An update regarding WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon’s decision to fire Co-Presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson has surfaced.
The news was made last week and WWE stock dropped as a result. Fast forward to Thursday’s WWE Q4 and Full-Year 2019 investors call, McMahon noted that the management transition came after careful consideration. He also stated that the decision was made on a “different view of execution of our areas of focus.”
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that McMahon and his former Co-Presidents wanted to do different things with the significant money that the company earned through their TV deals with FOX and the USA Network.
According to the report, Barrios and Wilson wanted to maximize WWE’s current profits in order to increase the stock price. Although McMahon wanted to do that as well, he also had plans that Wilson and Barrios did not agree with.
Those plans were to heavily invest the money such as spending big money to sign, keep and stockpile new talents. Also, he wants to create new regional brands in different markets just like they did in the UK with the WWE NXT UK brand.
It’s been rumored that WWE has considered NXT Japan, NXT Germany, NXT Australia, NXT Mexico, and NXT Canada for the future.
The idea behind these brands is for him to try to regain the “monopoly” of the pro wrestling business after the rise of mainly New Japan Pro Wrestling and AEW.
Matt Riddle is known to be outspoken and that is something that WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon apparently doesn’t like.
The issues between the two are due to Riddle’s social media posts and challenges, according to Dave Meltzer, who reported the news in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Meltzer noted how WWE Champion Brock Lesnar doesn’t like Riddle for making challenges to main roster stars as well as himself and that Lesnar has tremendous pull with McMahon.
It was added that “Vince also sees him [Riddle] as an outside guy and feels Riddle has no respect for the hierarchy of the business by challenging Goldberg and Lesnar.”
Riddle has made it clear for years that he wants to not only take on Lesnar in the squared circle but wants to retire him at WrestleMania, which is the biggest event of the year for WWE.
In fact, Riddle and Lesnar got into a backstage verbal altercation prior to Royal Rumble in Houston, Texas at the Minute Maid Park. According to recent reports, Lesnar told Riddle to stop calling him out because the match will never happen.
Riddle had an awkward interaction with Goldberg last year at SummerSlam after criticizing the WWE Hall of Famer on social media and interviews.
Drew McIntyre was Corey Graves’ guest this week on the latest episode of WWE’s After The Bell podcast. The Scottish Superstar discussed his entire WWE career, including his early days with the company, Vince McMahon personally endorsing him on television as the “Chosen One” and his eventual (unexpected) release.
“The Chosen One” Drew McIntyre
Graves began the chat by discussing the aforementioned ‘Chosen One’ gimmick that McIntyre was gifted way back in 2009. On the September 25th 2009 episode of SmackDown, McIntyre would be introduced to the audience by Vince McMahon as a “future world Champion.”
This seemingly cemented McIntyre’s status as a top tier talent. Incidentally, McIntyre had no idea what McMahon was going to say in that promo. “Basically, the chosen one started when I was about 23/24” McIntyre began. “When Vince McMahon endorsed me on TV. That’s not something I knew was going to happen, I would just in [the] gorilla [position] and was aware I had a promo. They told me ‘Vince is going to say a quick thing,’ and ‘then you just go out react.’ I didn’t know that was gonna happen. And it was a huge moment for me.”
3MB
McIntyre then went into what happened after his run with the Intercontinental Championship and ‘Chosen One’ gimmick didn’t pan out. “Obviously things didn’t work out with the chosen one thing,” McIntyre stated. “Then the 3MB (Three Man Band) thing happened and then obviously I got fired. I got that call. It was a very surprising call as 3MB were on everything. And I thought they were going to tell me I was booked on something else and no. It’s that you’re fired.”
Returning To The United Kingdom
Following McIntyre’s firing in 2014 he returned to the United Kingdom and forged a main event level run as part of Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW). McIntyre’s run at the top of the UK scene helped to create a huge buzz popularity around this time. Drew McIntyre (then known as Galloway) would also win the EVOLVE, WCPW and IMPACT World Championships before returning to WWE and the NXT brand in April 2017.
Drew McIntyre – Still The ‘Chosen One?’
