Vince McMahon Made Ex-WWE Talent Feel Like “Glorified Mic Stand”

A former WWE announcer feels like Vince McMahon didn’t think much of the on-screen interviewers.

Kayla Braxton was a WWE interviewer and host for about eight years before deciding to walk away from the company in June 2024.

At the time of her WWE exit, Braxton (whose real name is Kayla Becker) made it clear that she had no issues with people in WWE and that it was just time for her to move on to do something else in her career.

When Kayla started in WWE, Vince McMahon was still running the show as the company’s Chairman and CEO. In July 2022, Vince McMahon “retired” from WWE due to multiple “hush money payments” totaling up to $20 million over the years.

In early 2023, Vince was back in the WWE mix, although his son-in-law Paul “Triple H” Levesque had taken over as the Chief Content Officer, running the creative direction of the company. Vince would have influence over the next year, but it all ended in January 2024.

Vince McMahon was forced to resign as TKO Executive Chairman after a lawsuit was filed by former employee Janel Grant accusing McMahon of severe sexual abuse and sex trafficking. That lawsuit ended McMahon’s four decades of control over the company while Vince has maintained his innocence.

Vince McMahon Liked To Control WWE Interviewers

During an interview with Simon Miller of WhatCulture Wrestling, Kayla talked about how different it was to be a backstage interviewer in Vince McMahon’s WWE compared to when Triple H called the shots.

“Especially during the Vince era, it was like, ‘Don’t react, don’t smile, don’t take away any of the attention away from the wrestler because you’re just a glorified mic stand.’

It got better after he left, Triple H was really good about giving us a little bit of freedom.

But I get it, it’s a TV show, you only have a lot of time, it’s live television, they can’t have us going all Mean Gene and taking over the entire segment. I understand why they do things that way.”

Since Kayla’s WWE departure, the backstage interviewers have been Jackie Redmond, Cathy Kelley, and Byron Saxton, who has been part of WWE for over 15 years in several different roles.