Several major executives are absent backstage for Monday’s episode of WWE Raw in Detroit, MI. Pwinsider.com reports Vince McMahon, Bruce Prichard, Kevin Dunn, Michael Hayes, and Adam Pearce are not at the show from the Little Caesars Arena.

John Laurinaitis and Ed Koskey are running things backstage. Triple H is usually in charge if McMahon isn’t at the show, but he’s been away for months after suffering a cardiac situation. 

WWE has been dealing with the ripple effects of the COVID-19 outbreak within the company among talent, staff, and employees over the last week. Several producers are out so WWE is working with a limited staff.

As previously reported, several wrestlers were pulled from Sunday’s house shows in Tampa in New York City. Some talent has been pulled due to them testing positive for the virus while others are on the sidelines because they’ve been in contact with someone who has the virus. 

WWE has yet to announce changes to the Day 1 PPV card this Saturday, but it’s possible although the company is said to be remaining hopeful the show will go on as planned.

A mansion in Greenwich, CT mansion is up for sale. Purchased in 2014 for $11.84 million, the stately home is listed for a staggering $32 million.

Even in a hot market, if the seller gets anywhere near the asking price, this would be the real estate investment of a lifetime.

A real estate listing at Compass touts:

“Perched on 10 waterfront acres of lush grounds and mature landscaping, this architectural masterpiece is unrivaled in the juxtaposed design of hand-cut stone and modern design. A custom estate with unmatched luxury offering a lifestyle of comfort, sophistication, and security.”

The 23,700 square-foot home boasts 6 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, swimming pool, library, elevator and many other luxurious appointments.

View the real estate listing for this Greenwich mansion at Compass.com.

WWE has been raking in record profits over the last couple of years, but even with all of that cash flow, the company has released over 100 performers from their contracts since the pandemic began in early 2020.

The term “budget cuts” was used internally as the rationale for those cuts, despite the company reporting record financial numbers in recent months. For talent worried about their jobs moving forward, they won’t have a lot of say in the matter unless they have a “no-cut clause.” The vast majority of WWE talent do not have these clauses written into their contracts; only a select few at the top of the card have a no-cut clause.

According to a report from Fightful Select, Vince McMahon has been steadfast in his opposition to no-cut clauses being offered to talents who re-sign with the company. It was revealed last week that Kevin Owens re-signed with WWE — a deal that is reportedly worth in the neighborhood of $2-3 million per year. His new deal does not include a no-cut clause.

The Fightful report notes that some within WWE (“people of influence” is the term given) have been open to the idea of including no-cut clauses, but McMahon has ruled it out. Talent have essentially been told that the idea is a non-starter at this point.

Which Talent Will Sign WWE Contracts, Who Will Leave

There are currently rumors that Sami Zayn has re-signed with WWE, though the specifics of his deal have not been made public and this is only a rumor at this point (as reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter). One would assume that since Owens was unable to get a no-cut clause, the same would apply for Zayn.

Johnny Gargano and Kyle O’Reilly are both now free agents after their deals with WWE expired. The pair would be free to sign or appear for AEW or any other promotion as soon as they wanted. O’Reilly is expected to be the first to possibly jump ship with Gargano and his wife, Candice LeRae, expecting their first child soon.

Check out the Top Rope Nation wrestling podcast for your weekly dose of pro wrestling talk featuring interviews, analysis and exclusive news: Apple – Spotify – YouTube.

It has been many years since WWE’s tag team division has had any real focus. While we’ve had entertaining teams throughout the years, especially over the last several years with The New Day, the division has always seemed like an afterthought on television when it comes to booking.

That’s for good reason. It’s been well known in the industry for years that Vince McMahon is not the biggest fan of tag team wrestling. This despite the fact that some of his biggest stars of all time started out in tag teams — names like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy, Edge and many more.

Former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. recently shared a story on his podcast (Wrestling With Freddie Prinze) about why McMahon dislikes tag team wrestling.

“I connected with Harry (David Hart Smith) a lot and I really want to get him and TJ (Wilson) over,” Prinze said (via Fightful), looking back on when he was trying to pitch the tag team division to have more importance. “I worked hard to do it. I failed those boys. I never got over that. I failed The Usos too.

