Details On Rumor Of Triple H Taking Over WWE Creative Again, Vince McMahon Not Being Involved

– Fightful Select has more backstage details on the rumor making the rounds today from PWInsider (via WrestlingNews.co) that WWE Chief Creative Officer Triple H (nee Paul Levesque) has been anointed by WWE parent company Endeavor as the one driving the creative product for WWE. Additionally, it’s said that Executive Chairman Vince McMahon is no longer involved with the creative side of WWE.

It was also reported that WWE has seen a morale boost due to Triple H now being the captain of the creative ship again without Vince McMahon. According to Fightful’s update, this is a “significant prevailing belief” within WWE, and there has been a boost in optimism backstage in recent weeks compared to the previous eight months. By comparison, WWE’s locker room morale was said to have been at an all-time low in early 2022, usually due to Vince McMahon and his lack of creative vision. However, things took a turn for the better during the period when McMahon stepped down as chairman and head of creative, and Triple H took over things in July 2022.

The backstage morale has reportedly surged over the last couple of weeks, starting with the September 25 edition of Raw. Numerous WWE talents indicated the sentiment to Fightful.

Fightful also reports that talent has not been outright told that McMahon is no longer involved. Additionally, most of them were never explicitly told that McMahon was making creative changes after he returned to the company earlier this year, despite many of them knowing that was the case. Around February, many talents were telling Fightful that McMahon’s creative influence was being felt again with the WWE on-air product.

WWE creative team members who have spoken with Fightful have reportedly not worked directly with McMahon this year, and he reportedly did not sit in on creative meetings. When McMahon did make creative changes, they were reportedly made remotely, and he’d submit his changes usually right before WWE shows started. One of the exceptions was the post-WrestleMania 39 edition of Raw, which is said to have had significant widespread changes to the show.

In addition, Fightful reports that in recent weeks, many of those last-minute, remote changes McMahon would send in have come to a stop. The exception is last-minute changes that had to be made due to talents not being cleared to compete for medical issues, i.e. Damian Priest who wasn’t medically cleared to compete for his scheduled match on last week’s WWE Raw. Sources informed Fightful that while McMahon’s changes were coming in beforehand, but usually they were minimal compared to how things were before.

That said, many sources are telling Fightful that they have an “I’ll believe it when I see it” attitude regarding McMahon possibly being out of the creative side “for good.” For example, after McMahon had initially retired, WWE appeared adamant that McMahon would not be returning to the company.

Readers might recall that the WWE Board of Directors twice denied McMahon attempting to return to the company twice before he forcefully took back control of the company earlier this year. Endeavor reportedly looks fondly at Triple H in how he’s heading things up as the CCO.

In terms of the increase in optimistic morale, a WWE higher-up cited the recent return of Johnny Gargano to Raw. The individual stated to Fightful, “I think you can take a look at the show — Johnny Gargano is back after his return was nixed. Tegan Nox is on the show. Dragon Lee is all over the program. Carlito is finally factored in after being under contract for months. Cameron Grimes got back on TV. Bronson Reed is winning matches. Tag team titles and IC titles are getting long matches to end Raw.” The anonymous individual continued, “I’m not going to say that all of those are direct results of the situation, but all of those parts moving at the same time is a little too much to be a coincidence for me.”

Another WWE talent informed Fightful that their feeling was that many Superstars felt relieved from a moral and creative perspective when McMahon temporarily retired last year. The talent went on that answering for McMahon’s controversial behavior wasn’t what they signed up for. Also, there was reportedly a lack of creative confidence in McMahon’s work. As previously noted, McMahon reached a financial settlement with former referee Rita Chatterton earlier this year. The former official had made rape allegations against McMahon.

After the recent merger of WWE and UFC was completed into TKO Group Holdings, Inc. last month, McMahon was named as Executive Chairman of the Board of TKO.