In this WrestleTalk News, the real reason for Vince McMahon’s retirement, more details
on Triple H taking over creative, Luke’s review of the beginning of the Triple H-era
Raw and more.
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The fallout don’t stop coming and it don’t stop coming and it don’t stop coming with
the news of Vince McMahon’s retirement from WWE.
With internal investigations and allegations made against the former Chairman of the Board,
there’s now been more details surrounding Vince and his decision to retire so suddenly.
With the allegations from the Wall Street Journal articles indicating that Vince had
previously spent over $12million in ‘hush money’ and NDAs, WWE’s SEC filing noted
something very interesting indeed, that WWE themselves had made a “preliminary determination
that certain payments that Vince McMahon agreed to make during the period from 2006 through
2022 (including amounts paid and payable in the future), and that were not recorded in
the WWE consolidated financial statements, should have been recorded as expenses in the
quarters in which those agreements were made”.
Vince used company funds and didn’t file them, essentially.
The figure this came to was $14.6million, and while the filing makes no mention of what
that money was used for, you’d assume that considering the Board was investigating these
allegations of hush money, and now this has come out, maybe this has something to do with
that.
The filing notes right at the end that WWE “has also received, and may receive in the
future, regulatory, investigative and enforcement inquiries, subpoenas or demands arising from,
related to, or in connection with these matters.”
- which in other words means that the SEC, the Security & Exchange Commission, are now
also investigating these matters on a federal level, it’s not just an internal investigation
anymore.
And this seems to be the primary catalyst in moving Vince’s retirement along.
According to Ted Mann & Joe Palazzolo of the Wall Street Journal, Vince’s retirement
was “hastened” due to these federal investigations.
And yet there might be another factor at play here too: there’s more reports to come out
yet.
PWInsider is reporting that more mainstream outlets are working on stories surrounding
Vince McMahon right now and they are expected to come to light soon, with more Wall Street
Journal articles, and a RealSports report that Bryan Alvarez described on Wrestling
Observer Live as “damning”.
As if all of this wasn’t damning enough.
While the fallout for Vince himself piles up, the retirement is still sending shockwaves
through WWE, and there’s still more coming.
According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, he’s heard from many people that new co-CEO
and Chairwoman Stephanie McMahon and Kevin Dunn “don’t like each other”, with Wade
Keller of PWTorch also noting that Dunn isn’t a “Triple H guy”, and that lack of solid
reputation without Vince McMahon there anymore may come back to bite him, as Keller speculates
that Dunn will be gone from WWE around “a year from now”.
Kevin Dunn has been Executive Producer & Chief of Global Television Distribution in WWE for
a long time now, and has been the primary production head for longer.
He’s the one responsible for this.
I don’t think people will miss him.
There is so much more news that I don’t have time for today, with WWE’s stock increasing
dramatically, USA Network’s reaction to Triple H taking over WWE creative, a meeting
Triple H had before Raw, and also more on Jonathan Gresham’s AEW release request.
So check out wrestletalk.com for these stories and the latest as more news breaks.
And now hot tag to Luke.
And now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka the McMahon-Helmsley Regime
in 2000 was a spoiler not a prediction edition of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes.
So here it is folks, the first show of the Triple H creative era of WWE, the first chance
for the man who put together some of the best wrestling cards of the last decade to put
his stamp on what has been - for the most part - the most stale wrestling product of
the last decade.
And the show opened with what felt like the biggest change; a recap of something that
happened before the show - where Logan Paul and The Miz brawled ahead of their advertised
segment later on.
It did make the show feel more chaotic than normal, and was perhaps the best build of
the night in terms of getting people invested in their Summerslam match.
Though, I think said advertised segment later on undid a lot of that.
The show opened proper with Roman Reigns actually showing up for work, and Paul Heyman cutting
the same promo about Reigns vs. Lesnar we’ve heard for the last seven years.
Theory came out and Roman got in a jibe about his daddy not being here anymore, which prompted
the crowd to chant who’s your daddy at Theory.
Roman warned Theory about cashing in, and then stopped Jey from attacking him after
he bumped him lightly with the briefcase.
This was your standard Roman segment, but there was a slightly different feel about
it.
Reigns has always played off the crowd more than everyone else who has to be a pre-programed
robot when it comes to crowd reactions, but this was honestly the segment on the show
that stood out the most for the first day of Triple H’s run.
With that said, it could just be that Roman is - like his t-shirt states - on another
level to everyone else.