Vince McMahon’s prophecy of a ‘future World Champion’ may have seemed like an impossibility 6 years ago, when McIntyre was part of the lower card 3MB act. But following his successful return and runs in NXT (as Champion); and RAW he looks set to be a top tier player for WWE heading into the new decade. Corey Graves made a point of saying that McIntyre was ‘his pick’ to win the 2020 Royal Rumble.
WWE Hall of Famer and Olympic Fold Medallist Kurt Angle recently appeared on the Chris Van Vliet YouTube channel for a long form interview. The former WWE Superstar discussed a variety of topics on the show, one notably about his retirement following this year’s WrestleMania. Angle lost his last bout against Baron (now King) Corbin, opting to move to a backstage role following the event.
“…No I’m done”
CVV asked Angle about the retirement, mentioning how wrestling retirements are often not actually as final as they seem. “No I’m done,” Angle confirmed. “I knew I was done when I went to Vince and told him that I wanted to retire and just have my last match at this past WrestleMania.”
“I just didn’t want to do it anymore” – Kurt Angle
Angle then made an interesting point about his retirement from in-ring competition, “I believe that he [Vince McMahon] wanted me to go another year but I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I know what I’m capable of now and it’s not enough for me to be comfortable going out there and performing. If I can’t do it like the ‘old’ Kurt Angle then I don’t want to do it anymore.”
“I wanted John last Mania but we already had a storyline going on with Baron Corbin” – Kurt Angle
Angle then revealed that if Vince had his wish then Angle would’ve likely retired at WrestleMania 37, against John Cena. “I chose not to, because I wanted John last Mania but we already had a storyline going on with Baron Corbin. Vince said ‘if you’re going to retire you’re going to finish with Baron Corbin, if you don’t mind, because we’ve got a great storyline here.’ And Vince was right. So I said ‘ok I’ll wrestle Baron and it’ll be my last match.'”
“We didn’t talk to each other beforehand!”
Van Vliet then mentioned how ‘poetic’ it would’ve been for Kurt for finish up his career with John Cena. When Cena debuted on SmackDown he faced Kurt Angle in his debut match, saying that he was there to show his ‘ruthless aggression.’ “I think it was thought of,” Kurt stated. “I think it was thought of for the following year. What was ironic is I did my hoodie with the throwback to Team Angle and Cena did the throwback as well. We didn’t talk to each other beforehand!”
“he’s really good at his job”
Kurt Angle also had praise for the man who he faced in the final match of his career. “Baron’s a great wrestler, he’s a great talent. A lot of people don’t like him but he’s really good at his job. He’s the top heel in the business right now. People might naturally hate him but that’s a good thing. People think ‘he’s got real heat not WWE or wrestling heat, well that’s the point he wants to have ‘real’ heat. I got to wrestle the top heel in the business at WrestleMania, that’s the way I look at it.”
Vince McMahon really wanted to see the wedding angle that the company presented, according to the story that Jerry Lawler recalled.
The legendary pro wrestler told the story on the latest episode of his podcast about the WWE Chairman and CEO this past Monday.
WWE held the wedding segment featuring Lana and Bobby Lashley on Monday Night RAW. Although McMahon left the XL Center in Hartford, CT on Monday afternoon before RAW went on the air, he came back around 5:30pm ET because he didn’t want to miss the ceremony.
“This thing was so good, it was gonna be so highly anticipated by everybody backstage. Vince had some very important meetings.”
Lawler noted how McMahon doesn’t miss show often but lately, he has due to all of the XFL commitments and decisions that need to be made. He called McMahon being torn in many different directions these days.
“He actually left Hartford, CT at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and everybody thought he was gone. Vince has his own office there, and he told everybody he had to leave. He left, the limousines took him out.”
Lawler recalled how he dressed in the Talent Relations office with Mark Carrano and they moved it into McMahon’s office because it’s a bigger and nicer room. They unpacked and sitting around until someone came in there to tell them the boss was back.
“Somebody comes in and says, ‘Hey, Vince is on his way back, he doesn’t want to miss the wedding!'”
Lawler continued by noting that they were scrambling in the room trying to get their stuff together and his office back to how it was so McMahon wouldn’t notice.
