Depending on the week since WrestleMania 39 weekend, where it was announced that The Endeavor Group would be acquiring WWE with the idea to merge the promotion into a new company with the UFC later this year, Vince McMahon has made changes to WWE creative and the on-screen product. There have been weeks where he makes minor changes, while other times, he will rewrite several segments hours before Raw or SmackDown goes live on television.
Last Monday on Raw, fans noticed that announcers Kevin Patrick and Corey Graves were leaning into the nicknames for several stars to the point where it felt forced. Seth Rollins, who WWE wants to be called Seth “Freakin” Rollins, no matter the situation.
Vince McMahon publicly said on the Pat McAfee Show last year that he likes buzzwords and coming up with marketing lines, leading to speculation that McMahon was behind the announcers using the nicknames so strongly.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that it was a McMahon decision. H
Meltzer wrote, “It was confirmed to us that all the alliterative nicknames on the 7/17 Raw were a directive from Vince McMahon. It wasn’t pushed nearly as hard on Smackdown on 7/21 or Raw on 7/24, so it looks like it was just an idea he had (and that most thought was bad), and he gave up on it after.”
WWE is still doing new nicknames, just not pushing it as strongly.
