WWE is attempting to distance itself from Vince McMahon, its former CEO and chairman.
McMahon resigned from all of his positions at TKO, including Executive Chairman and Board of Directors, last Friday. This came after a former WWE employee, Janel Grant, filed a bombshell lawsuit alleging his involvement in a sex trafficking and abuse scandal.
Grant claimed McMahon coerced her into engaging in sexual activities with himself and other men, and that he shared explicit photos of the victim with men both inside and outside of the company.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed the interest in this past Monday’s Raw episode as a result of the McMahon lawsuit news, Royal Rumble fallout, and CM Punk injury.
Meltzer noted that, unlike the last time McMahon was removed from WWE due to the hush money scandal, he received a send-off from Stephanie McMahon, who led a “Thank you, Vince, chant.” This time, the company erased him and made no mention of him over the weekend.
Meltzer stated, “It’s funny because the bad news, does short-term help the ratings? You know, I mean, we’ve seen that before, at least, at least when it comes to Vince McMahon bad news. You know, I mean, other bad news may not, but when it comes to Vince McMahon, it does, and it is very interesting. And I’m not surprised, and I don’t think anyone should be that when you compare and contrast the first time Vince quit. And this time, the first time Vince quit, they built the whole show around him. You know they had Stephanie come out there the big goodbye the whole bit. And this guy’s been erased. I mean, Paul Levesque never mentioned his name at the press conference. On the Friday SmackDown show, they never mentioned his name. I don’t think that anyone’s going to mention his name on any shows, maybe ever again, at least not, you know, for the foreseeable future. I mean, it is you know, and probably for all good reasons. I don’t see any point in ever mentioning his name, you know, other than it’s in a like a historical piece because, unfortunately, you know, when it comes to the history of WWE, you can’t tell the history of WWE up until the last month or two and do a fair job without mentioning Vince McMahon because he’s fingerprints as ever fingerprints are everywhere. And he’s the key guy in history.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
