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Vince McMahon has been involved with pro wrestling for decades, and he has managed to transform WWE from another regional wrestling promotion into a global sports entertainment phenomenon. But not all of his decisions and mindsets have been well-received.
Vince is over 70 years old, and many people have criticized him for many questionable booking decisions he has made, especially over the past decade or so. Most people recall when he appeared on the Stone Cold Podcast, on which Austin criticized him very deeply for many of his approaches and poorly-presented explanations for why he was doing certain things.
Among these supposed justifications, Vince lambasted ‘millennials’ for not working as hard as their predecessors, and claimed that Cesaro wasn’t connecting ‘because he’s Swiss’. These are but a few of the many problems that Vince’s mindset has produced.
There has long been demand by some people that Vince ought to retire, with the most common reason for this demand being that he is ‘out-of-touch’ with his fans. There is a lot of evidence to support this claim, but Vince himself has stated that he has no plans on retiring anytime soon, and is likely to follow the Big Van Vader approach, in that he will die doing what he loves before stepping down.
With all that said, Vince’s will leave WWE eventually (he is not immortal, no matter what he says), and when that happens, there will be significant changes in WWE. Here are ten things that once can expect to change in WWE once Vince McMahon leaves.
#10 Less plugging and advertising in-show
WWE under Vince McMahon is notorious for its overt and shameless plugging of various products and services. On any given show, WWE’s commentators (and sometimes even the wrestlers themselves) will plug one of WWE’s sponsor’s products/services, and in other cases, they will even hock those products in a segment.
It’s almost as if WWE sees its wrestlers as free models for various products, and they – under Vince’s guidance – order these wrestlers to try and sell these various products (instead of trying to sell the storylines those wrestlers may actually find themselves involved in).
But once Vince leaves WWE, this approach to marketing might disappear. If Triple H’s NXT is any indication of WWE’s future, then this blatant attempt at product marketing might disappear in favour of more subtle and less overt practices. While the normal 30-second spot where they say, ‘this show is brought to you by X’ might stay because it’s relatively harmless, the overt style where wrestlers sell products themselves will disappear.
This is because Triple H and company believe in real storylines that let fans invest in and understand. If you put a random product in there, it kills the story and prevents it from being sold and told properly. Triple H understands this, which is why his NXT stars avoid that style of marketing altogether.
#9 Less juvenile humour
Vince has one of the weirdest senses of humour out of anyone. He has a strange obsession with bodily functions (especially faeces and urine) and thinks that monkeys are the funniest creatures alive.
These aspects of his sense of humour are shown in the odd and oftentimes unfunny segments he and his crew execute. From the abysmal ‘Old Day’ segment from 2016 to John Cena cutting poop jokes, these awful and embarrassing moments are all done to please Vince McMahon.
But Vince isn’t immortal, no matter what he thinks or says, and there will come a day when he will be done with WWE. And when that day comes, the new regime will likely do away with these awful attempts at comedy, because they know that crude humour doesn’t get the same laughs as it used to.
Or at least, it could still get a positive reaction from the audience, but not in the way that Vince does it. That’s because his style is ‘awkward and embarrassing humour’, which isn’t helping WWE attract new fans in this day and age.
#8 Stronger booking for the cruiserweights
The cruiserweight division has been one of the biggest victims of Vince’s micromanaging style. Before it even became a regular part of RAW, he announced that the wrestlers would have severe restrictions put on them and the moves they could use.
Thus, instead of the Cruiserweight division being about smaller wrestlers with impressive athletic abilities, it was all about the colour purple: purple ring ropes, purple lights, and a purple title belt. Vince has effectively taken the things that made the Cruiserweight Classic exciting and unique and has stripped those wrestlers of that uniqueness, creating a division of WWE Superstars that don’t have the same attributes as they did before.
But when Vince leaves, this approach is likely to end. Triple H and the other producers behind the CWC recognized that it was these wrestlers’ athletic skills that made them exciting and not any ‘characters’.
As a result, the Cruiserweight division is likely to become what it was in the CWC once Vince leaves, because he won’t be able to put so many restrictions on those wrestlers as he does now.
#7 Less emphasis on authority figures
There has been an enormous overemphasis on authority figures in WWE for the better part of twenty years. This is because Vince McMahon and his team of writers still think that they can re-create the Austin vs. McMahon success with modern stars, despite a lot of factors in place today working against them.
Austin’s rise came at a time when a lot of normal people hated their lives, their jobs, and especially their bosses. Austin fighting against Mr. McMahon gave them a hero to live through, which is why is resonated so deeply with so many people. No such mentality is place today, especially since that which wrestling fans want to see today is likewise different.
Wrestling fans don’t want to see authority figures abusing their power over and over again (especially when said authority figures never get their much-deserved comeuppance, like Stephanie McMahon’s character). They want to see athletic contests between two or more grapplers with a realistic story between them.
Almost everyone recognizes this, but Vince doesn’t, which is why he puts together so many segments involving General Managers, Commissioners and other power-brokers at the expense of actual wrestlers. Hopefully, this old mindset will leave WWE with Vince when he likewise leaves the company.
If NXT is any indication, an authority figure needn’t be the centre of attention and the focus of all storylines, but instead as an ‘invisible hand’ that guides the wrestlers fighting amongst each other in a desired direction. That allows the storylines and rivalries between wrestlers to evolve organically, without the need for someone in power to give their thoughts on every little thing that happens in the company.
#6 An emphasis on dynamism instead of similarity in wrestling styles
When a wrestler ‘graduates to the main roster’ their wrestling style undergoes a drastic change. Under Vince’s style, all wrestlers have a strong degree of uniformity in terms of their wrestling styles. All of them must follow the same match structure, they must all have a similar and easily-identifiable superstar comeback, and all of them must go through the same motions without any sort of break in match style.
