McMahon's return is a middle finger to WWE employees and talent.
The Monday Night Raw after Wrestlemania is reliably one of the most-viewed Raws of the year. It’s an opportunity to unpack the results from the biggest live event on the calendar and begin new storylines, often with debuting talent eager to shine in front of a raucous audience.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque, the superstar-turned-executive, jumped on this opportunity. He opened the show in the center of the ring, launching into a long promo about how things weren’t going to change now that the company had been bought by Endeavor. He promised the storylines and development he’d ushered in over the nine months since longtime CEO Vince McMahon retired would remain in place, carrying the banner of one of the WWE’s most popular stretches in recent history.
Behind the scenes, it was a very different story. McMahon wasn’t just back, his fingerprints were all over the three-hour show — and it soon became apparent in the ring.
Long promos and limited action were once again commonplace. One hundred eighty minutes of broadcast time gave way to five actual wrestling matches. Brock Lesnar came out, teamed with Cody Rhodes and betrayed him all in roughly a two-and-a-half-hour span, effectively recreating John Cena’s post-Wrestlemania arc from 11 years earlier.
This was all very familiar, because it was all Vince McMahon’s plan.
McMahon’s fingerprints were all over Raw, from his “in case of emergency, deploy Brock” ethos to the scattered, hastily rewritten nature of the show itself. Many character motivations, after months-long chases, were abandoned or ignored. Everything felt like it had been thrown together on the fly, because it was.
This show is categorically different than how it was laid out even a few hours ago. At least two matches scrapped or changed
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) April 4, 2023
This is a big deal. WWE had spent the last nine months rebuilding goodwill following McMahon’s departure — a retirement that came on the heels of disclosing a years-long pattern of sexual misconduct in the workplace and more than $17 million in costs related to covering up, then investigating, said conduct. Levesque’s role as the head of creative (i.e. the guy who approves all the matches, promos, etc.) wasn’t just stepping into a void. It brought new energy and compelling storytelling to a company whose production had been uneven in recent years.
McMahon’s return threatens to undo all that. It also sends a distinct message about how the new ownership views his past behavior: it sees McMahon as an asset despite all his liabilities. We know Endeavor doesn’t care about the behavior of the rich guys who lead its combat sport cash cows. Just earlier this year, it turned a blind eye to Dana White striking his wife.
McMahon told CNBC Monday that he’d “owned up” to his mistakes and moved on, even if that meant no real consequences after a pattern of sexual misconduct with subordinates. Those “mistakes” eventually led him to sell his business for more than $9 billion and then regain control over the company just as he had before retirement. There’s a lesson here, and it’s not a tale of accountability.
This doesn’t just impact corporate workers. Rising talent and mid-card staples were given the opportunity to flourish over the previous nine months. But with just one night back at the stick and a handful of rewrites, McMahon reportedly undid that progress and listed back toward his preference of established stars and a trusted, if stale, formula.
Vince McMahon was changing lots of things and in Gorilla at Raw. It caused a big hit to WWE morale.
A full story on https://t.co/jy8u4a7WDa on Tuesday
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) April 4, 2023
Per Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, some wrestlers backstage were “very frustrated” at the prospect of going backward and erasing all the momentum the previous eight months had built. WWE took steps to separate itself from a rising tide of wrestling, standing tall above rivals like AEW, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Impact. McMahon’s return threatens to sink Raw, Smackdown and the rest of the company’s programming back into the same loop it had been stuck in throughout the bulk of the last decade.
It’s still entirely too early to figure out what the end result will be. Levesque remains in charge of the creative side of things, though McMahon reportedly has final say over what makes it to broadcast. WWE has momentum after a strong Wrestlemania 39 — albeit one that started better than it finished.
But Endeavor’s purchase and McMahon’s return suggests years of predatory behavior can be hand-waved away, effectively telling women employees they’re taking a man, who has made his living talking and hyping up the thoroughly unbelievable, at his word. Or that his behavior simply does not matter. Indiscretions past or future have no consequence other than money, something McMahon now has more than ever of after selling the company he grew into pro wrestling shorthand for billions of dollars.
This hard reset is a signal anything in the WWE can be undone, including whatever workplace misconduct might arise. It also covers nine months of progress and fresh storylines if the first Raw after Wrestlemania is any indication. Morale is reportedly low among WWE employees after McMahon’s return to the helm. It’s easy to understand why.
