This week for WWE fans has been interesting. First, stock prices rise to the largest amounts we have seen. Then, the return of Vince McMahon to run the media rights negotiations of the WWE, only to be surrounded with rumors of the company being bought by the Saudi Arabia government.

Then, we get body slammed with the news that Co-CEO and chairwomen of the board of WWE, Stephanie McMahon, is resigning and leaving the company. Stephanie announced the news on her social media Tuesday night along with a heartfelt message to all the fans:

“I cannot put into words how proud I am to have led what I consider to be the greatest company in the world, working alongside a remarkable leadership team, and one of the strongest executives I have known in my Co-CEO, Nick Khan. I look forward to cheering on WWE from the other side of the business, where I started when I was a little kid, as a pure fan.”

Bad timing

As this news came on Tuesday night, Tuesday afternoon, a unanimous vote by the board of directors announced that Vince McMahon will return to his role as Executive Chairman. Nick Khan will serve as the WWE CEO and Paul “Triple H” Levesque will continue to serve as the Chief Content Officer.

Not even two weeks have passed in 2023, and we’re beginning to see the same old Vince. You can see him muscling himself back into the business he loves and helped build. What we all thought was going to an outside position for Vince over seeing media rights. Instead, it has now turned into him pushing out his own daughter out. Now, not that Vince will jump right back into the creative side of things for the company, but I could see him at some point wanting to make a few changes.

Strange times

This is all just speculation, but I fear the worst for a product that they are putting out now to fans. Changes that Paul Levesque had once made in the past few months to fix what Vince had done could all be for nothing.

Wrestlers that were once fan favorites everyone hated to see let go from the company could all be on the outs again. Storylines and new rebuilds that once had meaning and depth could all see a turn. Or even worse, after all this time with Vince back at the helm, we could see the resignation of Paul himself to join Stephanie.

I just don’t understand why Vince needs to have his input on everything happening in the company when it was left in good hands in his absence. Maybe he’s bored sitting at home, maybe he feels he needs to be in charge of something, or maybe he just can’t let go of control of something he once saw as his baby.

The product is changing

Whatever the reason, it may be the wrestling world he once knew is not the same as before, and it’s clear that the product is evolving in a way that he can’t keep up. He’s lost touch with the fan base as well as what they see as entertainment.

I understand the thought of having something you helped build being taken away from you feels wrong, but if he could get out of his own way, he would see it’s for the greater good of the product.

Unfortunately, that’s not Vince’s mindset. He sees it as if the ship goes down in flames. He’ll be the one to hold the match and to let everyone know he tried his way, of course. Hopefully, I’m wrong, but nothing Vince has done in the past year has led me to believe he’s changed his ways.

Cheers to Stephanie as she takes a very well deserved retirement from the busy life that is the WWE.  Go enjoy being a mom, wife and now a pure fan of the product she can say she made improvements on. Thank you for the amazing job you’ve done, and hopefully this won’t be the last time we see you around a ring again.