Talent La Penna Prolifica™

The Devil and Mr. McMahon

By La Penna Prolifica™ | 2007

The Devil and Mr. McMahon (Traditional Journalism)

By Michael LaPenna

With Tony Soprano’s swan song on The Sopranos having left its fans with little else than bad karaoke fodder, onion rings, and a black screen, the ending of Raw the following night may very well have compensated for any TV viewer’s disappointment by amazingly blowing up its chairman in a limousine explosion so colossal that you might have thought you were watching the trailer for the next WWE film starring with Bruce Willis and Spiderman. Yes, unbelievably, it was Vincent Kennedy McMahon who got whacked this week. Hold the Parmesan.

Speculation still remains as to why WWE executed such an over the top storyline. It could simply be a case of early retirement for the chairman. The real life version of Vince is in his sixties now and likely has spent day and night devoted to the business. Also with the popularity of the Mr. McMahon character seemingly at a solid peak of a-hole level hatred, many in wrestling circles feel that it would be counter intuitive and anti-climactic for him to just flatly retire to his summer home in Parts Unknown. The facts show that Vince has always loved closure on a story from Randy and Liz’s reunion at Wrestlemania VII to Bret’s Montreal Screwjob and Benoit’s title win at Wrestlemania XX. He may just want to close this chapter in a bigger way. This was arguably the very biggest in wrestling history. The fans now have the question of “whodunit” to keep them watching. Some in the industry say that that is indeed the bottomline, all Stone Cold puns aside. The internet is buzzing with rumors that this is a whacky prank. Yet others contend it just wouldn’t play right that Mr. McMahon would survive such a combustible fate.

Alas, no one knows the answer at this time. Certainly the McMahon character has had no shortage of foes and antagonists. Stone Cold, Bret Hart, Eric Bishoff and Paul Hayman all had their battles with the character. All of these people are said to be likely candidates. Yet all (with the exception of Bret Hart) have also been at Mr. McMahon’s right hand as well. But it could also be that Mr. McMahon has had it coming. With his abuse of his employees, humiliation of divas, stealing of titles and telling the fans he hates them and that he, Mr. McMahon is more powerful than God. As one fan noted, Mr. McMahon was the man Jim Ross called “The Devil Himself” through Hellfire, brimstone and in this instance… car bombs.