's real anymore, I'll introduce you to my 13 year old cousin. Hell, I thought Foley and HHH really hated each other during their feud in 2000. It wasn't until around 2001-2002 that I smartened up, and that was thanks to prowrestling.com, so it wasn't REALLY that much of a difference. The gen-pop either disregards wrestling because they hate the "fakeness" or they watch it and think there is some reality to it.

Eh, I'm not sure what we're argueing, but in my mind the very first sentence is enough to justify that it is just a promo piece for next week's RAW. Are there still marks? I guess, but there are a lot of stupid people in the world. WWE has openly acknowledged being "fake" for a decade now. I guess some people still think The Blair Witch Project was real too.

And yes, to answer your question, every TV show does it's promo in character. They'll say something to the effect of "Will Joey and Blossom kiss?", not "Will Joey Laurence and the big nosed chick who plays Blossom pretend to touch lips, though we all know they really don't?"

OK, so I'm looking around, and this is generating more talk than I've seen for WWE in along time. Maybe it's not a bad thing after all. If they actually (for once) carry through with the story maybe it could carry through with some good tv. I'm not optimistic, though.

I think its all a set up for Vince to return as an even bigger heel.

- Vince "dies" in a fiery explosion

- The police investigate, they talk to a distraught Shane, Stephanie and Linda admitting they "were unable to find any evidence at present."

- In the meantime Johnathon Coachman has stepped up in Vince's position. As per Vince's last wishes he's making Bobby Lashley and John Cena's lives miserable on RAW.

- Several heels begin wearing black "VKM" armbands.

- There's a sense of concealed jubilation from the general face locker room. Coach sees this and punishes people for their disrespect.

- Two weeks from the day of the explosion they hold a funeral for Vince. Its closed casket because Vince is now "horribly disfigured".

- The assortment of wrestlers involved with the proceedings include, Hulk Hogan and family, Shane, Steph, Linda, Hunter, and most of the heel locker room. Bret Hart and Roddy Piper are in attendance as well. In a nice touch Steph is crying on Hunter's shoulder- obviously breaking kayfabe.

- The end of the show comes when a hearse pulls up to take the casket away. Suddenly Vince's music hits as he jumps out of the driver's side of the hearse.

- Getting on the microphone he shouts "well, I guess you all appreciated me when I was gone, didn't 'ya!"

- The show goes off the air.

Well, that's kinda how I'd do it.

I hate to say it...but I like it.

Look at the bright side, it'll keep Vince off of our televisions for a good while.

Unfortunately, I doubt it. I say he's back in three weeks.

You'll wish he was back as this angle promises to actually throw more McMahons on tv as they try to figure out who killed Vince.

I'm not going to lie, I'm enjoying this. Wrestling hasn't been this talked about in some time, especially about one single thing. May be this will push wrestling into the mainstream again. We are in the 10-year cycle about now.

Mad Dog does have a point though. As long as Linda stays home and grievs, I think it'll be fine.

If I see Stephanie on television next Monday night, this wont' be fine. B)

This just became fine for me. The WWE flag flying at half mast. Oh man, this is great.

Yeah, I was laughing my ass off during the first five minutes of ECW last night. First at the half mass, then at the 10 bell salute, and then the biggest laugh came when Tazz said the fans were being disrespectful for booing during the salute.

This part rules. I can imagine some ding-dong calling their morning news show on Tuesday morning and wondering why there's no mention of the car-bombing murder from last night.

"It's still real to me, dammit!"

I actually like the sheer lunacy of this whole fiasco. Although I could've done without it, and the fact that its probably going to cause problems down the line for the WWE as well.

Considering that Owen Hart DID die in the ring, this was a pretty low brow thing to try and pull off.

Well, Eddie also died even more recently and it was played up on tv too. I would normally hate this kind of thing, but for some reason it's really entertaining me right now. This will not end good though.

Yeah, but Eddie didn't die live on a program. That was basically my main point.

I do see what you mean though.

You know what really sucks about this to me though? I was really diggin on some "wacky" Vince. It's the most entertaining he's ever been to me.

True. Last week's RAW he was cracking me up, too.
About Eddie, I was only saying that his death would be even more poignant to modern viewers seeing as they used it on TV for about a year. I wasn't really disagreeing with you at all, just adding on.

HAHAHA

That's a beautiful piece of literature. The writing staff is really putting some time into this for once.