So while this did feel different, there’s every chance this segment would have been
the same with Vince or Trips in charge.
Theory then tried to cut yet another promo, but was interrupted by Drew McIntyre for a
match.
Hmm, the Money in the Bank holder who is challenging Bobby Lashley for the United States Championship
this weekend, and the guy who could be the next contender for Roman Reigns at Clash of
Clans in September?
I guess we’d better spin the Wheel of Bad Finishes...
Come on… it’s a lame DQ finish to set up a tag match after the commercial break.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Sheamus and his bunch of lads attacked Drew for the DQ, and Bobby Lashley ran down for
the save to set up the match, which Bobby won by tapping out the guy he’s facing for
the United States Championship this Saturday.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
For those who might not know, beating the Money in the Bank holder is a Vince-ism, as
in his mind the guy with the briefcase will soon be the World Champion, so all of his
loses prior to that win will be forgotten about.
So rather than build up Austin Theory - who really needs all the help he can get as no
one buys him as a top guy yet - they’ve beaten him every week on TV since he won.
The man hasn’t won a singles match on TV or PPV since Hell in a Cell.
And to add more insult to injury, he was then laid out by The Usos on the ramp after the
match.
So he lost twice then got made to look like a chump.
Maybe he is winning the title this Saturday.
Rey Mysterio had a nice 20th anniversary segment where he got to namedrop Dean Malenko and
Konan - which popped me more than they should have - which turned into a tag team match
with The Judgement Day which The Mysterions won.
Crowd really got into the finish, and it wasn’t the end of the story for the evening; as Rhea
Ripley made her return to WWE and Judgement Day laid out Rey in not one, not three, but
two different backstage segments.
It was later announced that The Mysterions would face The Judgement Day in a rematch
this Saturday.
There were rumours that Edge would be on this show, but it feels like they’re saving that
return for Summerslam instead.
Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch didn’t get to do their promo segment as they brawled
instead, which was simple and effective build for their match this weekend, and Alexa Bliss
announced she was going to be targeting whoever wins between the two for the Raw Women’s
Championship following Summerslam.
I really hope this pays off, as Bliss is in desperate need of… well… a point.
She then quickly beat Doudrop in a match that the commentators did their best to make seem
like Bliss was in trouble of winning - even though Doudrop hasn’t won a match on proper
TV since February 7th.
After chatting with AJ Styles which was - essentially - AJ asking the crowd to please cheer Logan
Paul - Logan Paul came out to boos from the crowd.
They also booed his brother, and the idea that he’s hosting another talk show segment,
and when Miz stood tall with the Skull Crushing Finale, the crowd chanted One More Time - because
Logan Paul does not work as a babyface.
I really hope after Summerslam they realise this, and turn this dude heel.
Even when he’s cutting babyface promos he looks and sounds like a heel - the dude is
a natural unlikeable heel, and the crowd want to boo him.
Let them boo him!
AJ Styles and Dolph Ziggler beat Alpha Academy in a fine match, and the main event saw Riddle
team with Street Profits to take on The Bloodline, which got really good by the end.
Ford got busted open during the match - WWE TV-14 confirmed - and Roman won by pinning
Riddle with a Spear that was so powerful he pinned him for a 4-count.
So that was this week’s Raw, and honestly, it didn’t feel all that different from the
other shows in 2022.
But then again, I wouldn’t have expected it to.
Rome wasn’t built in a day - and neither was Roman Reigns when you think about it - and
the Triple H era will take a little while to get going while the old guard like Bruce
Prichard and Kevin Dunn are phased out.
Plus, this is the go-home edition of Summerslam where everything is already in place.
With that said, WWE haven’t been strangers to reset episodes in the middle of PPV builds
in the past.
You don’t have to change every match on the Summerslam card, but you could introduce
something to this show to tell your audience: this ain’t Vinny Mac’s WWE anymore.
You probably had a good few people check this show out this week - I’m expecting a ratings
bump following the Vince McMahon news - who normally don’t have watched Raw because
Vince’s WWE ran them off.
And what did they see from this show?
More of the same things that would have driven them off in the first place.
Did this show do enough to encourage those who might have given up on watching WWE to
buy Summerslam, or tune in next week to see the fallout of that show?
I don’t know.
But I do hope they do.
Because I do think things will change, it just won’t be an overnight story.
Roman Reigns wasn’t built in a day.
This week’s Raw was 3 out of 5.