WWE talent seem to have accepted that Vince McMahon is back in charge

WWE Chairman & controlling shareholder (until the Endeavor acquisition goes through, and then he’ll “just” be the Executive Chairman of spin-off TKO Holdings) Vince McMahon was backstage at the June 6 Raw.

When he showed up for the Raw after WrestleMania 39 a couple months ago, this was huge news. Publicly and privately WWE officials were saying McMahon’s post-sex scandal comeback wouldn’t involve taking the reins of creative back from Paul “Triple H” Levesque, and the results were chaotic when he did call the shots for that April 3 episode. Many fans and talent were upset, with some talking about stopping watching or leaving the company.

But last night’s show didn’t seem that different from the weeks when Vince hasn’t been backstage. That’s probably partially due to his reportedly calling in changes even when he’s not on-site. But despite PWInsider’s sources saying “his influence was absolutely felt as we are told he ‘re-worked’ the broadcast and changed the order of matches and segments to fit his vision of what he wanted”, and Fightful Select’s telling them he “changed a significant part of the show just a couple of hours before the show”, talent don’t seem that upset.

Insider indicates that’s because the roster’s accepted that Vince is the person running things:

Unlike the last time McMahon was at Raw, there wasn’t as much resentment or anger from talents that we are aware of. In speaking to one talent from Raw after the taping, we are told that a major difference is, as they said, “the band-air has already been ripped off” and that it’s an unspoken understanding that McMahon is back on the throne. Even if he isn’t around every week, it’s well known by everyone that he’s back in charge and his decrees will be met.

Fightful’s report added that, “the event ended up being very positively received.”

That lines up with most fans’ reaction to last night’s show, too. Seems we also understand that McMahon is “back on the throne”.

Given that the apparent system of Triple H running the day-to-day with Vince dictating tweaks to the final product has been producing good ratings and well reviewed shows, it’s not hard to see why.