WWE/TNA Top 10 of 2010, No. 1: What Was The Biggest Pro Wrestling Story of 2010?
What better way to say goodbye to the year 2010 than to count down the 10 biggest stories of the year in professional wrestling?
This 10-part series is designed to do exactly that, and each installment will be dedicated to the stories that fueled the very Internet fodder that makes the dirt-sheet media world go round.
No. 1. Former WWE CEO Linda McMahon Runs for Senate
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"I'm Linda McMahon, and I approve of this message."
Linda McMahon's unlikely venture into politics was one of the more noteworthy political stories to have developed over the past few years. For strategic purposes, the McMahon campaign preferred to consider her run for Connecticut Senate just that—political.
What ensued would culminate in the biggest wrestling story of 2010.
Despite the best-laid efforts by Linda McMahon and her campaign to downplay the very WWE career that made her enough money to self-fund a $50 million campaign, McMahon's questionable past while at the helm of the billion-dollar WWE empire would become just as much of a story as her Senate run itself.
McMahon's strategy in her rookie political campaign was simple. Create awareness through the power of the almighty dollar.
Spending millions upon millions on an onslaught of television ads designed to appeal to a variety of demographics, Linda McMahon came out of the gate swinging as the election year of 2010 reached its critical stages.
McMahon's strategy worked, as evidenced by a major victory in the Republican primaries over foe Rob Simmons. By September 2010, just a few months away from the midterm elections, accredited polls showed that the gap between Linda McMahon and heavily favored Democratic candidate Richard Blumenthal had significantly closed, with McMahon gaining serious momentum.
But it was McMahon's past that would prove to be the difference in a race that was perhaps much closer than it it should have been.
McMahon quickly developed a reputation for being frustratingly coy when answering questions about her controversial tenure as CEO with WWE.
McMahon was able to keep the skeletons hidden away in her closet long enough to fend off inquisitive opponent Rob Simmons during the Republican primaries, however, McMahon's shady history with WWE took on a life of its own as the home stretch of her Senate campaign drew closer.
Failing to provide adequate answers to questions about alarming pro wrestling statistics regarding wrestler mortality, WWE's ambiguous health and wellness policy and the classification of wrestlers as independent contractors despite the exclusivity of the contracts they sign, McMahon's elusiveness only raised red flags about her candidacy for Senate.
With McMahon's attempts to put her past behind her beginning to backfire, all of her issues would be brought to the forefront with the death of Lance Cade less than two months from the midterm elections.
As fitting as it was tragic, Lance Cade's death accentuated many of the problems from Linda McMahon's past that would lead to her undoing.
Cade's death was just another sad example of a young wrestler, with a history of substance abuse, dying after being subject to the hectic working conditions of a WWE schedule.
With unanswered questions fresh in the minds of Connecticut voters, McMahon was as vulnerable as she had been throughout her entire campaign.
Enter WWE.
In a final, desperate plea for votes that bordered on lunacy, Vince McMahon launched a campaign of his own to thwart mounting questions aimed at WWE.
Described as a campaign to counter the 'holier than thou elitists' who dare question WWE's programming and business practices, WWE looked to brainwash its fans through propagated interviews with its top talents about how great of a company WWE was.
But the lunacy didn't stop there.
Just days before election day, WWE announced they would be handing out free WWE merchandise at designated polling locations in Connecticut.
WWE's quasi-indirect attempt at garnering last minute votes for Linda McMahon was later foiled by the Dept. of Justice, who issued a warning letter to Vince McMahon due to the illegality of the stunt.
Linda McMahon's Senate campaign, which was carefully designed to be devoid of significant emphasis on her time as WWE CEO at its inception, was ironically beginning to resemble a pro wrestling sideshow in and of itself. A seat in the Connecticut Senate was quickly slipping away.
On Nov. 1, 2010, the midterm elections confirmed what had already become academic as Linda McMahon suffered a sizable defeat to Richard Blumenthal in one of the few Democratic victories of the night.
McMahon's failed roller coaster run towards a seat in Senate couldn't have been anything other than a wrestling story. In 2010, McMahon learned the hard way that it is almost impossible for one to outrun their past.
With a state audit of WWE's employee classification looming, as a result of questions raised during McMahon's Senate campaign, this story has the potential of being the genesis of pro wrestling changing forever.
All the money in the world couldn't buy McMahon out of tough questions that needed to be answered in order for her to move forward in a polemical political campaign. What it did buy, however, is the biggest wrestling story of 2010.
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Top Ten of 2010
1. Former WWE CEO Linda McMahon Runs for Senate