“Tag team wrestling is tough. I remember Vince, I was working so hard on building up a tag team division and Vince said, ‘Freddie, I gotta pay four guys for one fucking match.’ I kind of went, ‘Oh.’ I had never looked at it like that. It’s show business. I was in charge of the Colon Brothers, I named Primo, that was my name. It kind of changed my perspective on things and the way I approached storylines. I couldn’t pitch for as much anymore.”

Are Tag Teams The Future For WWE?

When looking at the current landscape of WWE, one of the names who could be a major singles star of the future is Montez Ford. Will he follow the same path as a Shawn Michaels or Bret Hart before him?

The Street Profits, Ford’s team, are undoubtedly one of the best teams in the current tag team division. However, with tag teams split across two brands with two divisions, it oftens feels like the teams are left spinning their tires, so to speak. They’re seemingly having the same matches week in and week out.

• Former WWE Ref: McMahon Family “Torn Apart” Over Triple H & Shane’s Falling Out

Will Ford be able to rise above McMahon’s distaste for tag team wrestling and come out a star in the long run? That remains to be seen.

Check out the Top Rope Nation wrestling podcast for your weekly dose of pro wrestling talk featuring interviews, analysis and exclusive news: Apple – Spotify – YouTube.

WWE didn’t originally plan on having Austin Theory challenge Big E for the WWE Title on last Monday’s Raw as part of the storyline with Cleopatra’s golden egg, valued at $100 million.

WWE started the storyline at Survivor Series where someone stole Cleopatra’s golden egg from the desk of Vince McMahon. The egg was used in The Rock‘s recent “Red Notice” movie on Netflix.

McMahon stated in the storyline that he personally received the egg from The Rock, which was a way to promote the movie. After it was stolen, McMahon stated the person who could find the egg would get a WWE Title shot. Theory gave it back and lost to Big E on Raw. 

Fightful Select reports the original idea for the golden egg storyline was “much worse with the stakes much lower.” One of the pitches included some sort of integration with the WWE 24/7 Title. People who are associated with the movie said that this wouldn’t suffice for the tie-in, so they ended up involving Big E and the WWE Title.

McMahon being involved in the storyline wasn’t originally planned, but he was added as a make-good to add more importance to the “Red Notice” angle.

WWE had a long production meeting before Monday’s episode of Raw from the KFC Yum Center in Louisville. 

Pwinsider.com reported the news and noted that while Vince McMahon was said to be present for the meeting in the afternoon, he left before the show went live on the USA Network. It’s unclear why he didn’t stick around nor what the meeting was about.

Bruce Prichard also wasn’t backstage at Raw. Typically, if McMahon isn’t there then Prichard or Triple H will run the show. Triple H is still recovering from having heart surgery. As a result, John Laurinaitis ran things backstage.

The report added that there were no NXT wrestlers backstage at the show.

Fans may have picked up on the unusual format for the show and the meeting may have had something to do with that as it seemed the company was stretching for time to fill with longer matches and segments. Case in point was the main event, which started about 30 minutes before the show went off the air. 

On Raw, there were two heel turns – Doudop is now a villain as she started a program with Bianca Belair while Kevin Owens turned on WWE Champion Big E at the end of the show.

Legendary commentator Jim Ross reflected on the time WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was “irate” with him.

Ross and McMahon worked with each other for years. At one point, Ross was in charge of Talent Relations. Eventually, things went south as McMahon fired JR over a WWE 2K video game panel that got out of hand due to Ric Flair’s drinking issues. McMahon used Ross as a scapegoat since he was hosting the panel.

Jim Ross Gets An Earful From Vince McMahon

Taking to his Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross said that there was never a time when McMahon was more furious with him than when he announced the death of Chief Jay Strongbow back in 2012.

“I tweeted out the death of Jay Strongbow and Vince got extremely irate about that because Strongbow and Vince were long-time buddies, very close and he wanted to be the one to do it. My phone rang after, I remember where I was in Tampa at the gym there and you look at your phone and the name ‘VKM’ and you go ‘oh s–t.’ He gave me no chance to say I’m sorry, he was very hurt and I felt very badly that I did that, I didn’t know it was going to have that kind of impact. That was the strongest I ever got, I got chewed out more on the air than live television. On that one he was emotional and angry and I don’t blame him. I made a mistake, it doesn’t hurt us folks when we make a mistake to admit it, understand from it and admit it, learn from it and move on.”

Today, JR serves as the lead play-by-play voice of AEW Dynamite. Ross has said that he and McMahon will still exchange plesantries from time to time if there’s a birthday or it’s the holiday season.

