Far From Sensational...

Ok, irrelevant time. Well, irrelevant to a vast majority of you. Quick preface: me = huge wrestling fan, former pro wrestler, so issues like this do get to me and therefore I get to share. Friday morning Sherri Martel was found dead in Birmingham, Alabama. Martel was one of the most entertaining and unique performers of the 1980's and 90's and this March was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. She was a pioneer in the business and will be dearly missed. However, the company that brought her to the national limelight was more focused on the storyline death of Mr. McMahon rather than the passing of Martel. Their page wwe.com was, and probably still is dominated with articles on what Shane and Stephanie's first "father-less Father's Day was like, a piece on McMahon's legacy, and some drabble about who will take over for the chairman. Now, without attacking the sheer foolishness of trying to fake someone's death in a storyline, especially someone who is the chairman of a multi-million dollar corporation, the disrespect that has been displayed by the company in this instance is immeasurable. The story about Martel's death and subsequent tributes are half-way down the page under the McMahon's dead crap and the draft ticker. Granted, this is not a company known for it's respectful treatment of issues or anything but the death of a fellow performer is usually reserved for a decently solemn treatment. Internally, there has been discussion of dropping the McMahon angle because of its timing and distastefulness, but it probably won't happen. We're going to hear all summer about "Who killed Vince?". Which is fine, I guess. I don't have cable so I won't be supporting the product ratings-wise and I'm sure that they're will be tons of people who will. But for those of us true fans, not marks, and those associated with the business, we know that an awful insult has been thrown at one of the all-time greats and that's something that is hard to just let us wash by. I think there's plenty to say about our culture and our treatment of death and the taboo that it has assumed in the popular culture but I'm not gonna be able to write that paper.