The Wall Street Journal Vince McMahon Thread.

[(BP)]

I keep thinking about how much power he was able to exert over this woman, and how this wasn’t even someone whose lifelong goal was to work in wrestling, and specifically for WWE. It’s chilling to think about someone whose hopes and dreams were in Vince’s hands and what they may have been put through. 

[SirSmUgly]

40 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

If you're talking about the "celebrity doctor" -- all signs point to Dr. Phil. If true: Vince forced the woman he was sexually harassing into seeking mental health treatment with Dr. Phil. 

Wow, we're running the "profiled on Behind the Bastards" count in this thread up to two. Can we make it three? Did Vince push for a Saudi-style deal with Belarus and Alexander Lukashenko? Will Elon Musk somehow be ropes into this thing? I make these jokes because otherwise, I would cry.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Vince is getting all the headlines and rightly so but the story also confirms what we long suspected that Johnny Ace is one of the most useless and vile human beings walking the face of the earth as well.  Sheds some light on why Vince had him around for so long.  They are both disgusting freaks. 

[Cobra Commander]

Johnny Ace's reputation has changed over the years from "American working in Japan who is speculated to be fucking Mrs. Baba" to "using his power to be a deviant sex freak"

edit: it's possible you could make the "cycle of abuse" observation for both Vince and Johnny in different ways (Vince more personal, Johnny more a cycle of professional abuse), even if that's probably something people will sorta shrug off because it sounds too sympathetic to people doing awful things

Edited January 26 by Cobra Commander

[Technico Support]

11 minutes ago, supremebve said:

This.  The crazy thing about this is that it is obvious that this woman was more than willing to engage in sexual acts with Vince and his cronies, but that wasn't enough for them.  They were only interested in the kind of sex she wanted to have to make sure they pushed past that to have sex with her in ways she wouldn't consent.  The cherry on top is that he didn't even follow through on trying to pay her off.  Fuck Vince.  The arrogance, the lack of humanity, and the complete and total moral depravity are all breathtaking.

This right here.  Just everybody, stop and consider that Vince had this woman all twisted up and ready to have an affair with him.  And instead of that being "good enough," whatever the fuck that means, he still needed to push her far past her own boundaries, past consent, into some crazy shit that she didn't want to do, and would have done worse given the chance (considering the fantasy texts he was sending).  "Sociopath" doesn't even seem like a strong enough word.

Edited January 26 by Technico Support

[EVA]

Yeah, degrading this poor woman was clearly part of the thrill for them. Sickening stuff.

Edited January 26 by EVA

[supremebve]

9 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

This right here.  Just everybody, stop and consider that Vince had this woman all twisted up and ready to have an affair with him.  And instead of that being "good enough," whatever the fuck that means, he still needed to push her far past her own boundaries, past consent, into some crazy shit that she didn't want to do, and would have done worse given the chance (considering the fantasy texts he was sending).  "Sociopath" doesn't even seem like a strong enough word.

Yeah, my coworker came up to me at work and said, did you see the Vince thing?  I told him I had seen that another lawsuit was filed, but hadn't read any details and he looked at me and said, "he defecated on a woman's head."  And the only response I had was, "Why?" As if there could have been a reasonable explanation.  I just couldn't understand the context of that statement.

[Technico Support]

Are we positive Vince isn't on any of these Epstein guest lists?  Because that feels very on-brand for him.

[zendragon]

5 hours ago, JLSigman said:

There's also the fact they leaked to someone (see tweet)

 

Who is Brad Shepard? 
 

Just when you think we’ve hit rock bottom on Vince the trap door opens

[Log]

3 hours ago, jaedmc said:

I feel you. We're planning a party with the kids to watch it. I'm making pizzas and we're all drawing numbers. I'm trying to remember that Vince doesn't own the company any more, and it looks like some of the worst offenders are either out or being ousted.  Many of the people who work there are clearly much happier now that he's gone.

Sadly I think the biggest life skill WWE has taught me is how to compartmentalize.

I respect that, but that’s hard for me to do with Vince/WWE. That company is such an extension of him. He may not own it now or be totally in charge like he used to be or whatever, but it’s his vision. 

[Cobra Commander]

18 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Are we positive Vince isn't on any of these Epstein guest lists?  Because that feels very on-brand for him.