Ross is currently battling skin cancer. He has given a positive update, saying that he doesn’t anticipate to miss any time on AEW TV and that his greatest struggle will simply be getting through all the treatments in the timeframe that the doctors want him to.

When it comes to ventures outside of wrestling, Ross is in the process of opening a cannabis farm in Oklahoma.

H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcribed quotes

The Godfather has reflected on a funny moment he had with Vince McMahon.

If there’s one thing wrestlers know about The Godfather, it’s that he loves his marijuana. The man known for conducting the “Ho Train” in the WWF Attitude Era smelled of ganja to the point where The Rock wouldn’t ride with him anymore during their heyday.

The Godfather Shares Hysterical Story Involving Vince McMahon

Appearing on the Generation Of Wrestling Podcast, The Godfather confirmed the story of Vince McMahon seeing him coming out of an elevator with smoke blowing out in full force.

“I love Vince McMahon to death because he has let me be me, and believe me that’s saying a lot. There’s been a lot of incidents like that with Vince but Vince was always cool with me and to this day, maybe not gonna be after today, but I don’t know. He’s always been cool with me, man. But that’s a true story.

“What happened is me and a friend of mine named ‘Big Worm’ who taught me [how to smoke]. In fact, the first time I smoked was with Big Worm. Big Worm would smoke no matter where you were, man. He didn’t care, he’d smoke. He didn’t care if it was the elevator, he didn’t care. So he’s in the elevator just puffin’, chiefin’. The elevator opens up and those four are standing there and Vince is just looking at me and just smoke coming out of the elevator. Vince says, ‘Charles, I think we’ll take the next one.'”

Perhaps The Godfather will be paying a visit to Jim Ross once his cannabis farm is ready.

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Vince McMahon tried to no sell SmackDown’s rating loss to AEW Rampage suggests the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

According to observer, the WWE chairman was at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, CA when the full ratings for both the shows became available on Monday.

Mr. McMahon didn’t get mad in front of anyone. It was important because there have been times where the boss has come across as immature in such situations before.

The original fast national numbers were available on Saturday where WWE garnered more viewers. While the chairman didn’t know the full breakdown of numbers, he likely had an idea of the close competition before Monday.

Contrary to the belief, the numbers were not a major topic of discussion among talents. They were busy with the TV taping followed by their trip to Saudi Arabia.

Per the Observer, the key personnel within the organization were in total denial of the numbers. Their reaction was something similar to what Roman Reigns said about how the Vince McMahon owned promotion appeals to more people.

WWE SmackDown was shifted to FS1 last week and the final half-hour went head to head with AEW Rampage. While WWE’s show still drew more viewers overall, AEW managed to attract more viewers in the key demo during their collision.

Renee Paquette has reflected on the time Vince McMahon gave her an earful.

Paquette once served as a host and commentator for WWE. Fans had long praised Paquette’s work and many were sad to see her leave the promotion in the summer of 2020. It didn’t come as a shock, however. After all, her husband, Jon Moxley, had departed from WWE in 2019. Reports also swirled that Paquette was looking into other ventures.

Renee Paquette Feels The Wrath Of Vince McMahon

Appearing on The MMA Hour, Renee Paquette told Ariel Helwani that McMahon once yelled at her through the headset while she was hosting a panel. Paquette explained what got Vince in a foul mood.

“Tyson Fury was on the show. It was when he was doing his stint in WWE and it was me, Samoa Joe, Booker T, and Beth Phoenix, I believe that’s what the cast was for that crew. I was throwing to a package, ‘Blah, blah, blah, something, something, The Gypsy King Tyson Fury, throw to package.’ And he’s [Vince McMahon] in my ear, he goes, ‘You f*cking ruined it!’ Screaming at me, telling me that I ruined this segment because I did not refer to Tyson Fury as the Lineal Champion. That I referred to him as ‘The Gypsy King’ Tyson Fury through the package.”

For those who don’t know, Fury’s nickname is indeed “The Gypsy King.” Whether McMahon actually knew that or simply wanted fans to know Fury was a champion instead is unknown.

McMahon was not satisfied until Renee acknowledged that she ‘heard’ him.

“So he’s yelling at me about this and I’m looking down at my notes, maybe I’m looking to Samoa Joe, taking in this information in my ear but he thinks I’m ignoring him. So, he yells at me again, ‘Do you hear me? Acknowledge that you hear me!’ And he wanted me to look into the camera and be like, ‘Yes sir. I hear you, I understand you, I apologize.'”

Paquette said she had no idea Vince would be so adamant about her wanting to recognize Tyson Fury as the Lineal Champion. After all, the “Lineal” tag doesn’t come with a physical title. At the time, Fury didn’t have an actual world title because he had been stripped of the gold due to inactivity. Thus, he was recognized as a Lineal Champion since he was never beaten for those titles.

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Mustafa Ali recalls a key piece of advice WWE Chairman Vince McMahon gave him during a time of confusion.

Ali has been seen on WWE TV since 2016. He made his Monday Night Raw debut the following year. Ali found himself in a big spot at the beginning of 2019 and was even scheduled to challenge for the WWE Championship in the Elimination Chamber match. Ali ended up suffering an injury and was replaced by Kofi Kingston.

Soon, Ali found himself appearing less on the main show and more on Main Event. Ali was confused by this and asked Vince McMahon what went south. Speaking to Metro, Mustafa Ali revealed what Vince’s answer was.

“Even pre-pandemic, I was struggling to maintain television presence – and I know it was all character-based. When you pitch a million and one ideas as far as stories, characters, promos, this and that – and you always get told that you’re good, but then nothing happens – you start pointing the finger at everybody except for you.

“After sitting at home for seven months and then finally coming back to Monday Night Raw, only to pick up a few victories and then to go back to not being on Monday Night Raw and now being stuck on Main Event, you’re kinda scratching your head.

“Like, what have I gotta do? And then you realize, you’ve gotta go ask the hard questions. I went up to Vince McMahon himself and said, ‘What am I missing?’ [He said], ‘Too polished, too clean, too nice, I don’t know if you have it in you!'”

Ali eventually made a heel turn. He became the leader of Retribution. Once the group disbanded, he began teaming with Mansoor. Lately, Ali has become frustrated with Mansoor, shoving him down to the mat after their tag team loss to Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander of The Hurt Business.

One former WWE talent has revealed his own horror story in terms of a gimmick that was pitched to him.

We’ve seen a slew of performers thrive under the WWE banner. The likes of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and currently Big E have been able to not only make a ton of money but also have become standout performers for the company.

It doesn’t work out for everyone, however. Orlando Colon, known as Epico in WWE, learned that the hard way. When Orlando was teaming with his cousin, Primo, he was pitched a gimmick that smelled like instant disaster.

Epico detailed the pitch by Vince McMahon during an appearance on the That’s 90s Wrestling Podcast.

“One of the many times we got heat, they came up with this gimmick. We were supposed to be the Puerto Rican Playboys. We’re in the office and Vince goes, ‘Yeah you guys are good-looking. You’re Puerto Rican, I want you guys to dress like Hugh Hefner.’ It was like a mix of Hugh Hefner and Goldust. ‘You’re gonna wear black and gold.’ Me and Primo looked, we almost threw up right there. ‘Here’s your gimmick,’ they had gear and everything. We had the black and gold robe like Hugh Hefner. And we were gonna be in Goldust’s color scheme. ‘Oh god please.'”

Colon then said that at the last minute, Vince McMahon decided to change his mind.

“We were about to debut and then two hours before we were supposed to debut with that gimmick Vince goes, ‘Ah, it might be too much for TV. Playboys, what is that?’ And that was his idea. So then we get called into the office he goes, ‘Yeah I want you guys to sell me Puerto Rico. Just yeah, sell it to me. Sell me attention.’ And I’m like, ‘we’ll do whatever you want other than Puerto Rican Playboys.'”

Orlando and Primo ended up becoming The Shining Stars. The two were released back in April 2020 as part of WWE’s budget cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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WWE had a negative reaction to a streaming deal that MLW was trying to secure and reportedly had a part in getting the deal nixed. 

Fightful Select reported today that Major League Wrestling was working on a deal with the Tubi streaming service, which is owned by FOX. The plan was to announce the deal publicly in August, but WWE learned about it before the contract was signed and a source close to FOX stated WWE did not respond favorably to the deal. 

Because of WWE’s response to the deal, it was put into question and WWE, as well as FOX, nixed the streaming deal. A comment from WWE, MLW, and FOX was not made. While MLW had archived content on Tubi at one time, it appears they are no longer on the service.

