LogFAQs > #877117310

Zeus posted...

You say that, but Jim Cornette once infamously shot that VKM reprimanded him and made him apologize for insulting Kevin Dunn's bucky beaver teeth. Dunn allegedly cried at one point, which doesn't sound like a "tolerate no weakness" environment.

Yeah, but there's three problems there.

One, Kevin Dunn has basically been a family friend and extremely close to Vince for decades, which means that situation wasn't Vince taking a stand against bullying as much as it was him essentially throwing his own dominance around to stick up for someone he was personally close to. From everything we've ever heard about him, if it had been a random stranger or just some low-level mook Vince probably wouldn't have stuck up for him at all, if not outright joined in on the mocking. Dunn is pretty much bulletproof in WWE terms, and why he's got about as much pull with Vince as Triple H does.

Two, Cornette has a history of rubbing pretty much everyone the wrong way, and he definitely represented the sort of "Southern Wrasslin" Vince has always absolutely loathed. Cornette was always walking on eggshells in the WWE, and because of it, he usually got cut zero slack for stuff he did compared to others (see also Cornette getting fired for slapping Santino Marella while they went out of their way to protect Bill DeMott for years).

And three, Cornette's also talked about just how much of a bully mentality Vince has on multiple occasions. About the only reason Cornette has never really gone off on it more than he has is because he's definitely coming from that old-school mentality where "the boys" handle their own business and don't talk about it publicly, so he doesn't necessarily see anything WRONG with being a bully. It's part of why he's actually kind of taken JBL's side in the whole current mess - and part of why he slapped Santino Marella in the first place.



Zeus posted...

Doubly so in the case of Muhammad Hassan who management liked and was trying to push, but he had pissed off the boys because he wasn't smart to the business. Granted, the kiss of death for Hassan -- who was an incredible heel -- was the whole terrorist motifs he used at times, which unfortunately lined up with a terrorist attack.

Yeah, but that's the thing. Hassan didn't even remotely get fired due to backstage stuff, he was essentially sacrificed to protect the company from backlash from UPN, who basically told the WWE flat-out that they didn't want him on SmackDown (with the implication being that, if they didn't get their way, SmackDown was going to cease being on UPN).

There are plenty of guys who get shit from "the boys" for not respecting the business, but who still get pushed to the moon. Brock's a pretty prime example of someone who stepped on pretty much everyone's toes yet never really suffered for it at all. In Vince's world, if you have the right look and can draw, he doesn't really give much of a shit whether or not you're making waves backstage (as long as you're good at following HIS orders).

It's the same reason why, when stuff like Jericho and Sin Cara getting into a fist-fight happens, Vince tends to either ignore it entirely, or side with whoever won the fight (because he respects strength) - unless the loser is a much bigger draw (because he respects money more).

He tolerates "wrestlers' court" and similar things because it benefits him, and because it reflects his own worldview. He doesn't allow it to happen because he's somehow letting "the boys" handle their own business out of respect, or because he honors the tradition of it - if it had been detrimental to him or his interests at any point, he would have shut it down in a heartbeat.


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