On the 11th June 2007, Vince McMahon, the Chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE as it is more commonly known, faked his own death in a Limousine Explosion. He involved the FBI, local authorities and the everyday person – but has he gone too far?

The Limousine Explosion that "killed" Vince McMahon

Like it or loathe it the WWE has provided entertainment to the world for a number of years now – from the early greats like Lou Thesz through to modern icons such as Triple H.

It was probably in the 1980’s when wrestling began to really take off and be accessible around the world thanks to satellite television. This was the era of Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Andre the Giant and many more greats – these were the days where ‘Wrestling’ meant exactly that. Crowds would pay their hard-earned money to watch finely tuned athletes beat the hell out of each other for 2 hours and leave knowing it was worth it.

Hulk Hogan - A Wrestling Icon

However, as time progressed so did the shape of wrestling. In my opinion it was the launch of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 1992 (the brand had previously fought under the banner Eastern Championship Wrestling). This new way of thinking set the launch-pad for the modern “attitude” era we are now seeing. Long gone were the traditional wrestling bouts, these had made way for table matches, ladder matches, cage matches, barbed-wire matches – the aim being to beat the hell out of your opponent and let him beat the hell out of you. Although ECW never really threatened the position of WWE and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) it gave them something to think about – they had to change their format.

Vince McMahon picked up on this and it resulted in factions such as The Corporation, The Ministry of Darkness and, perhaps more importantly, D-Generation X – factions who would do whatever they could get away with. As time progressed there were a number of storylines that were far from wrestling orientated. We had Stone Cold in a hit and run, Triple H dropped 40ft in a car and Kane set on fire – all of them situations that could arise in real-life, but all handled as well as WWE could and none of them have shocked me.

DX : Part of the “Attitude” Era

I have watched WWE on and off for the best part of 18 years now and during that time I have seen a number of greats pass away - Owen Hart, Mr. Perfect, Bam Bam Bigelow, Crash Holly, British Bulldog, Andre the Giant, Yokozuna, Texas Tornado and most recently Eddie Guerrero. Now when a wrestler passes away, especially one who was still with the company at the time, it is traditional for a 10-bell salute, followed by tributes from friends and colleagues. This was evident in the recent passing of Eddie Guerrero – the tributes were real and the emotion clear for all to see. So why, when Vince decided to fake his own death, did he demand the same tributes? You could say the storyline would not have been believable without it – true, but how do you think the wrestlers felt? This stunt has put a lot of people off WWE and has landed the corporation in trouble with the FBI, for their handling of the storyline.

Vince McMahon – Chairman of WWE

Vince McMahon is alive and well, his character on TV... well I guess he is deceased. A well orchestrated storyline, up to the point the car exploded – from then on an insult to the many wrestlers who have died fighting for the cause.