[1999] Wrestling Expose on Dateline

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

NBC takes a look at the WWF being marketed to children. Vince claims there is nothing they would not do "in good tastes" (his quotes) to get an audience. Interesting how shots of Hogan and Savage are interspersed with guys Vince is credit for creating. The Dateline host is awfully condescending, but he does ask if the WWF is too trashy. Vince says what the President did in the Oval Office is more trashy than anything the WWF has ever done and we learn that Vince grew up with ADD and dyslexia. They recap his history taking over the WWWF from his dad.

 

The second half of the special focuses on WCW, calling it "a sanitized version of the WWF. Bischoff and Bret Hart are interviewed, and Bret claims Vince wanted to portray him as a racist. There are too many gems here to capture them all. This is a fascinating look at Vince.

[tim]

I really enjoy Vince just not giving a fuck here. The "what about the children" moral panic here actually makes Vince look sympathetic and Vince's deflection to Bill Clinton is so cheap that it's great. This whole thing also makes WCW look so distinctly #2.

[Tim Evans]

This is tabloid journalism at it's best. Vince couldn't make WCW look more minor league if he tried. I'm surprised Bret didn't mention him hating Japanese angle from 95.

[soup23]

Vince might have well be stroking his penis during this whole segment because he is at his pompous best here. The interviewer was brutally bad with his "tough takes" and trying too hard. Bischoff seems really phony and bush league. Vince's president line is the icing on the cake.

[Zenjo]

Vince vs the Dateline host is man against boy. McMahon had been dealing with scumbags all his career. Plus he has a total absence of remorse or sense of shame. The Bill Clinton reference was gloriously crass. Bischoff sounds ridiculous here, even if you didn't know anything about him. Most people in Vince's position would've balked in the face of such an obvious attempted hatchet job. He's able to turn it into a pure promotional piece whilst stroking his ego the whole time.

[PeteF3]

Stephanie makes her Yearbook debut! (Unless she showed up in some merchandise ad somewhere else).

 

Vince's claim that "60% of his audience is over 21" is a howler. So, in other words, 40% of his audience isn't. This does a good job at first, then goes off the rails when it tries to portray Bret's anti-American heel turn as some horrific scandal on the level of the Sgt. Slaughter Iraqi angle.