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The continuing tale of Vince and Glenn
Feb. 28th, 2013 07:50 amSo, when we last met, Vince McMahon was challenging Glenn Beck to appear on Monday Night Raw. If Beck wanted to make a point about wrestling then what better opportunity.
Glenn said he was doing "anything else". So, Vince thought why make Glenn go to the Dallas Arena and get in front of thousands of fans, when the WWE could come to Glenn and offer a nice one-on-one with someone who used to work for CBS News.
Hilarity ensues.
Now, I am not entirely convinced that this type of ambush journalism has worked since the golden days of Mike Wallace and Roger and Me.
Still, point made. Glenn Beck is a loudmouth, but like internet chat trolls, he wouldn't actually say anything to someone's face.
That said, Vince McMahon likely only had two goals
1. Keep this story in the media
2. Annoy Glenn Beck
I think that you can say he had great success with both.
Vince is the guy who sent D-Generation X on a tank to drive around the headquarters of his biggest competitor WCW back in the day, and he's milked that footage for years. It surely wasn't the thing that took WCW from the #1 wrestling promotion in the world to the point where Vince was buying it for pennies on the dollar, but it did correspond with that timeline, and proves if you work up Vince, he's going to keep on going.
It's hard to imagine how much more the WWE can get out of the story. Limbaugh probably will never bite, and after Beck, the names get more and more obscure (I barely know who Alex Jones is, and I follow this stuff).
I was making a mental list of tea-party/libertarian commentators on tv, and when you get to the next tier down, I thought of one person the WWE will probably never touch - John Stossel.
Stossel was a 20/20 journalist who made some waves with some books and a Fox TV show in the last couple of years. He's probably peaked, but still relevant. Stossel was the guy that "Dr D" David Schultz hit in the head (Youtube it!) because Stossel was trying to "out" pro wrestling as being fake. Stossel sued the WWE and won nearly half a million dollars, Schultz claimed Vince McMahon told him to do it, and Schultz's career was essentially over at the point.
30 years later, the WWE is making fun of Beck for thinking Pro Wrestling isn't fake, and Stossel has an audience who listen to his political views, which prominently include "There are too many frivolous lawsuits".
Lastly, no update on the Vince/Beck war is complete without some mention of the Iron Sheik's tweets about Beck.
If you are not already aware, the Iron Sheik (circa 2013) is a frequent guest on the Howard Stern show, and if you grew up with stern's Wack Pack in the 90s (Underdog Lady, Beetlejuice, John the Stutterer, etc), you can guess why. Sheik's tirades are random, profanity-filled, and funny (but not in that way).
A typical tweet out of the barrage of Sheik's insults is:
So, there's that.
Glenn said he was doing "anything else". So, Vince thought why make Glenn go to the Dallas Arena and get in front of thousands of fans, when the WWE could come to Glenn and offer a nice one-on-one with someone who used to work for CBS News.
Hilarity ensues.
Now, I am not entirely convinced that this type of ambush journalism has worked since the golden days of Mike Wallace and Roger and Me.
Still, point made. Glenn Beck is a loudmouth, but like internet chat trolls, he wouldn't actually say anything to someone's face.
That said, Vince McMahon likely only had two goals
1. Keep this story in the media
2. Annoy Glenn Beck
I think that you can say he had great success with both.
Vince is the guy who sent D-Generation X on a tank to drive around the headquarters of his biggest competitor WCW back in the day, and he's milked that footage for years. It surely wasn't the thing that took WCW from the #1 wrestling promotion in the world to the point where Vince was buying it for pennies on the dollar, but it did correspond with that timeline, and proves if you work up Vince, he's going to keep on going.
It's hard to imagine how much more the WWE can get out of the story. Limbaugh probably will never bite, and after Beck, the names get more and more obscure (I barely know who Alex Jones is, and I follow this stuff).
I was making a mental list of tea-party/libertarian commentators on tv, and when you get to the next tier down, I thought of one person the WWE will probably never touch - John Stossel.
Stossel was a 20/20 journalist who made some waves with some books and a Fox TV show in the last couple of years. He's probably peaked, but still relevant. Stossel was the guy that "Dr D" David Schultz hit in the head (Youtube it!) because Stossel was trying to "out" pro wrestling as being fake. Stossel sued the WWE and won nearly half a million dollars, Schultz claimed Vince McMahon told him to do it, and Schultz's career was essentially over at the point.
30 years later, the WWE is making fun of Beck for thinking Pro Wrestling isn't fake, and Stossel has an audience who listen to his political views, which prominently include "There are too many frivolous lawsuits".
Lastly, no update on the Vince/Beck war is complete without some mention of the Iron Sheik's tweets about Beck.
If you are not already aware, the Iron Sheik (circa 2013) is a frequent guest on the Howard Stern show, and if you grew up with stern's Wack Pack in the 90s (Underdog Lady, Beetlejuice, John the Stutterer, etc), you can guess why. Sheik's tirades are random, profanity-filled, and funny (but not in that way).
A typical tweet out of the barrage of Sheik's insults is:
the @glennbeck you deserve to be waist deep in dog sh** drink gasoline you insult my fans Im going to beat the f*** out of you dumb b**ch
So, there's that.