Speaking of streaming services, it has been previously reported FOX wasn’t happy with NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service being promoted on their network. One source stated that FOX wanted to pay for the rights to WWE pay-per-views to turn the tables with the idea of putting WWE programming on Tubi. 

It was reiterated by FOX sources that while there were some in the company who likely shared that same frustration, they were happy to help promote major events on FOX platforms. The reason for that is due to them thinking that what is “good for the goose is good for the gander.”

A source at Peacock stated WWE’s performance on the streaming service appears to be exceptional and more eyes on WWE pay-per-view events than ever before.

One former WWE on-air talent believes that Vince McMahon does have some concerns over the success of AEW.

AEW emerged in 2019. The promotion held its first TV show on TNT back in October of that year. The debut episode of Dynamite pulled in 1.409 million viewers, blowing away expectations. As of late, the show has been garnering over 1 million viewers each week.

While Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown pull in higher numbers than AEW’s shows, the fact that the promotion has had this much success in just two years can’t be ignored.

During an edition of Monday Mailbag, former WWE referee Mike Chioda gave his take on whether or not the Chairman of WWE is concerned over AEW’s emergence.

“As someone who knows Vince personally, do you think he’s truly concerned about AEW now?

“Yes, I think he is. He always wants to be on top. I have seen him demolish and step on a lot of territories around the country and around the world. He wants to be #1. Everybody wants to be #1 whether it’s in their sport, in their career, or owning a company. I definitely think he’s very concerned right now because they’re picking up some good talent. I know Vince. Vince is concerned.”

We recently saw AEW Dynamite top WWE Raw in the key demo two straight weeks. WWE was able to stop the streak from going to three, but it’s been said that many within the company are taking notice. It doesn’t help that Raw also has to contend with Monday Night Football games.

Do you think Vince McMahon has any legit concerns over AEW?

WWE is getting big money from its television deals with FOX and USA Network. A new report had shed some light on the relationship between the company and the USA Network as well as the input from the networks regarding this year’s WWE Draft that kicks off Friday night on SmackDown and continues on next week’s Raw. 

Fightful Select reports WWE is working with both networks to make sure all parties were satisfied with how the Draft ends up and where the stars land. The USA Network is said to enjoy “the unique rosters a brand split provided, and that the prevailing thought is that they prefer that continue.” One source compared the situation to the NFL balancing all their broadcast partners. 

There were concerns on USA’s side regarding some at Fox being under the impression that their platform was used to promote Peacock so heavily as they pointed to WWE booking Hell in a Cell matches on both Raw and SmackDown as WWE was doing their best to work with both sides.

Andrew Zarian of Mat Men noted in the report that he’d heard that USA Network was responding favorably to NXT 2.0 and many of the changes put forward. They also pointed out the increase in NXT 2.0 viewership in addition to the production values added, which made USA Network very happy. It was also said that USA Network does keep tabs on the product and is familiar with Tommaso Ciampa.

USA Network was said to be “elated” about the direction of NXT 2.0 specifically and didn’t worry about pushback from sponsors regarding the edgier product as they have the same elements on their own shows. 

One person said the company’s relationships extended well before many of the employees there were even born and quickly dismissed the notion of “not caring” about the quality of the program. 

The network is well aware of viewership trends and acknowledged the decline in viewership. Despite the decrease in ratings since signing the new deal back in 2019, it hasn’t waned to the degree that is something they’d like to see addressed as they’ve noticed the shows have been getting better. 

Some people at the network grew tired of “scapegoats and shortcuts” in the two years before the COVID-19 pandemic to the point where they wanted it to change once fans returned. 

Regarding WWE doing multiple drafts in the same year or concepts like Raw Underground, a USA Network representative said they aren’t opposed to these types of things, but don’t want them used as crutches or scapegoats.

It was said Stephanie McMahon has been a big steward of the connection between the two sides as NBCUniversal Chairman Mark Lazarus personally invited her over the summer to join him for a 1-on-1 discussion with the Paley Center for Media.

Despite being the outspoken star he is, Matt Riddle says he still have a good relationship with Vince McMahon and receives regular compliments from him.

The one half of the current Raw tag team champions recently appeared on the Fox Sports Out of Character podcast. He discussed things such as his heat with Goldberg, whether the two have buried the hatchet and more.

When asked if he has a good relationship with the Chairman of the Board, Riddle claimed Mr. McMahon sees him at least once every week.

