(Spoiler Alert)
Here's more on the "death" of Vince McMahon:
The story actually made headlines on the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader website. Here's how it happened: According to the paper, the explosion actually was taped Saturday night/Sunday morning between 11 p.m and 3 a.m. in a sealed-off section near the Wachovia Center in Wilkes-Barre - all coordinated by a pyrotechnics company. Despite a claim on WWE's website that firefighters and federal agents were investigating, officials at the county 911 center said it was a "stunt", and no emergency vehicles were called to the arena on Monday night.
At 11 p.m. local time Monday, McMahon walked out of the arena past the wrestlers, and got into his limo. But to the viewers at home and the crowd watching on the big screen at the Wachovia Center, they saw the limo being blown up - a tape that was spliced together through the magic of editing. None of the wrestlers backstage didn't even know what was going to happen.
Meanwhile, local media outlets in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market fielded calls as far away as Kansas to ask about the condition of Vince McMahon. In fact, a story on it was featured on ABC affiliate WNEP-TV's newscast on Monday night. Turns out, he's all right.
This storyline is a part of a larger angle involving Mr. McMahon, in which he was becoming more and more insane by the week - a spiral all started at Wrestlemania 23 when he lost a bet to Donald Trump and got all his hair shaved off. (Good grief, is Ozzie Guillen now going to follow this same path now that the White Sox are tanking? Stay out of those limos, Ozzie.)
The Times-Leader will have more on the story later today.
- Here's some video on WNEP-TV's website on the "explosion". Click here and there is a video section on the front page. Click "Newswatch 16 at 6 a.m. - Tuesday" to see the video.
- On Wrestling Observer's website, there was some mainstream media attention - on Opie & Anthony and a local Boston radio show...
- A "Mr. McMahon Presumed Dead" headline splashed across WWE.com at 11:07p.m. Eastern Time - just minutes after the "explosion" took place. Never mind that Raw just began airing on the West Coast at the same time (8 p.m. Pacific.) Talk about your spoilers...
- Posters are talking about this on Jump The Shark and they've coined a new phrase: "Blew the Limo."
- Monday night's Raw was actually a tribute to Mr. McMahon as they billed it "Mr. McMahon Appreciation Night." Man, I can't wait for "Bill Wirtz Appreciation Night" at the United Center. I'll have the tomatoes ready....
- Aren't they laying this on a little thick? From WWE.com: "This incident is the first of its kind in the U.S. since the assassination of political figure Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. in 1976." Good Golly, Miss Molly....
updated 2007-06-13 at 12:42
No comments:
Post a Comment