“Vince came back just to make sure he was there for the wedding. So, it was great.”
The wedding segment was hyped throughout the entire broadcast. Even though the overall rating of the show saw a big increase from last week, the third hour was the lowest viewed out of the three-hour show.
It turns out that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and Triple H were among top officials not backstage at WWE RAW as they were absent.
Pwinsider.com reported on Monday afternoon that McMahon, Triple H, and Kevin Dunn missed Monday’s episode of RAW, which marked the final show of 2019.
Vince McMahon & Triple H Absent
As of this writing, there’s no word yet on why the three are missing show. It should be noted that it’s somewhat odd of them missing it due to the fact the show is held at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. The site of RAW is just 1.5 hours from Stamford, where WWE HQ is.
Instead, RAW Executive Director Paul Heyman and WWE Vice President of Global Television Production Michael Mansury are in charge of running the show.
That doesn’t mean that the WWE Chairman and CEO hasn’t been in contact with those two officials as he has the final say on the script and when he does miss shows, he’s in constant communication with the top officials at the TV events.
John Laurinaitis was running the pre-show rehearsals in the arena. WWE Hall of Famer and Producer Michael “PS” Hayes appears to be the lead producer of the matches.
McMahon and Triple H were not backstage at the final pay-per-view event of 2019, TLC. earlier this month either.
McMahon and Triple H have missed a few shows this year due to their other projects going on as such as the XFL and NXT
A lawsuit has been filed against Vince McMahon and WWE on behalf of the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension Fund. The lawsuit was filed on December 26th, 2019 in a Delaware Chancery Court. The pension fund, which owns stock in WWE, claims there is “a credible basis to believe” that Vince McMahon and other senior officers of WWE have diverted resources to the XFL, thereby breaching their commitments to WWE shareholders.
The lawsuit seeks to obtain documents relating to WWE’s ties to the XFL. The suit also alleges that members of WWE’s board failed to conduct reasonable investigation to ensure Vince McMahon hasn’t engaged in financial transactions that conflict with WWE’s interests.
The lawsuit claims there is “a credible basis to believe” that WWE Chairman Vincent McMahonn and other senior officers breached their duties to investors by diverting valuable resources to the XFL. https://t.co/5ZICo1POH1
The XFL is scheduled to begin operations in February of 2020.
Vince McMahon Sells WWE Stock To Resurrect The XFL
Earlier this year, Vince McMahon sold $270 million of WWE stock in order to bring back the football league. McMahon started the new company titled “Alpha Entertainment” which officially owns the XFL.
A new report on which WWE star that Vince McMahon is backing has surfaced online.
It’s been noted on a few different occasions that Ricochet, United States Champion Andrade, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, The Street Profits, Samoa Joe, and Aleister Black are the favorite stars of Paul Heyman, who serves as the RAW executive director.
Vince McMahon Backing Talent
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason behind Erick Rowan’s push on RAW is due to the WWE Chairman and CEO.
McMahon is a fan of Rowan’s and has been “heavily behind” Rowan’s push. Thus, for people wondering why he’s been given a renewed push, that’s why.
It also means that there are bigger things in store for him as McMahon likes to push a monster on television and that’s exactly what he’s doing with Rowan.
Expectations
With the several names mentioned above, they are either getting a big push right now or will get one soon. With WrestleMania season about to begin starting next month with the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event and eventually WrestleMania, expect to see these stars heavily featured on television.
His push started a few months ago when he was revealed as Roman Reigns’ attacker and not Daniel Bryan as the attacker, which was expected. Bryan as the attacker was the original plan.
Rowan was later moved to RAW where he was slightly repackaged after teaming with Luke Harper, who was recently granted his release from the company.
The Street Profits Discuss How They Became A Tag Team
It turns out that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and Triple H were not backstage at the final pay-per-view event of 2019, TLC. The news comes courtesy of John Pollock of POST Wrestling.
It was also noted that they did check in with the WWE official in charge in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Target Center. As of this writing, there’s no word yet on why they were not at the show or who ran TLC. It’s likely that the person who ran the show had more contact with Vince or Triple H during the show.
It’s also not known if McMahon and Triple H are at Monday’s episode of RAW in Des Moines, IA at the Wells Fargo Arena.
It’s no secret that the schedules for Triple H and McMahon have become busier in recent months. Triple H is in charge of the WWE NXT brand and the show has evolved as it was moved to live weekly TV on the USA Network back in September. McMahon’s schedule is also busier as he prepares for the XFL re-launch in early 2020.
McMahon and Triple H have missed a few shows this year due to their NXT and XFL projects.
Former WWE creative Jimmy Jacobs recently joined Jordan Garber’s NOW podcast, where he discussed his time working with the promotion. Jacobs, now a part of Impact Wrestling’s creative team, shed light on what he calls WWEs “faux corporate” environment.
“WWE is such a faux corporate environment and Vince wants it to appear as corporate,” Jacobs stated. “It made me feel like I couldn’t be myself. I missed having nail polish on and being kind of like a maniac. I felt like I was in a shell.”
He explained how when he first started working for WWE, he wasn’t scared of Vince McMahon. To him, Vince was just “a dude.” However, after working there for a few months, he grew to understand why people feared him.
“I spent the majority of my time there basically scared of Vince and ultimately afraid of losing my job,” he admitted. “It wasn’t until the last couple of months of my time there where I was so sick of feeling just tied and boxed up that I wasn’t scared of getting fired anymore. Which I spent most of my time doing. Maybe I would last longer if I wasn’t scared of Vince. It’s his sandbox …he’s just letting you play in it.”
Jacobs’ time in Impact Wrestling so far has been much more positive. He noted how he is “one of the guys steering the ship” and that he hopes the direction he is guiding the promotion in is a good one.
He pointed to talents like Rich Swann and Tessa Blanchard as stars within the company, and that their long-term booking for certain stories will have satisfying conclusions, reiterating his confidence that they have “some good stuff happening.”
https://youtu.be/M804go4oNE0
H/T to Jordan Garber & Wrestlezone for the transcription.
Current WWE 24/7 Champion R-Truth has opened up in a recent interview about his creative input when it came to championship changes. He also spoke about his favorite 24/7 Championship moment to date and addressed his relationship with Vince McMahon and partnership with Carmella.
Speaking with Comicbook.com, R-Truth explained how much he loves laughing and being entertained. These core factors helped him bring a creative edge to his reigns as champion. “This title has brought so much creativity out within me. Just coming up with different and new ways to do something entertaining, it’s like, it’s mine, I’ve mastered that,” he explained. “This title, man, does something no other title at WWE does, and it involves everybody.”
When asked about his favorite moment, Truth listed several memorable exchanges. He noted how “we’ve had so many of them.” For him, however, there’s one that continuously stands out. Unsurprisingly, it’s when he crashed Drake Maverick’s wedding to reclaim the gold.
“He’s Open To A Lot Of People”
Reflecting on his relationship with Vince McMahon, Truth divulged that he has a “good relationship” with Vince. He explained, “I’ve been on a lot of trips with Vince, as far as with overseas, going to visit the military. And even at work, man, with ideas, he’s open to a lot of people, everybody, pretty much. If you have a good idea, he wants you to come in there and prepare with it.”
Although now over, his recent partnership with Carmella helped both get valuable face time on WWE programming. R-Truth revealed how working with Carmella wasn’t his idea and that it “just happened.” He explained how she wasn’t involved in any storylines at the time. With him having just returned from should surgery, they were simply put together and their partnership quickly “blossomed.”
If you use any of the quotes from this article, please provide a H/T to SEScoops.
NBA Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter is focused on making the transition from basketball to the world of pro wrestling.
He doubled down on his desire to become a pro wrestler when he was recently interviewed by TMZ sports where he noted that he’s looking to wrestle in WWE once his days as a pro basketball player are over.
He was quoted by stating, “Full-time, I’m ready, I’m actually already talking to some people.”
Kanter brought up how he has a friendship with Paul Heyman and that he’s spoken with Triple H as well as WWE CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon. He added that he plans to play 6 or 7 more years in the NBA then will go to WWE.
WWE had Kanter do a segment with R-Truth, who was the WWE 24/7 Champion at the time, back on September 9th in New York City, NY at Madison Square Garden.
Kanter briefly won the title when he beat R-Truth before airing a live episode of RAW. R-Truth would later reclaim the title.
You can watch a video of his appearance on Main Event from this fan footage:
.@EnesKanter of the Celtics won the 24/7 Championship and then lost it to R-Truth at MSG ? #Rawpic.twitter.com/zSx6chZOvQ
The main event of this week’s episode of Raw saw the United
States Champion Rey Mysterio competing in a 6 man tag match. However, latest
report reveals that he wasn’t originally slated to be competing during the
bout.
According to reports from Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the original plans were for Randy Orton to team up with Humberto Carrillo and Ricochet to compete against the OC.
The idea was for Mysterio to interfere and help the faces in
picking up a win but Mr. McMahon wanted The Viper to deliver an RKO out of
nowhere to AJ Styles.
The Boss felt that Styles needed to be coming off a pin for
this to work so he changed the plans at the producers’ meetings on the day of
the event. This resulted in Orton deciding not to team with Ricochet and
Carrillo.
Ricochet ended up taking the pin in the match because the Boss did not want Mysterio to be in the position. Humberto was likely exempted because he has been losing most of his matches since debuting on the brand in October.
No word yet on where this storyline is headed but it’s likely that we’ll see a match between Randy Orton and AJ Styles soon, presumably at the upcoming TLC PPV.
WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin has recalled the first time he was expected to deliver a scripted promo. Speaking with National Wrestling Alliance’s Eli Drake on his podcast, The Steve Austin Show, Austin looked back on coming back from surgery only to have a script presented to him by Vince McMahon.
“I’ll never forget when I came back from getting my neck fused, C3 and C4, in ’99 or whenever it was,” Austin recalled. “And when I left, we were cutting promos just like I told [Drake], man, you kind of go out there and it was what it was. You might have a bullet point or two, or someone might say, ‘hey man, remember this’ or whatever, but you go out there and you cut a promo.”
He continued, “When I came back, that’s when the papers started coming around. And all-of-a-sudden, man, I’ll never forget […] I was in a room with Vince, and, well, somebody had to track me down. I was watching matches. ‘Hey man, Vince wants to go through this promo with you’ and so, just like this piece of paper here, and I said, ‘Vince… when I get my hands on you… I… am… going… to… tear… you… limb… from… limb…'”
Austin explained how Vince expected him to deliver an “A-promo.” He pushed back, however, believing he wouldn’t be able to. He shared how the “Stone Cold” character was clearly missing from the words he was given. He shared how nothing helps him inhabit “Stone Cold” more than when the red light is on for the cameras, and he’s in front of a live crowd.
Before becoming the Mayor of Knox County, Kane spent more than two decades in WWE as an active performer, during which he developed a strong relationship with the owner of the company Vince McMahon.
During his recent appearance on Busted Open Radio, the former World Champion talked about a number of things, and he also tried to clear a misconception about the Boss.
Kane first revealed that Mr. McMahon was very supportive of
his decision of becoming a mayor and he went on to claim that the perception
that Vince McMahon is a heartless person is not true at all:
“I think that people think Vince McMahon is this
heartless person that takes advantage of everyone, uses people until they are
all used up and then discards the husk of the human being that he has pulled
all of the energy out of. That is frankly not the case at all.
Does Vince McMahon make business decisions? Yes. I told him
to his face one time, the one thing that you are bad at as a businessman is
that you give people too many chances. They stab you in the back and then you
turn around and bring them back.”
The Big Red Monster went on to say that the reason McMahon
gives chances to people is that sometimes he believes that he can make money
off of them and other times he has some sort of emotional bond and loyalty with
them.
This according to the former ECW Champion, is almost a fault with him and this belief about the Boss is the biggest misconception people have about him.
Apart from this, Kane also talked about how his wrestling career helped him in his mayoral campaign, how Vince McMahon wants people to be successful and more. You can check out Kane’s comments in the video below:
WWE Legend The Undertaker has opened up about his relationship with Vince McMahon. “The Dead Man” spoke about their friendship with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on the first episode of Austin’s new WWE Network show, Broken Skull Sessions.
He explained how their original relationship was strictly professional. His loyalty to Vince McMahon and WWE over time, however, helped it to evolve into a good friendship, one based on trust and creativity.
“[The Undertaker character] was originally his creative vision, but he gave me a lot of creative liberty with it,” ‘Taker said. “He trusted me when I felt like I needed to turn into the American Bad Ass. He obviously must have felt it too. We’ve butted heads and things have been rough, but at the end of the day, our passion is the same. We want to put out the best product possible.”
With the wealth of knowledge and experience under his belt, it’s not surprising that The Undertaker developed into a locker room leader. ‘Taker admitted that role “just kind of happened.” When asked by Austin why he never jumped away from WWE, The Undertaker stressed how he felt loyalty to Vince because of the opportunity he presented to him.
“I never forgot who gave me my first opportunity, and that was Vince. It’s probably not the most sound business decision,” Undertaker said, “but that’s who I am and if that ship went down I was going to go down with him. But I knew eventually it would turn.”
Last night on WWE RAW, Seth Rollins opened up the show by berating several members of the RAW roster for their performance at Survivor Series.
During the segment, the Chicago crowd began to chant for CM Punk. Rollins told the live crowd that he tried to get Punk on the show but that Punk would rather sit behind a desk in LA.
According to a report from Wrestling Observer Radio, Vince McMahon was upset backstage that Rollins acknowledged the chants.
“Unless Seth and Vince worked it out and Vince was working everyone backstage by being furious when this is going on, Vince was really upset about Seth responding to (the CM Punk chants) because Vince’s rule is that you don’t, on television in particular, you do not push the idea of a match that you are not going to deliver,” Dave Meltzer said on the show.
“I think that most likely that Vince wasn’t putting on an act and there is no deal as of right now and that Seth responded and Vince acting like he was furious was because he was actually not happy that (he) responded.”
Meltzer would allow for the possibility that Vince McMahon was “working” people in the back by pretending to be upset, however.
“I leave that open because it is Vince McMahon and anything’s possible especially on something like this,” Meltzer continued. “I don’t believe it, I’m just throwing out that 2% possibility that its that level of ‘work.'”
You can watch the Seth Rollins ‘Town Hall’ from Monday’s RAW below:
A new report has surfaced that shed some insight into the meeting that WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon held with the RAW talent on Monday afternoon.
Dave Meltzer reported in the Daily Update on F4Wonline that the meeting took place at 3 p.m. today at NYCB Live. Although not all of the details about what was said in the meeting are out yet, some interesting tidbits were revealed.
According to the report, WWE blamed stars speculating on the reason behind having their flight delayed last week in Saudi Arabia for the Crown Jewel event for causing a problem.
The talent was told the flight issues were all mechanical and nothing more.
The company stated that the delays were not over a dispute. McMahon stated that he had flown out long before ever knowing there were any problems with the other talent flying out as he left at about 12:40 a.m. local time, about two hours before the talent was to board their plane that never took off.
There have been rumors that flight delays were caused by McMahon deciding to delay the broadcast of Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia due to money from their previous show, Super ShowDown, being owed to them by the government.
Regarding today’s announcement of WWE extending their deal with Saudi Arabia to guarantee two shows a year going forward, it was noted that this was to guarantee two shows a year going forward.
The previous deal only had WWE hold one show in the country per year in the deal but ended up doing two shows in the first two years of the deal. It was an informal announcement and put the agreement in writing.
Meltzer speculated that the timing of this announcement being today was due to WWE’s stock declining in a big way over the uncertainty of the big-money deal and the company needed to quickly stop the decline.
With media publications talking about the uncertainty, the belief is that it could have also negatively affected the stock price.
The official story regarding WWE talent being stuck for 24 hours in Saudi Arabia this week is that the plane suffered a mechanical failure. According to a report from Wrestling Observer Radio, however, a financial dispute between WWE and the Saudi government might actually be to blame.
“They had not been paid for the last Saudi show, the Super ShowDown show that was the last Saudi show, as of September 30th,” Dave Meltzer said.
