Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Death Once Again Becomes the Linda McMahon Campaign

[posted 8/29/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]


There are so many awful things about the way we do elections in this country, but there is at least one good one: the length of campaigns makes it very hard to hide.

On Friday yet another wrestler, “Luna” Vachon, died in Florida at the age of 48.

I have strong and specific suspicions about the relationship of World Wrestling Entertainment occupational health and safety standards with the other untimely deaths of Linda McMahon’s performers during the course of her U.S. Senate campaign in Connecticut. (Gertrude Vachon is No. 3, 4, or 5 – choose your methodology.) I have only very weak ones when it comes to Luna. So I decided to wait 48 hours on reporting the death and see if the quick succession of Lance Cade and Vachon, along with the sheer overall statistics, would promote critical mass in campaign coverage.

The answer to that question is yes. See “Another ex-WWE star found dead; autopsy scheduled,” Neil Vigdor, Connecticut Post, http://www.ctpost.com/default/article/Another-ex-WWE-star-found-dead-autopsy-scheduled-635150.php.

Though very sorry for Luna Vachon’s family and friends and fans, I do not burn with visceral rage at this one.

I simply observe that for Linda McMahon, it’s a well-earned rough justice.

Moving forward, I don’t think the most important thing to watch is whether McMahon will overcome these black eyes to her image and win the Senate election over Richard Blumenthal. What I really want to know is whether the next Congress, with or without McMahon, will do its job and resume the investigation of the pro wrestling industry that was started in 2007, but not taken to the finish line.


Irv Muchnick

No comments: