In a recent episode of Arn Anderson’s podcast, ARN, the WWE Hall of Famer shared his thoughts on Vince McMahon’s legacy on the wrestling business:
“Well, it depends on what seat you’re looking at. Are you looking at it from a fan’s seat or a wrestler’s seat, you know? It just depends on your view. Did he revolutionize the business, as far as expanding it to having children and females and hoards of them as fans? You know, all the marketing, all the marketing genius that he is, yes. Did he take the one product that those of us as wrestlers put above everything else, the holy grail, the reason we all want to do this as children, is the wrestling part, the bell-to-bell action, he has put on a back burner as being one of the least important things. And for a guy like me, once I got in the business, as much as I loved it and figured out I made the right choice, my goal was not to be the World Heavyweight Champion. My goal was not to be the highest paid guy in the business, but I did want to be is I wanted to be one of the best workers in the business, a guy that could go out there with anybody on any given night and at least keep you interested for the duration of that match and make it make sense and be a guy that every other guy on the other side of the fence wanted to work with because I was safe, I was good at what I did and we could go out and do what we intend to do. And that’s have fun, and that’s the part that’s missing.”
“You can’t send a guy through the curtain on RAW with three minutes and expect him to go sell, tell a story, get the product over, get himself over and accomplish all those things in three minutes . It can’t be done, and then turn around and blame the producer or blame the talent because it’s an impossibility. He just doesn’t put any value, and he’s just now, from what I’m hearing, I don’t watch the product anymore, but isn’t he allowing them to use the word wrestlers and wrestling? Five years ago, you’d have gotten canned if you did that more than once, so just remember this, for pro wrestling fans, and don’t be ashamed to say you’re a pro wrestling fan, I sure am not ashamed to say it, but it’s not sports entertainment, this is not Saturday Night Live, it’s a wrestling show. Let the guys and the girls do what they do best, go perform and give them time to do it.”
The full clip is available here:
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