Dan vs Vince. The Downfall of two entertainment Juggernauts

Warning

 I must let you know, that I will be discussing themes of. Sexual assault. Racism, and. Harrassment, so reader discretion is advised from this point on.

My thoughts

This past few months has been revealing, and heartbreaking, in equal measure, as the downfall of Vince Mcmahon, took centre stage in late january, the world watched as his house started to unfold, and eventaually burn down to the ground, after Janelle Grants lawsuit against. Mcmahon, and. John Laurinitis came to light. Back when all this came out. I took it on myself to read the whole 68 page dosier, that was made public. And as I sit here on a sunday evening writing this. I'm sorry to say that I have the same feeling of disgust, slither down my throat. Earlier on this week a 4 part documentary aired in the states called. Quiet On Set The Darkside Of Childrens TV, which looked at Nickelodeon, and their horrific standards and practices under one man, who would go on to make the network millions, with a plethora of shows, that he created. Dan Schneider. Even though the docu series is yet to air here in the UK. I have watched multiple Youtube videos on the subject over this past week, and the one thing that ran through my mind was this. Dan Schneider, and. Vince Mcmahon, in my opinion, are not as differant as you think. here's why.

Show creations, and the stars who were made

Back in the 1980's In the America, the political landscape was changing, and so was the TV landscape. Kids TV Channels were slowly becoming the norm, and. Nickelodeon was at the front of the Pack, and when it came to wrestling it was having a boom period. Vince Mcmahon had gained power from his Father, and turned the. WWF went from a small promotion, into what would later become sports entertainment. Vince created the careers of. The Ultimate Warrior. Hulk Hogan, and. The Macho Man Randy Savage. In that same time  his true colours to some started to come out, Which would meet the first of two heads in 2022, when accusations of rape, and hush money payments would surface. Fast forward to the 1990's, and. Nickelodeon is firing on all cylinders, with shows like. All That. Keanan and Kel, and. The Amanda Show, all becoming ratings powerhouses. These shows would go on to make stars of. Keanan Thompson. Drake Bell, and. Amanda Bynes, this time period saw both men degrade women that worked for them, from financial acts, to sexual harrassment, with some airing for the world to see on Vince's shows. Dan would also degregate females in my opinion in the worst way, by making them feel inferior to their male counterparts. In ways that I can't talk about.

Freedom and Power

With Vince being given a free pass to do what he wants by the USA Network. Schneider would lie to Nickelodeon executives, in order to hide sexual discrepencies. But. What he could not hide was something that was in plain sight, the abuse of one of his stars. Drake Bell. Now I can't say much about what happened to Bell, because it's truly awful. But. It's not the first time that abuse has happened in the entertainment industry, and unfortunately It won't be the last. Child abuse would also have impact on wrestling. In the early part of the decade. The ring boy scandal would act as something that the WWF, would try to bury, whilst the kids that worked on Dan's Shows, would have to suffer through racist, and inapropriate jokes, that would have long lasting effects into adulthood. Even though Dan didn't abuse Bell personally, it was the dialect coach that Nickelodeon employed that did. This. Has left me to ask one thing. Where was the protection for these kids, when all of this awful behavior took place, because. The parents were banned from the set.

The 2000s

With the then WWF's attitude era, slowly dying out, the company would take a more aggressive approach to their TV output, and empthasize even more on sexuality, which looking back on it with 2024 eyes, is not easy. Lita. Tori Wilson, and Trish Stratus, have all gone on record, to say, how degraded they felt after certain segments. In this same time Schneider would go on to create. Drake and Josh. Zoey 101, and. I Carly, all of which would come under scrutiny for sexualised content.

The 2010's and beyond

By the time the early 2010's. Both Dan Schneider, and. Vince Mcmahon, could both be looked at in a parallel space. Ego. Power, and. Greed, gave both men a nine lives complex. But This would become their downfall. In 2018 Nickelodeon parted ways with Dan Schneider, and his production company. Schneiders Bakery, after multiple allegations about Dan started to surface. Video footage of him acting strange with the stars, on the set of his shows would later surface, and with his focus on feet being the centre piece. Vince In 2022, retired from the WWE in disgrace, when those rape allegations surfaced in Time magazine. Vince would later bully his way back onto the board, in january 2023, but just a year later, he was out again, when. Janelle Grants lawsuit came out. Dan Schneiders shows, in no shock continue to get repeated on both sides of the Atlantic. Janette Mccurdy, and. Ronda Rousey. Have both given their thouights on both men respectivly.

Were do we go from here

All I want from both industries is this. I want sensibility, equility, and safeguarding practices to shine through, so that this doesn't happen again. In order to be human, we have to act human. TLL. Talk. Listen, and. Learn, and believe survivors.