Maybe ‘Stand Up for WWE’ Campaign Isn’t About Linda McMahon’s Senate Race

Vince McMahon’s “Stand Up for WWE” campaign is all over the World Wrestling Entertainment website, and tonight McMahon will reinforce today’s press releases in his appearance on WWE’s flagship USA cable show, Raw.

But you might notice that this corporate PR initiative, basically announced as an adjunct of the Linda McMahon for Senate campaign, is nowhere to be found — certainly not prominently — at linda2010.com. So far as I know, campaign spokesman Ed Patru and today’s regular campaign statements and releases have not referenced it.

I therefore think one of two things is going on here. Or maybe both.

Authoritative sources tell me that about ten days ago Vince and Linda looked at the newest poll numbers, which were turning south, and knew they’d lost their $50  million Senate gamble. But worse than losing was the byproduct of losing: increased scrutiny of WWE’s business practices, including one new state investigation of company independent contractor classifications, plus renewed calls for investigations of wrestlers’ occupational health and safety, which had been abruptly dropped early in 2009.

That led to “Stand Up for WWE.” Either:

1. The professional Linda McMahon campaign staff has been elbowed aside by WWE corporate PR in a last-ditch effort to choke off Richard Blumenthal’s lead over Linda. (If so, the effort will fail. The lead is insurmountable and the campaign to rally the least intelligent population of wrestling fans will be a national laughingstock.)

Or

2. WWE is setting itself up to ward off post-election investigations. If Linda can’t win her Senate seat, at least Vince can make the whole environment seem so silly that legislators and others will again shy away from following through on their 2007 work and let pro wrestling go back underneath the radar.

Irv Muchnick

Muchnick Flashback: Some Grist for Linda McMahon’s Husband’s ‘Stand Up for WWE’ Campaign

Vince McMahon wants the “WWE Universe” to “Stand Up for WWE” in the face of “negative and inaccurate attacks” on the company during the Senate campaign of his wife Linda.

Vince McMahon is urging fans to post examples at wwe.com and on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

To help Vince get the ball rolling, I thought I’d republish below my August 26 post here, “Outrageous Death of Linda McMahon’s WWE Wrestler Lance Cade: A Resource Guide.”

Perhaps my August 18 post, “FAIR GAME — Linda McMahon Answers the Question of Systematic Death for Entertainment Industry Profits With … Another Question” is an example of what Vince and his troops would consider negative and inaccurate.

Or maybe my August 19 post, “Concussion Activist Chris Nowinski Speaks Out on Linda McMahon.”

Or how about the one from later the same day, “Late Lance Cade: ‘Addict’ (Linda McMahon’s Dismissal) Or Brain Trauma Victim (Plenty of Circumstantial Evidence)?”?

Then there’s “Keith Harris of Cageside Seats With More on Lance Cade.” Keith Harris is a pro wrestling fan. Is he a card-carrying member of WWE Universe?

And please don’t overlook:

* “Mike Benoit (Chris Benoit’s Father) on Lance Cade’s Death,” August 20

* “EXCLUSIVE: Chair Used to Batter the Late Wrestler Lance Cade Was Autographed by Shawn Michaels and Auctioned by WWE for $315,” August 23

* “Linda McMahon’s Husband Lied to CNN in 2007 About Eliminating Chair Shots to the Head,” August 24

* “Did Linda McMahon’s Daughter Commit Perjury in Her Congressional Testimony?”, August 24

* “Remember — Lance Cade Is the 4th Untimely Ex-WWE Wrestler’s Death During Linda McMahon’s Senate Campaign,” August 25

* “Video of the Sick Head Chair Shot on the Late WWE Wrestler Chris Kanyon,” August 25

* “Linda McMahon Lied, Dead Wrestler Lance Cade’s Father Tells Connecticut Newspaper,” August 26

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Outrageous Death of Linda McMahon’s WWE Wrestler Lance Cade: A Resource Guide

Published August 26, 2010 Uncategorized Leave a Comment Edit

AUGUST 18

FAIR GAME — Linda McMahon Answers the Question of Systematic Death for Entertainment Industry Profits With … Another Question

https://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/fair-game-linda-mcmahon-answers-the-question-of-systematic-death-for-entertainment-industry-profits-with-another-question/

AUGUST 19

Concussion Activist Chris Nowinski Speaks Out on Linda McMahon

https://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/concussion-activist-chris-nowinski-speaks-out-on-linda-mcmahon/