This is a harmful way of booking wrestling because it treats the performers as generic cogs in a machine without any uniqueness about them. This approach is heavily favoured by Vince McMahon and his crew, who have created this environment where few wrestlers, if any, have any major creative input, especially when it comes to their match formulae.
But when Vince retires, this approach isn’t likely to change. Many others in WWE have noticed that when wrestlers have more freedom to do their kind of match, that match ends up being better. Instead of following the same restrictive rules, wrestlers will have more freedom to perform in their styles once Vince leaves WWE.
This will only benefit WWE and its fans, as there will be less of a belief that going to WWE leads to some wrestlers performing in a ‘watered-down’ version of their former selves.
#5 Less emphasis on ‘big guys’
If there’s one trait that Vince loves, it’s big men. Larger-than-life monstrous human beings are his kind of wrestler, as seen with his continued emphasis on larger wrestlers that simply look big but might not be able to perform at the same standard as their smaller brethren.
Most people in WWE have noticed that the smaller wrestlers are more useful and versatile in the long-run, and have tried to emphasize these wrestlers more than the bigger ones. But Vince is still stuck in the 1980s when it was all about size and muscles.
So when he does leave WWE, more people with power will begin to take WWE in a different direction. It’s likely that the monstrous giants that keep getting pushed these days won’t be so high-priority in the future.
Instead, the smaller workers that can put on a dynamic match with different opponents will become more frequently-pushed in WWE, because they will be more capable of putting on a good match and will be more dynamic than their slower and more limited bigger counterparts.
#4 Less emphasis on looks
Vince McMahon places more emphasis on looks and physical appearance than any other promoter out there. Even Triple H, his son-in-law, who was for a long time a looks-centric wrestler, has adapted to focusing on less-obvious aspects of a wrestler’s attributes and has created stars of his own without focusing so much on looks.
But as long as Vince is in charge, you can expect the same mentality to be in place when it comes to the top stars: an emphasis on 1980s-style chiselled good looks and muscles as opposed to grappling ability, charisma and speaking skills.
However, those traits are likely to change when Vince is done because it really is an antiquated approach to wrestling. Just look at the two biggest organic stars in WWE over the past eight years: CM Punk and Daniel Bryan.
Neither of them were ‘looks-centric’ wrestlers but were instead noted for their grappling abilities and their connections with the audience. Both of them became WWE Champions at least once and were among the most popular wrestlers on the entire roster during their respective primes.
So when Vince leaves WWE, the new regime is likely to recognize that a looks-centric approach will no longer work on the main roster. It is likely that a new emphasis on actual wrestling skill and charisma will be adopted, which will lead to a different cadre of wrestlers being pushed to the forefront.
#3 Women main-eventing WrestleMania
While Vince McMahon might be a big fan of the ‘Women’s Revolution’, deep down he still reluctant to give them his full support. This is because he still has an ‘older’ mentality when it comes to women’s wrestling, and doesn’t view them as top money draws on par with the men.
As a result, with Vince in charge, you might see women main-eventing a B-show, but never something big like SummerSlam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, or particularly WrestleMania.
However, these attitudes might change entirely once Vince is out of power. If the NXT TakeOvers are to be believed, then women can main-event high-profile shows and draw in a huge crowd, regardless of gender.
As long as the stories make sense and fans have something into which they can invest emotionally, then it won’t matter if the main-event features men or women. Of course, WWE’s top figureheads must adopt this mindset first, which isn’t likely with Vince at the top.
#2 Better commentary
Many people have criticized commentators like Michael Cole, JBL, Bryan Saxton, and the many others that have done commentary on RAW. However, all of these men have one thing in common: they each have to deal with Vince McMahon yelling in their ears, telling them what to say.
When WWE did the UK special, Michael Cole did a phenomenal job as a commentator because he sounded natural and didn’t have Vince giving him strict commands on what to say. In fact, there was one leaked segment when Cole was asking Vince ‘I’ve already said this ten times’, and then there was a brief period of silence, before Cole repeated, ‘Ok, yes sir’.
Thus, the clear implication is that Vince is barking out orders telling the commentators what to say and how to say it, even if the commentators themselves might disagree with what they’re being told to say.
Luckily, this approach isn’t likely to stay in place when Vince leaves. Both SmackDown and NXT are produced without Vince’s direct involvement, and the general consensus is that both shows have better commentary than RAW.
So when Vince does depart WWE, the commentary is likely to experience a major boost in quality, because the actual commentators won’t have to worry about nonsensical orders being yelled at them through their headsets.
#1 A return to traditional wrestling
Vince’s approach to wrestling is one that emphasizes larger-than-life ‘characters’ and a focus on drama and stories, with a little bit of actual wrestling put in the middle. This approach has been criticized routinely for many years, especially over the past decade or so, as Vince and company have struggled significantly in creating new and popular stars without having to rely on outside hiring.
This struggle exists because Vince still seeks out ‘characters’, even though much of the wrestling business has evolved into a desire for ‘grapplers’ and ‘workers’ instead. But as long as Vince remains in charge, that character-driven approach will stay in place, because he still thinks the fans secretly want what he likes, no matter how much their negative reactions might indicate otherwise.
But Vince will depart from WWE sooner or later, and when he does, he’ll take his antiquated approach to creativity with him. Many people that now work in WWE recognize that the industry has changed, and the need for these over-the-top characters has disappeared. So when Vince finally leaves WWE, that old approach will no longer have any powerful supporters in WWE’s decision-making process.
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