If Epstein Island didn't have a suitable home gym, I suspect Vince wouldn't have went

I do remember the story about Vince not wanting to deal with bigwigs at fundraisers for his wife's campaign and I could imagine Vince being totally utterly bored by the concept of hanging out with elite society and preferring to work on ordering a rewrite of Raw for the 5th time in a weekend instead

[zendragon]

50 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

Johnny Ace's reputation has changed over the years from "American working in Japan who is speculated to be fucking Mrs. Baba" to "using his power to be a deviant sex freak"

edit: it's possible you could make the "cycle of abuse" observation for both Vince and Johnny in different ways (Vince more personal, Johnny more a cycle of professional abuse), even if that's probably something people will sorta shrug off because it sounds too sympathetic to people doing awful things

Going back to the previous disclosures I’ve thought about cycle of abuse and that playboy interview about his mother

 

11 minutes ago, Log said:

I respect that, but that’s hard for me to do with Vince/WWE. That company is such an extension of him. He may not own it now or be totally in charge like he used to be or whatever, but it’s his vision. 

one thing that’s tough is like maybe you have fond memories of Micheal Jackson being played at a school dance and now that’s tainted , a lot of use have memories of being 13 and watching Hogan and Piper or Hogan and Savage or Bret and HBK or Austin and Rock and now that’s part of this 

[Casey]

22 minutes ago, zendragon said:

Who is Brad Shepard? 
 

Just when you think we’ve hit rock bottom on Vince the trap door opens

Pretty sure that’s Ringside News, isn’t it? The same person who went on a drunken transphobic rant about Nyla Rose.

[The Natural]

Horrific read. The abuse, the humiliation of Janel Grant. Fuck Vince McMahon, Johnny Ace and Brock Lesnar.

Edited January 26 by The Natural

[Cobra Commander]

I typed a little bit about this yesterday in the WWE Network thread while watching January 1994 Raw but there's a few parallels between Vince McMahon and Bill Clinton, at least for the parts before Vince met his father. Along with similarities in adult life. But i'm guessing Vince didn't vote for Clinton either time and probably was envious

It's less wholesome than my theory that Vince likes MLK because he thinks the people who were awful to him as a kid are the same type of rednecks that hated MLK.

I could also see some Vince stuff sorta moving in cycles where he's really awful but not the same amount of awful all the time. Like how BTK stopped killing people for years at a time.

[zendragon]

Vince is the ultimate “gets religion around the holidays “ guy

[Andrew POE!]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

You mean the fans who chanted "thank you Vince" and bowed to him the first time this happened?

Yeah, fair enough. I'm not sure there's really anything that would sway the current WWE fans to vocalize their displeasure at people like Brock Lesnar. The ones that would have mostly moved to AEW, which were promptly squandered by AEW.

[Cobra Commander]

2 minutes ago, zendragon said:

Vince is the ultimate “gets religion around the holidays “ guy

I wouldn't accuse Vince of being a cafeteria catholic because he might have some weird beliefs about cafeteria food

[Technico Support]

23 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

It's less wholesome than my theory that Vince likes MLK because he thinks the people who were awful to him as a kid are the same type of rednecks that hated MLK.

 

Cynical me, I always figured Vince idolized MLK because "HE'S A SHOWMAN PAL!"  Or maybe a sociopath like Vince would characterize MLK's leadership as "control" over his base and find that admirable.  But reading the horrific racist content of some of these texts, social justice and the plight of African Americans was absolutely not the reason for Vince's reported admiration for MLK.

Edited January 26 by Technico Support

[Infinit]

1 hour ago, zendragon said:

Who is Brad Shepard? 
 

Just when you think we’ve hit rock bottom on Vince the trap door opens

 

[Cobra Commander]

I'm still not ready to rule out the possibility that Vince is a racist who also hates southern whites more than black people. In the spirit of northerners who suddenly become a lot more sour on MLK after he started criticizing Northern Segregation.

[piranesi]

Shut this fucking company down and god damn anyone who remains working for it now.

I would take any fucking 8 hour shift job in retail rather than bend the knee to this sickness for any salary and at this point I don't feel "privileged" for saying fuck anyone who does.

There are lines that are crossed where people go from human to inhuman. And that line includes anyone who continues to push buttons for pay for someone or something like this company.

I'm at the end of the argument that "hey I need the  money" If you are paid to overlook or help save this company, you are crossing that line. Everything about this whole goddamn industry has been suddenly erased from my mind and my past. All of it is dead. We should all let it die.

[Cobra Commander]

some of the stuff that the WWF was facing boycott calls for in the late 90s seems quaint compared to this

[SirSmUgly]

I just assume that the MLK Jr. thing is Vince being a racist sociopath, but knowing that he has to mask said racism and sociopathy and doing so in the most ham-handed way possible. 

As he got older and wasn't able to mask as efficiently, he got more open about exactly who he was on his TV shows. 

[piranesi]

They finally found a way to get me to cancel Netflix.