by Tom the Actuary

The unbeatable business giant of today is tomorrow's dead corporation.

Woolworth's dominated America, long ago, even being listed as a part of the Dow-Jones Industrial average at one time. Now, it's gone. On a lesser scale, Howard Johnson's was one of the largest restaurant and then hotel chains in the country. It barely exists any more. Recently, the almost century-and-a-half-old chain of Montgomery Ward, which was a vital part of settling much of the United States, bit the dust. I watched the days count down on my local Montgomery Ward store until the doors shut - forever. It's empty now.

Brand-name products have had better luck than the companies themselves. The man who invented the Slim Jim (the snack food, not the auto theft device) sold the rights to General Foods or some other food conglomerate for something like $20M dollars years ago. The brand lives on, even if it has changed a lot. If you go to the grocery store, someone else now owns the rights to make more than half of the brand name products than did 25 years ago. That "someone else" bought the rights to make the products because they thought the products could make them money.

Which brings us to WCW. Which has happened to them? Are they gone for good? Or has the WWF bought them because they think they can make money with them?

The kayfabe line has become blurred beyond the wildest recognition with WWFE's purchase of World Championship Wrestling. Doesn't Vince McMahon really hate Ted Turner and everything he's ever done? Wouldn't he love to shut down WCW just to put the final nail in his most hated rival's coffin? Is he even play-acting when he talks with such venom about firing everyone at WCW? Is it a work? Is it a shoot?

It's neither: its just Vince being Vince.

Let me illustrate exactly what "being Vince" is by means of a digression. If you've ever had an argument with someone you are close to, you know that people deliberately say things (when they are angry) they don't necessarily believe just get reactions out of the people they are angry at. We all know that, when someone knows us really well, they can say that exact thing that will push our buttons, that one phrase or set of words that only they know that will send us exactly where they want to send us - to anger, or guilt, or sorrow - whatever.

That's what Vince is about in the end: pushing people's buttons.

The major difference between the WWF and most other entertainment forms is that the person making the final creative decisions has the "bottom-line" at heart. Moviemakers, TV show producers, play producers, and recording artists mostly have some vision of "Truth" or a message they want to get across. Some may only aim to entertain, but they offer their products, watch, and wait, in the hope that the public will like them.

Vince doesn't offer and hope. He goes in for proactive manipulation. Every new character, every real world event, every bit of kayfabe that has been stripped away from the business, has been for him material to use in the manipulation game. To hell with whatever personal feelings he had about WCW as competitors. They're his now, so their grist for the mill.

His wife, his kids, his business dealings, every detail of every person's who has ever worked for the WWF's personal life, it's all fair game, because, he is Vince McMahon, dammit, and he has a job to do on each an every viewer of his every single time they watch a show of his.

If you've ever read the interviews Vince has done over the years on why he went national in the first place, you'll see him say that he felt like his father really knew what it was people wanted, and that his dad had the formula that Vince (the son) knew would be successful. Vince is still convinced that he knows what it is people want, and the minor setbacks he has had in his out-of-wrestling ventures have not swayed him from the view.

So what's he going to do with WCW?

In the short run, or in the end, he will do whatever will get the reaction out of you and I that he wants. For now, it appears that he wants to continue to run WCW as a separate promotion, but how all that pans out remains very much to be seen.

The lights have not yet been turned off on WCW like they were on Montgomery Ward. The master of emotional sculpting has just been handed a giant new bag of tools. You know he's going to use them. And from today's dead corporation can come an unbeatable business giant.