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I'm in my mid-40s, so I came of age during the Vince-dominated national WWF Superstars era. That's what wresting was for me (who has two thumbs and convinced his parents to let him go to No Holds Barred on opening night?).
But I wonder if wrestling was ever supposed to be a homogeneous national thing. Its DNA is highly regional. And Vince, through force of will, made it national. But that seems to be going away. And Vince retiring will probably make that happen even sooner.
With the proliferation of alternative means of watching different promotions from around the world, the regions don't need to be geographic anymore. But unlike, say, football where every attempt to create alternative leagues ends up spending a lot of money until we go back to the NFL default, I think that wrestling's natural state may be multiple promotions with dedicated fan bases and casual fans coming and going as things become more and less interesting in the different areas.
Like Jon said, Vince had a boatload of flaws and then some. But I don't think that we have a national wrestling promotion without his insane dedication to making it happen.
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