“They did say (on the investors call) they received $60 million after September 30th, which is when the report closed but before October 31st, and so this would be a couple of hours before (Crown Jewel) started. So, there was talk about money owed, and there was clearly money owed but exactly what happened that led to Vince McMahon having whatever happened that led to the delay…”
At this point, Meltzer talked about how Crown Jewel was to air live on television in Saudi Arabia but did not.
“In Saudi Arabia, the show was supposed to air live on television and it did not air live on television,” Meltzer continued.
What Happened In Saudi Arabia?
“The talent all knew the story that there was some sort of showdown and Vince would not allow the thing to be televised and then it was evidently settled in some form and then the show aired like, one person said 2 hours but I think it was like 40 minutes late.”
“A lot of the talent knew this, a lot of the talent had been told that money was owed. But then the talent was all then told ‘oh, it was a mechanical failure on the plane.'”
Meltzer would continue to say that one person he spoke to did believe Vince’s story about a mechanical failure on the plane, however.
“I know one person, of the many people who contacted me, one person did believe the story and did say there were mechanics working on the plane. Almost everyone else said that they didn’t buy the story at all.”
Meltzer and Alvarez’s full conversation on the matter can be listened to in the player below:
WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi has shared details over the time he had to deliver his infamous finishing move, the Stinkface, to Vince McMahon.
Speaking with the WINCLY podcast, Rikishi shared his admiration of Vince McMahon and the product he has created.
“Vince McMahon is a wonderful dude and I don’t have nothing bad to say about the man,” Rikishi stated. “He’s set up his platform for wrestlers in the past, present and future and he’s taken care of a lot of families.”
He continued, “For us to be a part of his family, I’m talking about all the way to his father. My family has been there for 75+ years so it’s a family thing to be a part of the WWE. So, I wanna thank Vince McMahon for continuing to put out entertainment for fans around the world.”
Turning his attention towards the moment he had to Stinkface his boss, he recalled that Vince had a specific request for him.
“Before we went out there he goes, ‘Hey. I hope you washed your ass today.’ I said just because it’s called Stinkface doesn’t mean my ass stinks,” Rikishi joked.
He revealed that he would wrestle in three different thongs. His decision on which thong to wear that night was based on his much he liked his opponent.
“I have the thong I never take out the sandwich bag. I have the mediocre thong that I air out. Then I have the new thongs,” he explained. “So for those you think I don’t like, which thong do you think they get? So I wanted to give Vince McMahon the new thong. Otherwise I probably would have gotten fired the next day.”
AEW World Champion Chris Jericho made a recent appearance on Grado’s new Wrestling Daft podcast where he made some interesting comments about the Wednesday Night Wars.
In this interview, Jericho brought up how he was always confident that AEW would win in the ratings.
“NXT is still the minor league Those guys are still unknown performers, it’s not a competition to us and I knew we’d win because we have more star power.”
Jericho stated that AEW ended their premiere episode of Dynamite with himself, Dustin Rhodes, and Jon Moxley because fans all know them. They also had WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross calling the action, who fans know as well.
Jericho continued by noting that WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon decided to put NXT up against AEW in order to keep competition away from RAW and Friday Night SmackDown.
He added that their competition is with WWE’s flagship shows as well as Universal Champion Seth Rollins, WWE Champion Brock Lesnar, and Roman Reigns.
“I think it was a stroke of genius by Vince McMahon to put NXT on against up because it took the focus off ‘the main show and AEW’ and put it on ‘the minor league and AEW.'”
Since October 2nd, WWE has been battling AEW with airing NXT in the same timeslot on the USA Network as a way to counterprogram All Elite Wrestling with their Dynamite series on TNT.
Jericho’s comments come at an interesting time as Rollins recently made similar comments about AEW and seeing them as the minor league promotion when talking about top AEW star Kenny Omega.
Jericho makes his next title defense on PPV when he wrestles Cody Rhodes at the upcoming Full Gear pay-per-view event.
Vince McMahon took the time to send an internal email to his employees on Monday.
Pwinsider.com reports that the WWE Chairman and CEO thanked everyone for the success of Friday’s SmackDown FOX premiere.
