A new report has provided more details on the “huge panic” felt in WWE when Brock Lesnar walked out of SmackDown following the announcement of Vince McMahon’s retirement.
In the hours leading up to the July 22nd edition of SmackDown, Vince McMahon made the bombshell announcement that he was retiring from WWE.
Soon after the announcement, news broke that one of the company’s biggest stars, Brock Lesnar had walked out of the taping, causing chaos backstage.
While Lesnar did eventually appear in the final minutes of the show, the walkout is said to have caused a “huge panic” in the company as it was seen to be the “worst thing” that could happen.
Speaking on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained that people shouldn’t expect any major changes just now as WWE wants to show that everything is stable despite the departure of McMahon.
“Not to expect any major changes because right now they want to show Wall Street and stockholders that everything is stable and everything is fine. They don’t want big changes.”
He went on to describe the “huge panic” that hit the company when Brock Lesnar walked out, describing it as “imperative” he returned to the show.
“In fact, there was a huge panic when Brock walked out, it was the worst thing. It was imperative they get him back. I don’t know if Brock was unbelievably smart to do this on his own or it just worked out for him.”
According to Meltzer, very few people knew the announcement was coming, and Lesnar took exception to the news coming out of the blue.
“When the tweet came out from Vince, nobody had any advance notice of that except for Stephanie, Nick Khan, and maybe a few others. Even people who usually know were not aware until it happened.
“Brock was in Boston, saw that, and got all p***ed off and left. The basic gist was the last thing they wanted was Vince McMahon to leave and then, as it was described to me, ‘The most famous guy on the roster’.”
“He was the main guy advertised for the show in Boston and is in the main event of SummerSlam, all of a sudden walks out. That’s the worst thing that could happen so they made sure that he came back, and he came back half an hour into the show.”
Meltzer reiterated that WWE thinks it’s important for everything to look as stable as possible, with a smooth transition to the post-Vince McMahon era.
“Whatever it was, and I was not told what the deal was as far as how they got him back, the worst thing would be that Vince left and all of a sudden it was anarchy. They want everything looking as stable as possible to make it look like it’s a smooth transition and the company’s in good hands and it’s not going to fall apart without Vince McMahon.
“Brock leaving and SummerSlam changing would’ve been an absolute disaster at this time so they made sure that didn’t happen.”
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