Dave Meltzer has appeared to back up a fan theory about Vince McMahon and WWE Raw.
After Vince McMahon ‘retired’ from WWE in July 2022, fans were quick to notice that commentary appeared much more natural, with Michael Cole in particular seemingly reveling in not having the Executive Chairman shouting in his ear. Many of the “Vince-isms” disappeared, and a more relaxed and less scripted atmosphere took hold.
However, following McMahon’s return to the company, and admittance in April that he’s involved in WWE creative, fans have noted some changes. One of these is a theory that McMahon is once again having more input on commentary, even though he isn’t present at the tapings in person.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer has appeared to back up the theory, commenting that on the July 17th edition of Raw, vast sections of commentary felt stilted and scripted. Meltzer added that while it hasn’t been confirmed to him, he feels the changes are signs that McMahon is taking more of an interest.
“Did you notice it was all back to the real fake talking with all these descriptive words over and over again. It’s like, I could just tell watching the thing. Everyone has got a nickname and everyone has got these phrases. It’s like the announcers were clearly told, you could hear that language when you are listening to it going ‘Man, this is really scripted.’
Both Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick have been told to say things in a certain way with certain descriptive words. Every wrestler has extra descriptive words, it was very different, it was a change from the previous weeks. My gut watching it was that it was Vince but no one has told me that. I don’t actually know that, but you can see that there are a lot more nicknames and phrases that they are using just all through the show. I didn’t find it natural listening to it.
There are always things that they have to say, there’s always that WWE thing. But from the start of the show when they were running down the matches they have extra descriptions of who they are. The Cheeky Chelsea Green, the this and the that, that kind of thing.”
Dave Meltzer Confirms Vince McMahon’s WWE Role
Since McMahon returned to the sports entertainment giant in early 2023, there has been a great deal of speculation over what his exact role is behind the scenes. While the Chairman rarely attends tapings in person, he is known to make changes to creative remotely, even causing a recent episode of SmackDown to be almost entirely rewritten.
Posting on social media, Meltzer noted that although Triple H is still running things, “Vince has final say.”
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