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Where is Vince McMahon?
It's a known fact that Vince McMahon has a hands-on approach in the way he runs the WWE product. At 73 years old, McMahon is the man calling the shots every week during Raw and SmackDown.
Every decision, big or small, goes through the WWE Chairman. However, this week's Raw was a rare occasion when Vince McMahon was forced to miss the show as he had to prepare for an XFL announcement that is scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
Dave Meltzer revealed the information on the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio. He also stated that McMahon will not be present on the next SmackDown Live episode.
"So Vince was not at the show tonight. He's not going to be on the show tomorrow because he's getting ready for the XFL announcement on Wednesday where they are going to announce all the coaches and all the teams and things like that. So he's busy with that."
Vince McMahon's WWE future
It was speculated by Meltzer that Vince McMahon would be shifting his focus away from the WWE once XFL is up and running. NXT is all set to become a 2-hour live show on the USA Network from September 18th onwards and the WWE intends on having the yellow brand compete head-to-head with AEW's weekly TV show on Wednesdays.
The WWE would then have Raw on Mondays, NXT on Wednesdays and SmackDown on Fridays. Meltzer stated that it would be nearly impossible for either McMahon or Triple H to be present at all three shows.
Additionally, XFL would need Vince McMahon's extra attention and that could mean more power in the hands of Paul Heyman and other creative heads who work under McMahon.
Meltzer explained:
"Vince probably won't be at the shows, that doesn't mean he won't have any input, but he's probably not going to be at the shows. I don't know what's going to happen to Triple H, he's going to go out of his mind. He'll probably have to skip some SmackDowns because I don't see how you can go on the road Monday, then fly, you know, what's the point of even flying home?
It's weird, because like if it's Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, that's not really that bad. But it's Monday - fly home, then Wednesday - fly out and fly home and then Friday - fly out and fly home. There's no way Vince can go to all three shows. I don't think there is any way Triple H can go to all three shows.
I presume he's going to try but he's got lot's of work to do and I don't see how you can do lots of work when you are flying back and forth constantly and being at shows constantly. I mean Levesque has to be at the Wednesday shows for sure, but you know, we'll see. And then once Football starts. you know there's only so many hours of the day and Vince's going to have to be more hands-off once Football starts. I don't see any way around it."
It does seem like Vince McMahon could be taking his feet off the pedal to focus on XFL going forward. However, there is still some time until the reboot of Vince McMahon failed Football experiment kicks off again and for now, the focus will firmly be on successfully shifting SmackDown to Fox and setting up NXT on the USA Network.
