WWE: Backstage News Regarding Vince McMahon & Triple H Clashing Over Ideas
It looks like part of the drama playing out on WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night Raw, may not be too far off from reality. In particular, Vince McMahon and Triple H may be at odds with one another. The reason for this being Shane McMahon’s return and how much of a role Shane will be playing in an executive capacity if he decides to stay with the company. This is according to the latest edition of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
“Exactly how much of this is legit or exaggerated you can make up your own mind, but the Vince McMahon vs. HHH dynamic is something that everyone is talking about internally, even more since Shane McMahon appeared on the scene. The feeling is that if Shane McMahon actually does come back into the company in an executive capacity that it’ll be Vince playing Shane against HHH and Stephanie.”
Vince is already beginning to take the Shane/Undertaker storyline in a bit of a different direction, being a little more separate from Stephanie and Triple H. Meltzer mentioned that the original opening segment for this week’s Raw was for Shane to focus on Triple H and Stephanie , saying how he’ll fire them on Raw the night after he beats The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. However, the entire promo was rewritten right before the start of Raw focusing more on Vince and Shane’s relationship. Vince is reportedly more hands on with the opening segment of Raw than any other part of WWE’s weekly televised programming, so it is likely he was the one who made this switch.
In more backstage talk of internal conflict between Vince and Triple H, Vince doesn’t like the popular idea that his time is up and Triple H should take over Raw creative control due to his success spearheading NXT.
“Vince doesn’t like how he’s perceived as this old and out-of-touch guy and how there is a perception the company needs Vince to step away and let HHH run it and things will be great, citing NXT as the example. Vince isn’t going to step aside, but there is a lot of concern about the rigid decision making and limited viewpoint on who can be real top stars.”
Mark’s reaction: You never quite know how much of this stuff is true or blown out of proportion, but it would not surprise me if this sort of stuff was legitimately playing out backstage. As much of a circus WWE can be on stage, it is just as much of a circus behind the scenes. We are also in a very interesting time in the wrestling world as Vince McMahon is now 70 years old (will be turning 71 in August). He’s at that point in his life where he’s slowing down, but doesn’t really want to admit it. We’re getting closer and closer to a time where Vince will eventually have to hand the reigns over to someone else as the day to day duties of running WWE can be too much for anyone to handle, especially a 70 year old man who’s been at this nearly his entire life.
For a while it was just kind of assumed that Shane would take over the business, but there were always whispers that Triple H may be the guy to eventually run things. When Shane left the company in 2009, it was a huge deal. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that Triple H and Stephanie were officially the new heir-apparent. Now Shane comes back, at first his role backstage isn’t talked about too seriously, but now it seems like if he wants back into the business for good that he may have a significant executive role. It makes sense as it’s Vince’s freaking son, you can’t just turn him away; but it leaves Triple H and Stephanie in a confused state as to what level they’ll wind up being on comparatively to Shane. Again, this could all be greatly exaggerated, but it’s fun to speculate.
What do you think of all this? Leave your thoughts on any or all of the above in the comment section below.
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