The ugly spat over World Wrestling Entertainment’s infamous Eugene storyline continues to play out between Republican U.S. Senate candidates Linda McMahon, former WWE CEO, and Rob Simmons.
It all came to the surface after the Wall Street Journal reported that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel used a disparaging term for people with developmental disabilities.
While Sarah Palin was expressing outrage at Emanuel’s comments and Emanuel was signing a pledge never to use the word “retarded’ again, the Simmons campaign was trawling the YouTube library of WWE clips. They found several examples of a mentally challenged character named Eugene being humilated in the ring (including this one featuring Vince McMahon, husband of Linda.)
This morning, Linda McMahon defended the Eugene plot as evidence of just how far people with disabilities have come.
Now the Simmons camp is responding.
“It is deeply troubling that Linda McMahon views her depiction of a developmentally disabled person being beaten, taunted, and mocked as ‘inspiring’ entertainment she is proud of,” Simmons spokesman Raj Shah says in a press release issued this afternoon. “And her outlandish claim that the scripting of such a ‘soap opera’ was actually a benevolent statement about equality is absurd.”
“The truth is, Linda saw a profitable opportunity to play off humanity’s worst instincts, and likely the only thing that was ‘inspired’ by it was the furthering of cruel and humiliating stereotypes,” Shah continued. “One can only hope it didn’t inspire real beatings by impressionable children McMahon markets to. This is a shameful display for which she should be apologizing, not defending.”
Meanwhile, other McMahon critics are weighing in as well. Irv Muchnick, the author/blogger and one-man McMahon attack machine, says the entire controversy shows that McMahon “can run from her WWE past, whose mega-profits are underwriting her $50 million campaign — but she can’t hide.”
James Caldwell of PW Torch says degrading skits about mentally disabled folks is not the main issue McMahon ought to answer for.
“[T]his is maybe #5 on important issues McMahon needs to be held accountable for from her time as WWE CEO. #1 is the record of occupational health issues in WWE and pro wrestling with an industry-wide epidemic of wrestlers dying young, steroid abuse, pain pill addiction, independent contractor status when wrestlers are treated like employees, no formal regulatory body protecting wrestlers, and no regularly-scheduled off-season,” Caldwell writes.