WWFE CEO Linda McMahon announced Sunday night on the MTV Sunday Night Heat telecast that WWF Entertainment, Inc. would be making a $1 million donation on October 15th to New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani and the New York City relief efforts; $500,000 from WWFE and $500,000 from the McMahon family's personal bank accounts.

Earlier in the day, 750 fans affected by September 11th tragedies, came to the company's WWF New York restaurant for a two-hour brunch and-meet and-greet session arranged by WWFE and the New York City Sports Commission.

Vince, Linda, Shane, and Stephanie McMahon also traveled with several WWFE performers to Ground Zero, and to New York City firehouses, to meet emergency workers and their families prior to the Madison Square Garden house show on Sunday afternoon.

Diamond Dallas Page's DDPBang.com website reported Monday on one of the firehouse visits:

"...One of the missing firemen had left behind six children. He was the biggest wrestling fan at the station. His four boys were pretty excited to meet myself, Kane, and (of course) Trish...The courage of these guys to keep going after all they have been through is truly remarkable. The next fire station we went to had lost fourteen guys. Once again, a lot of the kids who are now orphans came by for pictures and an escape from reality..."

New York City Sports Commissioner Kenneth Podziba reported that WWFE had donated 3,000 tickets to Sunday's Madison Square Garden house show to New York City area charities; 2,000 of which were donated to the New York City Fire and Police Commissions.

Now after all this, we can be sure that people will claim that WWFE is doing it only for public relations. Many of those people who are so critical of the McMahon family, the WWF, and of wrestling in general, are doing little themselves to help the victims of September 11 by comparison; people such as:

The PTC...which has made no acknowledgement whatever on its website that September 11 even happened...and is back to telling us that Stephanie McMahon's "HHH cups" are a cause of moral decay among American youth...

Phil Mushnick...that self-appointed moralist whose employer, the New York Post, is back, post-tragedy, to running advertisements for escort services, doctors that sell amphetamines (errr..."diet drugs"), phone sex lines and sex surrogates...all without comment from him....

Jerry Falwell...who was busy on television blaming liberals, the ACLU, pro-choice activists, and gays and lesbians for causing September 11, instead of the evil fanatics who are trying to hijack the name of God and of Islam for their murderous political aims...

Bill Goldberg...who engaged in an attack at Vince McMahon and WWFE in a website report on his own visit to Ground Zero; claiming the WWF hadn't taken part in any activities for those affected on September and that "this was why he didn't work for the WWF"...then had to backpedal after a firestorm of criticism (not to mention, being proven wrong).

Now before I get e-mails from those of you who don't like the WWF...no, I don't collect a paycheck from them...and yes, I think some of their recent booking has stunk to high hell.

But it seems that what WWFE did in its donation of money and time is somewhat more important in the scheme of things at the moment than whether or not Shane McMahon should be featured in RAW main events (no, he shouldn't).

For those wrestling fans spending time criticizing what the McMahon are doing in this regard, spend that amount of time helping in the relief effort instead. Keep the families of those murdered on September 11 in your thoughts and prayers.

Below are some ways you can help the victims of September 11th while still being a wrestling fan or help the well-known major national organizations that are doing so:

(A note: If other promoters are involved in events or activities that benefit September 11th relief efforts, e-mail me at bobmagee1@hotmail.com. I'll be happy to list your activities in this column.)

First, those in the Keansburg area (in Monmouth County, New Jersey) can attend a wrestling show on November 3rd, at Keansburg High School sponsored by NWA-Jersey in association with the Keansburg Police and Fire Departments. It is designed to benefit the agencies involved with aiding the victims of the World Trade Center disaster.

Tickets are available by calling (732) 888-1704. Golden Ringside tickets are $18.00, Ringside tickets are $16.00 and General Admission are $13.00. You can also get more info about the show here.

Maryland Championship Wrestling will be hosting a very special event on Tuesday, October 30th, at Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie, Maryland, in which all proceeds will be given to the New York Fire Fighters Rescue Relief Fund. The event has a 7:30PM belltime (dors open at 6:30 pm). All tickets are $10.00.

Tickets for the event can be ordered online at here or by calling (410) 737-1533 or (410) 766-3270.

IWA Mid-South Wrestling will be holding special Wednesday night benefit shows on October 17, 24, and 31 for the Fire Department of New York Scholarship Fund. The shows will be held at the regular IWA venue, the IWA House of Hardcore in Charlestown, Indiana. For further information on these shows, you can go to the IWA Mid-South Wrestling website here.

Combat Zone Wrestling has designed a special t-shirt, with proceeds going to the September 11th relief effort. You can purchase this t-shirt at CZW events, call (856) 848-5070, or contact CZW at czw@offthetoprope.com.

More generally...

To give blood, call 1-800 GIVE LIFE or contact your local hospital/health care provider. You can also find the telephone number and location of your local Red Cross chapter by going to this URL or to this URL

You can financially support relief efforts by making a donation to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund by calling 1-800-HELP-NOW (1-800-435-7669) or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish-speaking).

You can go to any one of the many organizations listed at Helping.org.

You can also go to Amazon.com to make a direct and secure donation via Amazon.com.

You can donate directly to the September 11th Fund, administered by the New York United Way via this URL.

You can donate to the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund, administered by the International Association of Fire Fighters via this URL.

Until next time...

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(If you have comments or questions, I can be reached by e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com)