Vince McMahon’s exact role in WWE creative remains a mystery.
While Triple H is Chief Content Officer and involved with the more day-to-day running of creative, Vince McMahon casts a long shadow over the whole process. The Executive Chairman even admitted his involvement in the bigger picture of creative in a recent interview.
The exact details of this relationship remain unclear, but it seems that McMahon isn’t afraid to make changes to the product even at short notice. Although McMahon hasn’t attended a show in person since the ‘Raw after WrestleMania,’ he’s been involved remotely.
Ahead of the April 24th Raw taping it was reported that McMahon had made “major changes” to the show, but the nature of these changes was unknown. However, it has now been revealed that he changed the finishes to a number of matches, and scrapped entire segments.
Mike Johnson of PWInsider, via PWInsider Elite, noted that McMahon’s changes to matches included who was going to win, and in other cases how matches reached the agreed finish.
However, the main event went off as planned, as did Bay Bunny’s appearance at the end of the show.
One match was reportedly added to the show at the behest of Vince McMahon and that was the Street Profits vs. Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin.
Johnson added that there were a “number of segments” cut involving female talents. One segment cut involved Candice LeRae and Piper Niven, while a second would have involved Adam Pearce and several members of the women’s roster including Sonya Deville. This was reportedly done to give more time to the six-woman tag team match between Damage CTRL and Bianca Belair & Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez.
It is perhaps worth noting that a number of women were left frustrated last week following similar cuts.
Vince McMahon Wasn’t At Raw, But CM Punk Was
While the biggest story on the show was the creation of a new World Championship, and the unveiling of a new title belt, CM Punk nabbed the headlines with a surprise visit backstage.
It is believed that Punk spoke with a number of talents as well as Triple H before being asked to leave.