Catching Up on News of Linda McMahon, Would-Be Stateswoman

* Chris Murphy cleans WWE co-founder and ex-CEO Linda McMahon’s clock in first Connecticut Senate debate.

See the video at http://www.wfsb.com/category/213663/face-the-state.

I have no idea whether this matters — in terms of electoral dynamics generally or of the Quinnipiac Poll-this and Rasmussen Poll-that specifically.

Nor, as I’ve tried to make clear, do I have partisan interest if Chris Murphy would proceed in the United States Senate to be as worthless an advocate on traumatic brain injury and independent contractor abuse as has been Richard Blumenthal, who promised otherwise to Mike Benoit (Chris’s dad) before defeating McMahon in 2010.

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* Vince McMahon, 67, climbs back into the ring.

As I’ve grudgingly conceded before, you have to hand it to Linda’s psycho of a husband in several respects. One of those is that, in his own rare appearances in the squared circle, Vince asks no less of himself than he does of his employee-wrestlers … excuse me, his independent contractor Superstars.

Anyway, the ratings for Raw, the flagship WWE show on USA cable, hit a 15-year low, so Vince McMahon was back last night for a full-bore hardcore match against CM Punk. Blasting away at each other with foreign objects, flying over tables outside the ring, the whole nine yards. I haven’t yet seen the footage myself. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter and Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four described the scene as being impressive for what it was, but also on the knife-edge of a very bad outcome. They also said WWE, true to form, was linking Vince’s return to the exploitation of the real-life massive heart attack sustained on live TV three weeks ago by announcer and still occasional wrestler Jerry Lawler — who is a full five years younger than Vince.

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* Aforementioned CM Punk gets physical with taunting fans.

This one is all over YouTube — or at least will be until WWE hatchetpeople get the video taken down for “copyright violations” which do not, of course, reflect the true essence of their wholesome brand.

Punk, who is cast as a heel these days, lashed out blindly at some brain surgeons in the crowd who were pushing and clipping at him, and wound up swiping and breaking the glasses of an innocent bystander. Naughty naughty. Some money may have to change hands before the guy with the broken glasses and bruised cheekbone goes away.

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* Alberto del Rio auditions for the Be A Star campaign.

Another bad guy tore up the sign of an 8-year-old kid, made him cry, laughed about it. Mom is mad at WWE. TMZ is all over it.

In August, I had a disagreement with Congresswoman Linda Sánchez, a California Democrat, over her participation with the WWE in an “anti-bullying rally” run by a group called Be A Star, which WWE joined as a front following criticism of its routinely gay-baiting content. The event in Los Angeles came two days before WWE’s SummerSlam pay-per-view show in Los Angeles — what a coincidence!

What I’m in the middle of asking Sánchez and other members of the Congressional Anti-Bullying Caucus, chaired by Representative Mike Honda, is whether widespread and systematic sexual abuse of girl swimmers by coaches under the auspices of USA Swimming counts for as much as cruel words directed by 10-year-olds at other 10-year-olds. To his credit, Honda himself says he is exploring hearings on the outrageous scandals at our Olympic Committee-sanctioned national swimming governing body.

Irv Muchnick