Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Vince McMahon ‘Fines’ His Son-in-Law Triple H for WrestleMania Chair Shot

[posted 4/6/11 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]


World Wrestling Entertainment announced on its corporate website that the two wrestlers involved in the cranial chair-shot spot in Sunday’s WrestleMania were fined. The complete statement:

Superstars Fined for Chair Shot

Pursuant to WWE’s Concussion policy, the stunt of using a folded metal chair shot to the head is prohibited. Triple H and The Undertaker have both been fined for violating this policy at WrestleMania XXVII. WWE penalizes through fine and/or suspension for violation of this policy, which is unchanged and still in effect.


***

Triple H, who delivered the chair shot, is Paul Levesque, the husband of Vince and Linda McMahon’s daughter Stephanie.

The company’s statement is not credible. Spokesman Robert Zimmerman has not responded to my query on whether there were also consequences for another documented head chair shot incident, involving wrestlers Daniel Bryan and Sheamus at a March 25 show in Champaign, Illinois. WWE also offers no details on the fines to Levesque and the Undertaker (Mark Calloway). In the past, corporate press releases have gleefully played into storyline “angles.”

The website news updaters at the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and Pro Wrestling Torch know all this, and more. They should be ashamed of themselves for reporting this development with straight faces. (“Good move from WWE,” James Caldwell of the Torch summed up.)

Next here will be the four-year chronology of WWE’s public misstatements and lies on industrial brain injuries.


Irv Muchnick

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