WWE Rumors: Vince McMahon reportedly worked everyone with 'New Era' announcement

What's the story?

On this past Monday, Vince McMahon returned to Raw alongside his children in order to address the recent concerns that Raw was in dire shape.

Ringsidenews.com mentioned that Brad Shepard was told some interesting things on his Oh You Didn't Know podcast regarding the appearance.

Shepard was reportedly told by a backstage source that it was all a work by Vince.

In case you missed it...

Before Vince, Stephanie, Shane and Triple H all appeared on Raw this Monday, the previous two episodes had been the two lowest-rated shows in the history of Monday Night Raw.

A lot of the heat was put on Baron Corbin and his reign of terror. He abused his power at every turn but got the desired heat from the crowd.

Seth Rollins even laid out a lot of what was wrong lately with Raw on last week but it still didn't help ratings.

Since the WWE was facing a ratings' disaster heading into 2019, Vince felt it was necessary to show up and announce that some things would be changing in WWE in the near future.

Corbin was fired after losing a handicap match to Kurt Angle, the Revival earned a Raw Tag Team title match and teasers were shown regarding six NXT call-ups.

The returns in the near future of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens were also hyped.

The McMahons also mentioned that they would be running Raw and Smackdown going forward, thus ending the tenures of GMs, leaving Paige without a role.

The heart of the matter

While the McMahons got a face response in opposition to Baron Corbin's regime as interim GM, Brad Shepard heard from a backstage source that it was Vince working everybody:

“So I was talking about Vince’s appearance on TV with a well-placed source in the company and I asked them what their take was on the irony of fans giving Vince a huge babyface reaction upon his return to TV while also complaining about the creative direction of the company which he, of course, is ultimately responsible for. Their response: ‘Yep, Vince knows how to work everybody.'”

Vince and Shane also appeared on Smackdown this week to address the locker room and individual superstars at various points of the show.

What's next?

Of course the McMahons were going to be cheered when they returned to Raw.

Will the promises of the McMahons come true or were they just doing damage control?

Anyone was better than Corbin at that point and they each played up that fact during their opening promo.

Triple H is a made man thanks to his success with NXT and Shane is always cheered.

The only one who is usually booed is Stephanie, who has been absent while things were tanking.

Not addressing the fact that they each were in some part responsible for the recent downward spiral of Raw's ratings didn't truly address the whole problem, however.

Vince wrote the two episodes of Raw that sank ratings, so he isn't totally blameless.

If all of the promises they made come to fruition, like different stars getting opportunities instead of say Charlotte Flair all the time on Smackdown, then their words will hold credence.

They can obviously deliver with the NXT call-ups and returns of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.

The two friends are among the most entertaining superstars regardless of show and storyline, so their returns will help.

The true test if Shepard's source was correct will be found if things actually change next month or all things go back to normal.

If they don't change, then Vince indeed just worked us all.