WWE announced on Friday morning that Vince McMahon is voluntarily stepping down as CEO and Chairman of the company, but will remain in charge of creative. Stephanie McMahon is now serving as the interim CEO and Chairwoman while the Board of Directors investigates a hush-money settlement that Vince is part of.
Monday Night Raw commentatorJimmy Smith spoke about the situation on his ‘Unlocking the Cage’ show on SiriusXM. Smith started out by noting that talent is a catch-all term for anybody on television including wrestlers and commentators. The Superstars are in a different category because they actually wrestle. He said you go above that and its executives, who sit next to Vince.
Smith said in a production meeting, that there are only two places to sit – next to Vince or across from him. In Smith’s case, he sits across from Vince while the producers and the commentators all sit on one side and they go over the matches.
“What is going to get investigated over the next couple of months is the culture and the communication between the people who sit next to Vince McMahon. That is what’s gonna get looked at. Why? A culture’s hard to hide. You can hide an act. You do something and you make a mistake and you make amends for that mistake and all these things, you can do that. It’s what is going on communication-wise behind the scenes. That’s what this investigation is gonna be looking at. They’re gonna be looking at the executive culture of the WWE. The good news from my perspective is I have spent five minutes total talking to any executive from WWE. They don’t really have any reason to talk to me.”
Smith brought up fans asking him about the differences between the UFC and WWE and what UFC President Dana White is like. Smith noted he never spoke with White for five minutes in a whole year.
“Have I heard much more from Vince McMahon? Yeah, but it’s all been about, ‘Hey, Money in the Bank’ is this date… ‘Be sure to say’ about this, this and that. It’s all about the nuts and bolts of the show.” Smith said it’s never anything about getting something to eat or hang out.
“There’s a real line in sports and sports entertainment to the people sitting at the top, the executives and the people doing their job in a particular place. So, each one of those levels I just talked about, from the people who make the show work, the functional tech people, on-air talent, producers and then executives, there’s a culture to each one of these levels because all those people hang out and communicate with one another. The black shirt people all hang out and talk and I talk to them too as well. Then there’s the on-air talent, we all interact in our way, all the producers interact in their own way and then all the executives interact in their own way and those lines don’t always — in fact, they often don’t bleed into one another. So, I honestly don’t know how this communication — John Laurinaitis is another guy who’s obviously been named in this article that may be involved in this, whatever. Hey, nice guy in the two times I’ve spoken to him, shook his hand, went, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ Bruce Prichard, nice guy. The handful of times I’ve had to speak to Bruce Prichard about something and ask him a question, really nice guy. He’s on Dark Side of the Ring. You know, if you’ve seen him talk, nice dude. But I don’t know how it works, I’m not on the private jet, I’m not doing any of that stuff.
McMahon appeared on Friday’s episode of SmackDown where he cut a short promo and reminded fans of the tagline that is said in the intro video package of all WWE shows before welcoming fans to the show.
H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription
