BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
“Worst Case Scenario” is a new take on the concept of “fantasy booking”. For years professional wrestling fans would spend endless hours of thinking up the coolest things that could happen. Why waste the energy? This only leads to high expectations. “Worst Case Scenario” flips that. Instead of looking through rose colored glasses, let’s take a bi-weekly look at the worst possible scenarios in professional wrestling. I’m not going to be malicious or anything too mean, but I will not refrain from letting my brain come up with the worst possible shit I can. Sadly, it seems the writers and producers of mainstream TV wrestling and the mainstream iPPV level indies are doing the same thing but charging us for it. And now…
“Vince McMahon Retires!”
There have been talks about this for years. The idea of “what happens to WWE once Vince McMahon retires” has been tossed around for years. A lot of jaded fans tend to think Vince is “bad”, but without him we’d not have the wrestling as we know it. I’m interested in seeing what happens, but I’m also fearful for wrestling losing its “vision”. Like it or not, Vince has provided that “vision” much more than diehards give credit for. The actual opinion of Vince is subjective. The point here is to look at what will happen after Vince McMahon steps down from his position within the WWE.
Let’s look at the facts. Shane McMahon left the company to pursue other things. He could always come back and take his rightful throne, but as it stands now it’s Stephanie McMahon’s baby. This means once Vince does go off in the sunset SHE will have control. Translation, “Triple H”, the guy was once known as “Tera Ryzer”, will run the biggest professional wrestling company of all time. A longtime fan and student of the business will have control. A guy who paid his dues, knows and bleeds wrestling, and wants the best for the viewer will be in charge. What is the worst that can happen?
The Clique is what can happen!
In the 90’s, the WWF had its control ambushed by a group of wrestlers that got in Vince McMahon’s ear and good graces. They’d have the power to “make or break” a talent based on if they would agree to work with them. They’d bully their way into having all of the title reigns. They’d be responsible for a Canadian hero losing his “wrestling soul”. They’d leave one company and start a revolution in the other purely out of spite. The Clique ran a train on wrestling and we all gladly paid our hard earned money to view it.
I am a fan of the Clique. Shawn Michaels is my favorite wrestler of all time. He has been a very big part of why I am a fan of wrestling and unless he comes back and ruins his legacy with a lot of “old man matches” then I’ll always feel this way. In the same respect I’m always going to have love for Kevin Nash, one of the most outspoken and charismatic big guys of all time. The more tragic of the group have been Scott Hall and Sean Waltman. Hall’s appearance on that ESPN documentary was really depressing. Waltman seems, from the ‘shoot tapes’ I’ve seen, to be in a good state of mind and has potential to get out of this. I don’t even hate Triple H. I think he is overvalued in the history of WWE, but I do appreciate all he has done in wrestling and his passion for it.
That said, what happens? Well first “the office” gets taken care of. We’d see Kevin Nash take on an office role. Is this a horrible thing? Sure Nash has gotten his name out there by demeaning the smaller sized/more athletic/current breed of superstar, but he has an interesting perspective. Sean Waltman would be hired to run FCW. Would this be horrible? He is a great wrestler and has a great mind for psychology. He has wrestled with some of the best of all time. Why not, right? Then Scott Hall would gain some kind of role. He’d get cleaned up and find himself in a manager/GM on-air role. He was a charismatic and imposing persona and would strive in this kind of “supporting star” role. Then we have Shawn Michaels. I love this guy and since he was a life-long WWE guy he is praised as “best ever” pretty often. I don’t get tired of it because it’s true. But with Triple H in control it’s safe to assume he’d want to praise his buddy even more. Shawn Michaels’s legend would become almost “God-like”. I’d rather see that than the praise of Hogan or Austin.
So what’s the problem?
The WWE would not sign any new guys. These guys would latch on to those who they worked with during the twilight of their careers and shun anyone under 250 lbs. This means CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler, and others would be pushed down to the mid card or even out of the company in favor of the bigger guys and older guys. Sheamus will be the future. Don’t count on Dolph Ziggler getting any love. If he’s too small then he won’t be liked. If he shows potential to outshine a Waltman or a Michaels then he might not show up too. I don’t like to think that way, but if history proves anything it’s hard to think this wouldn’t go bad.
I hope I’m proved wrong…
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