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For Historians, that line comes from Plutarch, commenting on the ambitions of Alexander the Great and his obsession with wanting to rule over everything that he possibly could. For moviegoers, many might recognize this from one of the greatest villains on the silver screen: Hans Gruber from “Die Hardâ€. But look more closely at that quote…Could “Alexander†be replaced with “Vince McMahonâ€? Yes, it could. Let me elaborate.
In March of 2001, WCW tanks and Vince McMahon bought up his fiercest competition. Shortly thereafter, ECW goes out of business, and Vince McMahon buys that company as well. What was interesting to note was that often times we talk about the buyrates for Wrestlemania. No one in their right mind is expecting the buy rates to surpass 1,000,000 this time around (Many even doubt it going over the 900,000 buyrate mark). But what was interesting about Wrestlemania X-7, which is arguably the greatest Wrestlemania of all-time and my personal favorite, is that the storylines were hot and every match on the card was well built, and WITHOUT any Donald Trump, Floyd Mayweather, or any celebrity, buyrates exceeded 1,000,000, and that was a testament to just how hot the WWE was.
But the day after, or arguably during the last five minutes of the Austin-Rock Wrestlemania X-7 classic, things soon changed. Vince McMahon had no more worlds left to conquer, and the storylines had taken a turn for the worse. The attitude era’s greatest storyline writer had left, and as Kevin Kelly had noted when interviewed about Wrestlemania X-7, he knew things are going to change for the worse the next night. Unlike the quote mentioned above though, Vince McMahon wasn’t the one that was upset as a result of his domination of the pro wrestling industry: it was the fans that were because given the quality of the future storylines to this present day, WWE has not been able to capture that old fan base.
The lack of competition has lead the WWE to put itself in cruise control. Sure, the company has had some great feuds and classic matches since then (see Angle-Lesnar, Undertaker-Batista, and Jericho-Michaels for more information), but is there anything that has truly stuck out over the past eight years that has captured the imagination and interest of fans? No. No, there hasn’t been.
Vince McMahon and the WWE (then F) conquered their competition. TNA has hit its highest ratings in the 1.3 to 1.35 range, but they are still lagging far behind, as much like the WWE, they are having major problems elevating new talent and coming up with fresh, simplistic storylines that are easy to follow and enjoy. WWE has focused more time in promoting this “12 Rounds†movie than they have in their own Superbowl, but who can blame them given the stagnate matches and under whelming build that the show’s storylines have.
There are two ways that one can look at the conquering of WCW and ECW: One can look at it as one of the biggest days in WWE History, when after years of struggling ratings, they finally came out on top. Or one can look at it like I do: the day that the WWE gave up on its fans, stopped elevating new talent, and put the storyline department on cruise control, praying that some breakthrough would happen naturally. While they’re praying for that, I’m going to pray that they get their heads out between their two back pockets and start putting more effort into expanding their fan base, creating new talent, and start making the storylines simpler and more intense.
