5 things we found out about Vince McMahon in 2017

Vince McMahon is a man of few words these days. In decades gone by, he was seen here, there and everywhere promoting the WWE brand, much like Triple H does with NXT.

However, nowadays he rarely does media interviews and fans haven’t heard what he really thinks about the current product since he appeared on ‘The Stone Cold Podcast’ in 2014.

Still, we’ve heard enough stories in recent years to get a good enough idea about what the WWE owner is like in real life – and 2017 was no different.

In this article, we trawl through the archives of the last twelve months to bring you five things that we found out about Mr McMahon this year.

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#1 He will never retire

Don't expect to see Triple H in charge anytime soon

WWE fans are just as divided on Vince McMahon as they are on Roman Reigns and John Cena. Depending who you listen to, Vince is either a “genius” or he’s “an old man who is out of touch with wrestling in 2017”.

Fans with the latter viewpoint will be disappointed to hear that the former WWE champion (yes, that really happened once!) has no plans to hand over the business to Triple H or his children, Stephanie and Shane, anytime soon.

In an interview with nola.com in January 2017, he made it clear just how passionate he remains about WWE and said he will never slow down his work schedule because, as far as he is concerned, what he does for a living “isn’t work”.

He added, “Every aspect of the business, whether it's working with the talent or the writing staff, even on occasion working with the legal guys, it's all a big family. I never go to work.”

#2 He doesn’t want Conor McGregor in WWE… yet

Conor McGregor is one of the most talked-about athletes in the world

WWE and UFC haven’t always had the best relationship. In 2005, Vince McMahon allegedly offered UFC commentator Mike Goldberg $100,000 to no-show an event, while a few years later he tried to arrange a match between himself and UFC president Dana White.

Nowadays, with Brock Lesnar allowed to fight in UFC in 2016 and Ronda Rousey reportedly on her way to WWE in 2018, the relationship between the two parties appears to have significantly improved.

Conor McGregor is another big name that has been rumoured to be switching between the promotions, with various reports throughout 2017 suggesting WWE wants to line him up for an appearance at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans.

However, Dana revealed during an interview with Fox in October that Vince has no immediate plans to bring in McGregor. The UFC president quoted Vince’s exact texts, which read: "News to me… It might be good someday but not now."

#3 He didn’t like Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens

The match didn't live up to the hype

Out of all the documentaries that WWE has released in 2017, perhaps the most memorable moment from any of them was from the debut episode of the new ‘365’ series.

The show charts a year in the life of a WWE Superstar and its premiere gave us an in-depth look at how Kevin Owens – the real-life performer as opposed to the character – felt about his storylines between August 2016 and August 2017, featuring all the ups and downs of his reigns with the Universal and United States Championships.

The lowest point of KO’s year came on the day of WrestleMania 33 when he walked back through the curtain from his match with Chris Jericho. He asked Vince McMahon “are we good?”, to which Vince simply replied “no”.

In the months that followed, Owens continually brought up that comment in sit-down interviews for the documentary, and viewers got to see how easy it is for a performer’s confidence to be crushed after receiving criticism from the WWE owner.

#3 He can still go at it in the ring

Vince McMahon’s last match in WWE was way back in October 2012. He had become so sick of CM Punk, a cocky villain who had been WWE champion for close to a year, that he decided to face him in a No Disqualification match in the main event of Raw.

Since then, Mr McMahon hasn’t officially stepped back inside the ring as a performer but he has been involved in a couple of physical altercations, most notably receiving an F5 from Brock Lesnar and a Superman Punch from Roman Reigns.

However, none of those incidents was quite as violent as what we saw in September 2017, when the boss was left beaten and bloodied in the middle of the ring after receiving a headbutt, superkick and frog-splash from SmackDown Live star Kevin Owens.

Credit where credit is due, this was the most shocking and spectacular segment from SmackDown in 2017 and one of the best in the show’s 18-year history.

#5 He was proud of Jinder Mahal after his WWE title win

Jinder Mahal became WWE champion in May 2017

We saw a stricter side to Vince McMahon when he criticised Kevin Owens’ match against Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 33 in April, but it was a different story a month later after Jinder Mahal’s WWE Championship victory over Randy Orton.

Speaking to Sportskeeda after his big win at Backlash, “The Modern Day Maharajah” said it was the “best day of his life” when he became WWE champion and revealed how Vince reacted when he walked back through the curtain.

“Vince was very happy,” Mahal said. “He was really proud of me because Vince knows how much work I’ve put in.”

The 50th WWE champion went on to hold the title for another six months, retaining against Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura along the way, before losing it to AJ Styles in November.