“We do and we don’t, if I’m being 100% honest, I’ve been on TV a lot, I work a lot,” said Riddle “Vince sees me every week at least once, so he sees me and I’ve gotten a lot of handshakes. ‘Good job, I love your stuff.’ A lot of compliments.”

Riddle Just Wants a Hug

Riddle went on to explain he just wants approval from Mr. McMahon in the form of a physical embrace.

“I’ve yet to receive a Vince McMahon hug. I was hoping I’d get one after SummerSlam, but not so much. I don’t want to force – don’t force it. He’ll hug me when he’s ready.”

Matt also talked about his outspoken nature admitting that he has overstepped his boundaries a couple of times. Though he then explained that he feels like trash-talking is part of the world of professional wrestling.

Vince’s Relationship with Talent

Vince McMahon has served as a father figure to many WWE Superstars throughout the years. He has a reputation for being a tough, but fair boss. Many have craved his attention and approval throughout the years.

Over the past several months, several wrestlers have spoken publicly about their relationship with McMahon:

Jeff Hardy has said he and Vince have a business relationship. “I try to do the best I can for him and for WWE,” he told  Felger & Massaroti. “Hopefully that’s enough.”

Ruby Soho spent a few years in WWE as Ruby Riott. She also explained her relationship with Vince as lukewarm, but professional. During an appearance on Renee Paqette’s Oral Sessions podcast, she said, “We didn’t speak very often… We didn’t really talk, he was always so busy. He was so busy. I think I spoke to him in his office probably in four years, twice?”

Seth Rollins has a stronger relationship with the boss. He felt comfortable enough to vent his anger to Vince after his controversial match with The Fiend at Hell in a Cell 2019.

The main event of Hell in a Cell 2019 is not fondly remembered by many. The match between Seth Rollins and the Fiend was voted “Worst Match of the Year” by the subscribers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and given the 2019 “Gooker Award” by WrestleCrap for worst gimmick, storyline, or event in wrestling as well.

The match ended via referee’s stoppage, although some at the time assumed a DQ had taken place. Rollins hit Wyatt with a sledgehammer and the ref decided to call for the bell. The Fiend then recovered from the move in time to attack Rollins before the show came to a close. The live fans in Sacramento were not happy and loudly expressed as much.

Seth Rollins Reflects On Hell in a Cell 2019

Seth Rollins recently stated on a clip from Broken Skull Sessions that he was not happy with what happened either.

“My vision for what that match was going to be was a lot different than what we had to go out there and do. We went out there and did what we were told to do to the best of our ability,” Rollins said (transcriptions via Fightful). “Obviously, as it was ongoing, I felt…you watch it back, it’s boos piled upon boos piled upon boos and at the end of it, the reaction when the audience didn’t get the result they wanted, that’s a real tough pill to swallow.”

Rollins continued to say that he was angry with Vince McMahon when he walked through the curtain after the match. They wouldn’t speak that night, however.

“I put a positive spin on it now because I can look back a year and a half later, but at the time, I came through that curtain and I was ready to strangle Vince McMahon. I’m not kidding you. TJ Wilson was there to hold me back. I stared right into Vince’s eyes, I looked at him, he looked at me, we didn’t say a single word to each other and he walked out.”

Rollins continued to say he spoke with Paul Heyman but the conversation didn’t really lead to much.

“The next day, I went into Vince’s office, I was much calmer, and I said, ‘Let’s talk about this. We need to figure out what we’re doing here because that can’t happen again.’ It was civil, but it took me a night. I was ready to go. If somebody wasn’t there making sure I was okay, my temper and the adrenaline.”

A new report was published regarding the relationship between WWE and FOX. Fightful is reporting that there was talk in July about the relationship being strained. 

It was noted that FOX was disappointed with WWE’s viewership compared to what they were expecting when they made the deal to bring them onto the network. When FOX first made the deal with WWE, the initial reports stated FOX was expecting somewhere around 3.3 million viewers for Smackdown and while WWE drew 3.9 million viewers for their debut broadcast, they’ve not come close to that number since. 

It was said that FOX isn’t thrilled with SmackDown being used to promote another service, Peacock, which is owned by NBCUniversal. WWE airs its PPV events on Peacock. 

FOX owner Rupert Murdoch feels him being portrayed in a not so flattering way in the upcoming Vince McMahon scripted series is a “childish move” by WWE. 

