Vince McMahon retired from WWE this past July after the former CEO had paid out nearly $20 million in previously unrecorded expenses, almost $15 million of which were hush money for the sexual misconduct allegations he received from four women over the past 16 years and $5 million to former United States President Donald Trump’s now-defunct foundation through donations in 2007 and 2009. Vince McMahon has since stepped down from his duties as the company’s CEO, Chairman and Head of Creative with Nick Khan and Stephanie McMahon being named as co-CEOs and Triple H being named as the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations, the Chief Content Officer and the Head of Creative.
According to Fightful Select, since Vince McMahon’s exit from WWE, the backstage morale has “improved significantly” and people in the WWE’s locker room have even gone as far as to say that the backstage culture has changed for the better. It was also mentioned that “almost everyone” Fightful talked with said that going to work these days in the post-Vince McMahon era of WWE is more fun and easy going as well and there is less of a feeling that a wrestler can get fired for things beyond their control. It was then noted that things no longer appear to be so frenetic backstage and there’s a lot of optimism in regards to Triple H’s booking even though there are a few hiccups and there is a feeling that some of the talents are not being used effectively as things are definitely different from how they were a few months ago.
Things were reportedly the worst in the 80s, 90s and 2000s as it was like the wild west backstage and if a talent upsets the wrong person, then his or her push would be derailed and that person could end up on the unemployment line. Since then, the backstage culture has improved but in recent years there have been several reports about how Vince McMahon’s erratic decisions have affected the shows and the backstage morale and a good example of that is the 2022 WWE Royal Rumble Premium Live Event as it was seen as an all-time low for the WWE Superstars from a creative/booking standpoint and some of the WWE Stars even lost faith in Vince McMahon as a leader. One of the main frustrations the WWE talents were previously having was the constant changes being made before shows and sometimes even while the shows were already on air.