In the email, McMahon mentioned that the top-rated segment for the show was the opening in-ring segment that saw The Rock, King Baron Corbin and RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch exchange words. The segment ended with Rock and Lynch hitting their finishers to Corbin.
This is where McMahon noted that the segment brought in 4 million viewers. The message also touted the fact that SmackDown doubled the #2 show of the night in all key demographics.
He also offered his thanks for their help in achieving success for the premiere episode.
McMahon did make a brief appearance on the episode, which also served as the 20th Anniversary special, as he was shown with his daughter, Stephanie McMahon.
He welcomed everyone to Friday Night SmackDown. They then led the show to the new SmackDown opening video package.
The show averaged 3.888 million viewers after initially pulling in 3.87 million viewers in the fast nationals. The Kickoff show pulled in 2.329 viewers.
Triple H once again discussed the fear by many fans of WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon getting involved with WWE NXT.
He did so when he spoke with Sports Illustrated to promote Wednesday’s WWE NXT episode on the USA Network.
According to “The Game,” while McMahon has his fingerprints on everything in WWE and there is no NXT without him, he doesn’t want to get involved with the brand.
“He wants NXT to be different, something for the more passionate fan base. It’s a darker, grittier feel, it’s different. He totally understands that. But he has no desire to be in the day-to-day operations. Vince has a lot of other things on his plate.”
The fear is based on the belief that he’ll step in if NXT starts to fall to AEW (All Elite Wrestling) in viewership.
Starting this Wednesday, there will be head-to-head competition between both shows. NXT airs on the USA Network and AEW Dynamite will air on TNT at the same time.
Time will tell whether changes are made to NXT as it will come down to whether they can beat AEW in the weekly ratings.
Former WWE commentator, Taz, has shared his thoughts on three-person announce teams. In an interview with Wrestling Inc., the former SmackDown announcer shared that he is a “firm believer in the two-man booth.”
“To me, it’s a better and easier listen. In some cases, a three-man booth is important, for example AEW because they’re a new brand and there’s a lot of stories that need to be told. I think that’s important as long as the announcers in AEW can get their cadence right,” Taz said.
“I’ve worked in both but I’ve always preferred a two-person booth. Everyone needs to know their role when it’s a three-person booth. There has to be a lead and you can’t step on each other or it will be a horrible listen.”
Reflecting on his time commentating in WWE, Taz brought up his working relationship with Vince McMahon. He explained that Vince was always “more helpful than hurtful.” Taz added that he thinks all announcers need to be produced as it helps the announce team to be prepared.
“I learned more from Vince in my headset. But he would often get upset in a segment cause of the guys in the ring or the ref, and he’d then get on the announcers,” he said. “He was always a little harder on the play-by-play guys than the color commentators because back then the commentators were former champions or former wrestlers. Now the business is different where many commentators weren’t champions or never wrestled much. But back then he did have a little bit of a different respect for guys who laced up boots.”
Despite having the crux of his recent push revolve around jokes regarding his height, Chad Gable is still considered as in the middle of a push.
Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com noted that, although Gable is doing a gimmick that suggests he is an undercard babyface, Vince McMahon allegedly likes and appreciates Gable and his work ethic. As far as Vince McMahon is concerned the jokes at his expense are still considered a push.
These jokes and jabs are apparently not designed to make fun of Gable. Instead, Vince McMahon believes they will help the WWE Universe get behind Gable as a sympathetic babyface.
King of The Ring
Gable competed in WWE’s recent King of the Ring tournament. He was able to get all the way to the finals, defeating Shelton Benjamin, Andrade and Shane McMahon. He was originally scheduled to face off against Elias in the semi-finals. It was revealed that Elias had suffered an injury, and so Shane McMahon replaced him.
He went on to face Baron Corbin in the finals on this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW. Despite his efforts, Corbin would emerge victorious.
Chad Gable ended up interrupting Baron Corbin’s coronation ceremony on SmackDown Live. With major wins over notable SmackDown Superstars, and Vince McMahon’s attitude regarding his push, Gable may still be primed for a continued push despite not winning the King of the Ring tournament.