It was noted in the press release that the series will bring up how Murdoch purchased the New York Post. Of course, Post writer Phil Mushnick regularly took shots at McMahon and WWE in his columns. “The United States vs. Vince McMahon” will look at McMahon getting indicted for steroid distribution. McMahon was later found not guilty.

However, WWE’s relationship between the two families is one of “great respect.” There had been talk of doing an episode of Raw at the Staples Center in Los Angeles but Khan and McMahon nixed the idea since FOX Sports is a Los Angeles-based company. SmackDown will have a show there this December. 

Former WWE Superstar and recent AEW signee Ruby Soho recently discussed her relationship backstage with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.

Speaking on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette, the former WWE performer revealed that she did not speak that often with the man in charge.

“We didn’t speak very often,” Ruby Soho began. “I’d see him after matches and stuff. We didn’t really talk, he was always so busy. He was so busy. I think I spoke to him in his office probably in four years, twice?

“But I also wasn’t one of those people” Soho began. “And I think maybe this was my own fault. I wasn’t at his door all the time. And I wasn’t trying to make more of a connection and make more of a relationship.

Ruby Soho on Vince McMahon

“And that was one of the things. I don’t want to insult you by wasting your time and being like ‘hey, why am I not booked?’ I understand it’s wrestling, I get it” Ruby Soho revealed of her mentality when it comes to her time in the company.

“I was not one of those people that liked to do that unless I had something to talk to him about. And like I said, maybe I needed to be a little bit more forceful about building a relationship with him and just talk to him. But him being so busy, unless I had something important to talk to him about, I didn’t want to waste his time” the former Ruby Riott concluded.

Do you think that Ruby Soho will end up winning the AEW Women’s Championship? Let us know in the comments

WWE relaunched the NXT brand last week with a new look, logo, stage, and name, NXT 2.0. Part of the revamp was to introduce newer and younger talent on television as well.

Fightful Select reported today that more changes could be in store for NXT as WWE has discussed some plans for NXT 2.0 that are directly from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. 

Those at the USA Network are said to be in support of what the WWE boss has in mind, which is for the show to target “more of a P18-34 demographic, including everything from in-ring work and aggression to harsher language and the like.” 

“Keep up with current affairs with promos and character verbiage” was another point said to be brought up. One talent stated that they’d believe it when they see it regarding the possible changes. 

Jon Alba has also heard of the company wanting to go after a younger audience: 

It will be interesting to see if WWE goes in this direction and should they do so, how long McMahon will stick with it as he is known to change his mind quite often. Also, WWE has presented a PG-product for over a decade now with the mindset that they could get better sponsors with a family-friendly product compared to a TV-14 audience. 

Jim Ross says he had to convince Vince McMahon to give Randy Orton a shot with WWE.

Orton is a surefire future WWE Hall of Famer. “The Viper” has grown throughout the years to become one of the most renowned performers in the wrestling industry. There was a time, however, when it looked like Orton wasn’t going to even get a shot at fame.

On a recent edition of the Grilling JR Podcast, Ross explained why Vince McMahon needed to be convinced to hire Orton despite the fact that he was a third-generation talent.

“Every recruiting story is different. I had a hard sell to get Randy Orton hired because of his negative exit from the Marines, and Vince, being a strong patriot, didn’t like how that worked out with Randy in the military. I said, ‘Didn’t you get a second chance, [Vince]? Well, what’s the difference with this kid? He’s third generation. If he hits, look what we have. If he doesn’t hit, I can get rid of him in 90 days notice. What do we have to lose?’”

“He’s going to end his career as one of the greatest talents. Hall of Famer, no doubt, but also going to be regarded by his peers as one of the greatest in-ring workers. It worked out well.”

It’s safe to say that McMahon made the right move to ultimately drop his concern over “The Viper’s” military history. While Orton was said to have not matured right away in his WWE run, he eventually settled down and realized his responsibilities in representing the company.

Doudrop has recalled the first time she met WWE chairman Vince McMahon.

Doudrop, who had been known as Viper on the independent scene and Piper Niven on NXT, made her debut on the main roster back in June. She aligned herself with Eva Marie but that tandem ended up being short-lived. Now, Doudrop and Eva are in a feud.

Speaking to Metro, Doudrop discussed how her first meeting with McMahon turned out.