***

Late Lance Cade: ‘Addict’ (Linda McMahon’s Dismissal) Or Untreated Brain Trauma Victim (Plenty of Circumstantial Evidence)?

https://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/late-lance-cade-%E2%80%98addict%E2%80%99-linda-mcmahon%E2%80%99s-dismissal-or-untreated-brain-trauma-victim-plenty-of-circumstantial-evidence/

***

Keith Harris of Cageside Seats With More on Lance Cade

https://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/keith-harris-of-cageside-seats-with-more-on-lance-cade/

AUGUST 20

Mike Benoit (Chris Benoit’s Father) on Lance Cade’s Death

https://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/mike-benoit-chris-benoits-father-on-lance-cades-death/

AUGUST 23

EXCLUSIVE: Chair Used to Batter the Late Wrestler Lance Cade Was Autographed by Shawn Michaels and Auctioned by WWE for $315

https://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/exclusive-chair-used-to-batter-the-late-wrestler-lance-cade-was-autographed-by-shawn-michaels-and-auctioned-by-wwe-for-315/

AUGUST 24

Linda McMahon’s Husband Lied to CNN in 2007 About WWE’s Elimination of Chair Shots to the Head

https://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/linda-mcmahon%E2%80%99s-husband-lied-to-cnn-in-2007-about-wwe%E2%80%99s-elimination-of-chair-shots-to-the-head/

***

Did Linda McMahon’s Daughter Commit Perjury in Her Congressional Testimony?

https://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/did-linda-mcmahons-daughter-commit-perjury-in-her-congressional-testimony/

AUGUST 25

Remember – Lance Cade Is the 4th Untimely Ex-WWE Wrestler Death During Linda McMahon’s Senate Campaign

https://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/remember-%E2%80%93-lance-cade-is-the-4th-untimely-ex-wwe-wrestler-death-during-linda-mcmahon%E2%80%99s-senate-campaign/

***

Video of the Sick Head Chair Shot on the Late WWE Wrestler Chris Kanyon

https://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/video-of-the-sick-head-chair-shot-on-the-late-wwe-wrestler-chris-kanyon/

AUGUST 26

Linda McMahon Lied, Dead Wrestler Lance Cade’s Father Tells Connecticut Newspaper

https://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/linda-mcmahon-lied-dead-wrestler-lance-cades-father-tells-connecticut-newspaper/

Irv Muchnick

Vince McMahon’s ‘Stand Up for WWE’ Expands Corporation’s Non-Hostile Takeover of Linda McMahon’s Senate Campaign

World Wrestling Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon, who last week directly injected the company into his wife Linda’s Senate campaign in Connecticut, today announced a full-scale initiative he calls “Stand Up for WWE.” This campaign within the campaign, to be carried out online on social networks, attempts to engage WWE fans (known as “WWE Universe”) against unspecified negative and inaccurate attacks on the company during the Senate race.

Vince McMahon’s video announcement of “Stand Up for WWE” is at http://www.wwe.com/inside/standupforwwe/.

James Caldwell of Pro Wrestling Torch comments at http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_44601.shtml:

It took a little while during Linda’s campaign for WWE to dust off the propaganda machine, but now it’s in full force. In the video, McMahon comes across like a dictator trying to rally support for his constituents in the face of mounting concern and criticism for his regime. During the message, McMahon did not address the so-called “attacks” against WWE or identify exactly what he was responding to. Quite frankly, to use a McMahonism, there is no defense against two decades of a mounting body count in pro wrestling, the “independent contractor” classification of WWE wrestlers, the lack of an off-season in WWE, and on and on it goes.

Irv Muchnick

Connecticut Has Dodged a Bullet. Now, Can We Defeat ‘Linda McMahonism’? … today at Beyond Chron

World Wrestling Entertainment, the company of the Republican Senate candidate in Connecticut, Linda McMahon, and her monomaniacal husband Vince, has been known to use ex-FBI agents and Fairfax Group goons in its “risk mitigation” department. So all bets are off if, between the publication of this piece and Election Day, they come up with video of Linda’s Democratic opponent – state attorney general Richard Blumenthal – humping Eliot Spitzer’s call girl.

Short of that, one of Campaign 2010’s wackiest races is over – and President Obama can exhale again, confident that his party at least will retain a majority in the Senate on November 2.

 

CONTINUED ON THE FRONT PAGE TODAY

AT BEYOND CHRON, THE SAN FRANCISCO ONLINE NEWSPAPER:

http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Connecticut_Has_Dodged_a_Bullet_Now_Can_We_Defeat_Linda_McMahonism__8598.html