On April 3rd Vince McMahon openly admitted for the first time since returning to WWE that he was involved with creative.
Although he stated he wasn’t involved “in the weeds,” just hours later he was heading up Monday Night Raw live and in person as he had done for decades previously. It was reported that there were numerous changes to the show immediately before it began, and these continued throughout.
In addition, morale backstage was said to have fallen with many feeling that things would be returning to the pre-July 2022 norm.
These feelings were also shared by a number of fans online, but these fears have since calmed. McMahon wasn’t present for SmackDown on April 7th, or Raw on April 10th. However, that doesn’t mean his influence couldn’t be seen.
Early on during Raw, Lita was mysteriously attacked backstage meaning that Becky Lynch ended up teaming with Trish Stratus for her Women’s Tag Team Title defence. But it was the promo from Lynch setting up teaming with Stratus that caught the attention of fans. The Man stated that Lita had been taken to a “local medical facility,” instead of “the hospital.” The former was a favorite of Vince McMahon for years as “hospital” was among a list of banned words.
Following the segment and during the match, Corey Graves also used the phrase on commentary.
Trish Status and Becky Lynch lost the tag team titles to Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan, with the WWE Hall of Famer turning on Lynch after the match.
Vince McMahon Will Lose “Majority Voting Control Over WWE”
With WWE set to merge with UFC, a new company will be formed with Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel holding the same role within the new — as yet unnamed — company and Vince McMahon will serve as Executive Chairman.
However, with Endeavor controlling 51% of the company and WWE holding 49%, McMahon’s influence, at least to shareholders will be decreasing.
The report estimates that McMahon will own around 18% of all shares in the new company with Stephanie McMahon holding 1.2% and Linda McMahon holding 0.4%.