After I wrote all the essays for International Object (coming soon!), I took several months off from wrestling and paid almost no attention to the art form from the end of 2008 to nearly halfway through 2009. International Object is as serious as wrestling-related writing gets. It’s not without a joke or two, but it really is mostly serious essays about the artistic side of professional wrestling.
In that time, I wrote a novel and ramped up my small press. Writing-wise, I was very busy. So after I finished the first draft of the novel, I found myself missing pro wrestling a little. I watched some episodes, caught up on what I missed. The summer of 2009 was a good one for WWE. The transition to PG was finally over, and I began to wonder what Vince McMahon thought about all of it. His TV time was getting smaller and smaller. His wife was about to leave the company, as was his son. I thought that even though the business seemed to be growing in an interesting new direction, his personal life may not be at its best, and, perhaps most importantly, the WWE machine might not need him anymore.
Somehow, that turned into a tragicomedy piece where I wrote under the Fake Vince name. Most posts were (at least attempted) humor-based, but every now and then I peppered the blog with pretty sad declarations of Vince’s (likely entirely fictional) personal life. Turns out, I was also pretty good at predicting PPVs.
I wrote Fake Vince for a year. In that year, I took a couple of breaks, but for the most part there was a new post almost every day. That’s a long time for a joke. The best posts were put together in a book that’s still available, and still a pretty good read.
I never kept my identity that much of an airtight secret. Anyone who cared to find out who wrote the blog could find me without much trouble. But this is the first time I’m outright admitting that it’s me to the public.
A couple of weeks ago I put the Fake Vince blog on hiatus. I’m not done with it, and I’m sure once I’ve taken some time away from making jokes I’ll be back with new ones. Probably after the International Object book comes out.