McGuire’s Mondays: No. 200, the future, and the cancer that is Vince McMahon

By Colin McGuire, ProWrestling.net Staffer

The date was November 9, 2020. The second Full Gear had just happened over the weekend at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. On somewhat of a whim, I drove down there in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic to attend the show. Looking back now … what a wild time it was to be going to things. Seating was spread out. Wrestlers were playing to quarter- or half-filed venues. Masks. We all remember masks.

The result of the trip was the first-ever McGuire’s Mondays. And now this, according to my very accurate, scientifically backed spreadsheet, is the 200th-ever McGuire’s Mondays. 200 of these things. Two bills, as the kids say. Can you believe it? I can’t. A lot has happened in almost five years. Impact changed back into TNA. The pandemic ended. Vince McMahon got the boot. AEW went from the coolest kid on the block to … something else.

And so, to commemorate this being the 200th episode of McGuire’s Mondays, I thought I’d share 200 … er … wait. We can’t do that. Nobody reads this thing as it is! It would be an exercise in masochism for all of us if I tried to throw together a list of 200 anything. So, instead, here are a few things I learned over the span of 200 weekly pro wrestling columns so far:

IT’S BEEN AN IDEAL TIME TO BE A PRO WRESTLING FAN

We all know this, so there isn’t much reason for me to go on about it. Still, the truth is the truth, and in my lifetime, I can’t think of a more fruitful period in American mainstream pro wrestling. So many options (too many options, but that’s another story). So much talent getting so much spotlight. Hours (and hours … and hours) of content to digest each week. More opportunities for wrestlers. The list goes on and on. Starting a pro wrestling column in 2020, right as AEW was finding its footing and pro wrestling was becoming cool again turned out to be as serendipitous as anything I’ve done in my writing career. Who could have thunk there would be 199 more reasons to write this thing (mostly) each week after that fateful Monday in November 2020? I didn’t. Now, with that said …

PRO WRESTLING FANS HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE OBNOXIOUS

OK, that’s probably not fair. I take it back. Kind of. But I can’t help but think back to the mid-1980s, when I was a kid and I stumbled upon some WWF programming. I fell in love. Then I fell in love with WCW. Then ECW. We all know the story. And yet, I don’t recall back then being so obsessed with the way people win or lose matches, or work rate, or who’s deserving of what title, or defining aura a thousand times over, or talking down to someone else for liking something I don’t like. In the age of social media (which doubles as the age of My Opinion), it feels like nobody is really allowed to just like wrestling anymore. Everything is so overthought and second-guessed that we’ve collectively become a bratty fan base, one that thinks we know better than anyone actually doing it for a living. I’m as part of the problem as anyone or anything else – you can’t have a weekly column and not be – but man. Can’t we all just chill?

THE PRO WRESTLING BUSINESS IS BETTER WITHOUT VINCE MCMAHON IN IT

And you cannot tell me otherwise. From the assault allegations to the shitty workplace reputation to the egomaniacal personality, this whole world seems so much healthier without him around to spread his evil, one mustache at a time. The caveat to this will always be the strides he made for the pro wrestling business through the years (cough, even if he had to bully his way forward to accomplish what he did, cough), but at this point, we can put that professional success in a box somewhere else and look to the here and now to see that everyone, everywhere, seems far more comfortable than they ever were before now that he’s gone. I say this from a million miles away, of course, but this is the type of change that we, as fans and viewers, can feel from a million miles away. If we never see him again, it will be too soon.

IT’S EASIER THAN EVER TO CONSUME NON-AMERICAN PRO WRESTLING AND THAT’S GREAT

If the Internet screwed the pooch by allowing People With Opinions to be Loud People With Opinions, the flip side to that regression is the progression of access to genres within the genre. New Japan World has been a breath of fresh air for anyone who wants to keep up with New Japan. CMLL has a YouTube channel you can check out for nine bucks a month. There is (or was?) a AAA channel on Pluto TV. There’s The Wrestle Universe app, where you can access Noah or DDT and other non-American promotions. The list is long and fruitful. Gone are the days when you had to be on a mailing list or have an endless amount of video tapes ready to trade at any moment. In are the days where international wrestling can be enjoyed by anyone who wants to enjoy it.

THIS BUBBLE WON’T LAST FOREVER

If there’s anything to learn – and actually, there’s a lot to learn – from the evolution of AEW, it’s that despite the successes of the industry, we’d be kidding ourselves if we thought anything other than the notion that pro wrestling will forever walk on a tightrope, doing its best to stay the course and not fall off. A few questionable booking decisions here. A scandal or two there. An underwhelming return on a television deal here. An oversaturated market there. Pro wrestling is not too big to fail. The closest it’s come to that status would of course be WWE, if only because of its publicly traded status, but as we know very well, that company isn’t immune from putting out a bad product for long periods of time, either. AEW, meanwhile, has seen the ship go awry and can’t figure out how to right it, no matter how many pundits or podcast hosts seem to think they know the answers.

That, of course, begs this question: If AEW’s success wanes, what will ultimately happen to the pro wrestling business as a whole? Love or hate the company, nobody disagrees that it’s done wonders for the landscape of the business, giving competition to Big Bad WWE and offering a place to work for those who WWE either didn’t want or didn’t treat well. But if people start bailing on AEW, does that indicate a wider reflection of people bailing on pro wrestling in America as a whole? The answer to that question is above my pay grade, but it’s certainly something to consider as we watch things unfold for another 200 columns …

… give or take 199 or so.