5 Things in Pro Wrestling That Need to Go Away #3

#3 Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon has often been termed an "audience of one", and that has been no more apparent than at this year's Wrestlemania. McMahon has surrendered some of the day-to-day control of the on-camera product to Triple H and his daughter Stephanie, but it was widely reported that Vince still considers the annual event to be his baby.

In lieu of actually reviewing Wrestlemania 28 this year, I thought the show fit in with the theme of this series. The matches that are getting the highest praise on the show are the ones where I imagine Vince trusted the guys well enough to go where they wanted to with it. I can't imagine Vince giving Rock, Undertaker and Jericho much more than a finish and a time limit and then letting them go figure it out on their own.

On the other hand, you have the 18-second opener where Daniel Bryan dropped the World Championship to Sheamus. This match did nothing for either side, but it's the sort of thing that you know Vince was in the back saying, "Aha! Can't you see... haha! it would be funny! FUNNY! haha! If we have the fastest title match at... haha! WRRRRRRRRRESTLLLLLLLLLLEMANIAAAAAAAAAAA! And we'll do it with the pasty ginger guy! haha! And the vegetarian!"

"Ummmmmmm... what's a vegan?"

5 Things in Pro Wrestling That Need to Go Away #4

Wrong Dixie Carter

#4) Dixie Carter

Corey Henson will try to convince you that there are four reasons to watch TNA. They are:

1) Sting can imitate a guy who won an Oscar after he died. (I bet Rich Little can too.)
2) Even a blind squirrel can find Bubba Ray Dudley once in a while.
3) Dixie Carter finally figured out what half a million wrestling fans already knew.
4) TNA has consistently booked a WWE reunion tour from 5 years ago ever since Impact debuted.

Okay, so that’s out of the way.

TNA has a lot of issues in general that prevent them from succeeding, and I won’t list all of them here specifically. I can tell you that many of those issues began when Dixie Carter took control of things, even before she became the spotlight-seeking on-air character she is today.

5 Things in Pro Wrestling That Need to Go Away #5 by The Russ

#5) The “WHAT?” chant

There have been two major psychological constants in wrestling for the past decade.

One constant is that anyone will shout “WHOO!” whenever a guy chops somebody. It doesn't matter that Ric Flair is on his third retirement now and paying Dixie's money to his fourth ex-wife. It doesn't matter if the guy delivering the chop is the Heavyweight Champ working in front of millions at Wrestlemania or Jobber #3 under a hood jerking the curtain for the local indy in front of 53 people.

The Pavlovian response of wrestling fans to “chop” is “WHOO!” just like Missy Hyatt's Pavlovian response to the word "man" is asking herself, “Have I ever had sex with him?”


Maybe the “WHOO!” is a sign of respect for Flair, or maybe it’s just a collective memory we have as fans that Flair was the guy who made the knife-edge chop famous. Maybe we’re all engaged in a crowd mentality that everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn’t we? Still, most fans young or old can trace that chant back to its origin.


However, if you're not legally able to drive, do you remember how “WHAT?” started? Here's a bit of history if you don't know or remember: