The WWE was founded by a man named Vince McMahon. By all accounts, he was an absolute genius when it came to the wrestling business. After buying the company from his father, Vince ruthlessly conquered small wrestling companies across the United States which eventually led to the media giant we have today. The company today has partnered with Netflix, multiple box office draws came from the WWE, and it’s a billion dollar product.
In the 90s, Vince McMahon turned himself into an onscreen character. Him, growing up poor, knew the troubles of the people that comprised a majority of his audience — the blue collar guys who wanted to make money and enjoy time with their family. This character was everything you’d hate about a boss, he was retaliatory, he made sexual passes at the women wrestlers, he would rig everything, he would fire people on a whim, he he wrestled his own son, there was an multi-month story where he cheated on his sedated wife with a female wrestler and fought his son at WrestleMania. He was a racist and a sexist. The most famous story was between him and Stone Cold Steve Austin — an all-American, beer-drinking Texan who liked to kick people’s ass.
The Austin/McMahon feud launched the WWE into the stratosphere. To this day, the WWE is still not as popular as it was during that feud.
In 2022, an allegation of sexual assault came out about Vince. And in a series of events I’m not going to get into, he sold the WWE with a deal he’d be made chair of the new board. This was granted. The next night, he came out during a live television show and the crowd cheered for him. He said hi, and went back inside.
In 2024, more, much more graphic accusations of sexual assault came out. Vince was being accused of trafficking a 21 year old woman who worked for him. He and another corporate guy were passing this woman around. It was also found that Vince was using this girl in contract negotiations with wrestlers as well. Vince is no longer with the WWE.
Why do I bring this up? Last night, the WWE aired its first episode on Netflix, and they went through the history of wrestling and the WWE. The reason you’ve ever thought about professional wrestling or a wrestler is because of Vince McMahon. In this segment recounting all of these moments, there was not a single shot that contained Vince McMahon’s face. The guy who ushered in the most impressive performance that any company has ever had and one of the reasons that this show is even on Netflix is just gone. He’s no longer acknowledged, as if he never even existed. To make it even more clear, a big reason why the actual boss Vince McMahon and the character of Mr. McMahon were removed because no one, not even his own family, really knew where one started and the other began.
I think we do the same type of removal by deleting the articles, or giving the users and opportunity to do the same with a vote. We’re proxy-associating with someone who used their internet microcelebrity power to sexually harass minors. I don’t care that the offsite community will continue to idolize this guy, mainly becomes a majority of those people will never contribute anything to this community past giving a fraction of a cent each time they watch some content farm. If they do ever make that transition, it’s basically SCP Wiki 101 that Bright is a pedophile.
I agree that giving staff sweeping power like this is a very poor choice. I think LordXVNV provides the best ruleset for something like this. Bright knew what he was doing and he knew he’d get away with it.
Enough is enough.
