Wednesday, October 8, 2014
October 8
"Sex, Lies, and Headlocks" by Shaun Assael and Mike Mooneyham give really interesting descriptions and anecdotes about Vince McMahon. One that I really enjoyed was in chapter 6. The writers talk about Vince being an excessive and obsessive weight lifter. They said that sometimes he would momentarily leave a match to go life dumbbells in a room. It was also noted that Vince hired an assistant to keep track of high protein diets and make sure Vince ate lots of Tuna. People would say to "Vince, you look better than your wrestlers!" First of all, I find this humorous that Vince took great pride in looking as built as his wrestlers. Maybe that was unveiling some insecurities about him. Vince was already becoming successful, he had lots of money, and most guys would have found those two things enough to be prideful of. However, Vince felt the need to look like the wrestlers he was promoting. This ties in to a point that was made in class. When women began to attend professional wrestling events, men didn't approve. They didn't like women idolizing and finding sexual attraction toward these guys with stupendous physiques. It put pressure on all other guys to look like them. It made guys feel insecure about themselves. It's the same principle as women feeling insecure after seeing people like Beyoncé, Jennifer Aniston, and Kim Kardashian posted everywhere. It's like a standard that people feel like they need to meet. I think that Vince felt this same way and used his obsessive exercising to cope with it.
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It's interesting to think about this. Vince as an announcer, to his credit, put the emphasis on making the wrestlers look the star rather than himself. But we see an increasing amount of Vince-ishness as he owns the company and as WWE rises, culminating in him eventually making himself the star of his show. Many would say that you see the "real" Vince come out by then...and, to his credit, he's a far better PERFORMER than many of the talents who work for him. But his obsession with bodybuilding can certainly be read through the lens of how he entered this space--how his father's world of WWWF took him away from the place he was in and how it seems he may have particularly found love and solace in the wrestling world...not necessarily just in his dad and step-mom. The idea that he wouldn't just want to promote these guys but be seen as more macho than they are says plenty and reflects a certain ethos that perhaps Tony can delve into for us. :)
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