“I met him on the first day that I got to Raw and I was super scared because obviously I’ve been a wrestling fan for the majority of my life,” she said. “He was super cool, he just said, ‘Welcome to Raw, so glad that you could come over, we’re gonna have a lot fun with your character.’ I was like, ‘Oh good, I like to have fun, I consider myself a professional play fighter’, and he was just [laughing and applauding].

‘So that was a really cool experience! He’s always super happy with me when I come back and seems to absolutely love it when I kill people so I’m just gonna keep doing that!”

Also in the interview, Doudrop admitted that at first, she wondered if the pitch for her character would work. She said eventually, she was able to get comfortable with the gimmick. She’s gone as far as to say she loves the character.

Jon Moxley believes Vince McMahon would be of the mindset that many AEW matches are “garbage.”

Moxley has made it clear that he needed to break away from the WWE system. Moxley cited creative differences as his reason for leaving the company. He felt that being force-fed dialog on television wasn’t effective. Moxley ended up joining AEW and become the promotion’s second world champion.

During an interview with the folks at Cincy 360, Moxley said that McMahon would dismiss the styles of certain matches seen on AEW TV while dismissing crowd reactions.

“There is no ‘put-on’ character going on here. That’s what wrestling should be. Letting guys be themselves and having their own creativity whether they are Orange Cassidy or a crazy high-flying team like the Young Bucks who think up the most ridiculous and action-packed sequences.

“No one is trying to tone each other down or say, ‘that’s too much.’ Vince McMahon would watch a lot of AEW matches and say, ‘That’s garbage. They’re not selling. Slow it down. It’s crap.’ Blood and guts or whatever, but he wouldn’t be paying attention to the 15,000 people going nuts. I feel vindicated. I said a lot about how I felt wrestling should be that’s what AEW was going to do and that’s what we did. Now, look where we are. Now, I’m going to have a bit of a flex.”

Jon Moxley will be in action this Wednesday night (Sept. 8) on Dynamite. It’ll be a special night for Moxley as it’ll be his homecoming in Cincinnati, Ohio. He will be taking on Minoru Suzuki.

It appears Vince McMahon isn’t backstage for tonight’s Raw taping.

PWInsider is reporting that McMahon has put Bruce Prichard in charge of the show for Sept. 6. This comes one week after McMahon was reportedly upset about the original script for the Aug. 30 episode of Raw. It was said that McMahon dismissed several rewrites before the show aired.

Here’s a look at what’s in-store for Raw tonight.

• Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre – to determine number one contender for WWE United States Title
• RAW Women’s Title Match: Charlotte Flair vs. Nia Jax
• WWE 24/7 Champion Reggie to defend against Akira Tozawa
• WWE Women’s Tag Team Title Match: Natalya and Tamina Snuka vs. Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H.
• Tag Team Turmoil: AJ Styles and Omos, The Viking Raiders, Lucha House Party, Jinder Mahal and Veer, T-BAR and MACE, Mustafa Ali and Mansoor, The New Day – to determine number one contenders for Raw Tag Team Titles

SEScoops will be providing results once Monday Night Raw goes off the air. We’ll also be bringing you updates if there are any major title changes on the show. If there is an update on why Vince McMahon is missing tonight’s Raw taping, we’ll be sure to keep you up to speed on that front as well.

Rick Boogs has revealed how he made his way to WWE.

Boogs has quickly found himself in a prominent role on WWE TV. He accompanies Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura to the ring while playing his theme song on an electric guitar. Many have been impressed by Boogs’ in-ring work the past couple of weeks.

Speaking to Corey Graves on WWE’s After The Bell podcast, Boogs revealed how he grabbed the attention of Vince McMahon.

“You know what it was? I think it was the first day I was at SmackDown, and Bruce Prichard was like, and I don’t know why they were looking at an Old Spice commercial, and apparently, Vince watched it, and he’s like, ‘Call the guy up’, just from the character work alone. This is what I heard.

“Then they had to figure out what to do with me because they were like, ‘Well what does he do?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘Is he on NXT?’ ‘No.’ They went on my Instagram, and you know what it was? I did this video where I did a lunge. I was playing The Trooper on the guitar. Bruce said that Vince was going to love that because he loves lifting weights. I guess that was it. ‘Oh, he can play The Trooper while he’s lunging 340 pounds so let’s have him bust out Shin’s tune live in front of millions of people.”

Rick Boogs is coming off a victory over Dolph Ziggler on the Sept. 3 edition of Friday Night SmackDown.