Two Views of McMahon and the WWE

The Connecticut Mirror has two new stories from Mark Pazniokas about Linda McMahon and the WWE. One concerns Mike Benoit, flown to Connecticut by the Blumenthal campaign to discuss his dealings with the WWE after the murder-suicide of his son, WWE wrestler Chris Benoit.  There are some odd and wrenching passages. 

In 2007, Chris Benoit was a star who had wrestled for six years for WWE and about 15 years for other companies, including Ted Turner's WCW. WWE aired a tribute show soon after his death, which Benoit called an effort to boost ratings. The only contact from the McMahons was a voicemail from Vince McMahon.

"We didn't get a card, a letter, a phone call, flowers, nothing from the CEO of the WWE. And who was the CEO? Linda McMahon," Benoit said. "This is the person that the State of Connecticut is thinking about sending to the Senate of the United States."

"I don't remember not reaching out to Michael," McMahon said. "It would not be my style, not to reach out to him. Typically, when anything like that happens, we do try to make every effort to contact family."

Benoit said Linda McMahon suggested during an interview on Good Morning America that Chris Benoit might be have been stressed or depressed about his son, Daniel, having a genetic condition, Fragile X Syndrome. But there was no evidence Daniel had the genetic condition.

McMahon today she said she was unsure where she had gotten that information.

The second concerns the omnipresence of the WWE in the McMahon campaign. This may create some tense moments of Election Day:

And WWE quickly issued a press release last week, when Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz said that local election officials could consider WWE paraphernalia to be the equivalent of a political button, prohibited from the polls.

"Denying our fans the right to vote, denying them their First Amendment rights, regardless if they are Democrat, Republican or Independent, is un-American, unconstitutional and blatantly discriminatory," said McMahon, the chairman and CEO of WWE.

Av Harris, a spokesman for Bysiewicz, said no one is going be denied the right to vote.

"We didn't say nobody can wear any WWE clothing to polling places. What we said is they should evaluate it on a case by case basis," he said. "If the moderators deem that the presence of the WWE material was in any way interfering, they could ask someone to cover up the T-shirt shirt or take off the hat."