Vince McMahon has been on medical leave from his backstage role at WWE since mid-July after undergoing major spinal surgery. News of the procedure was initially reported by TMZ Sports and was later confirmed by WWE itself in a 10-Q SEC Filing on August 2nd, where McMahon’s medical leave was also announced. However, the Executive Chairman has reportedly already returned to the company after just eight weeks away.
During the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that McMahon has returned to his position behind the scenes at WWE and had a big impact backstage on last night’s edition of RAW. The 78-year-old is said to have made multiple significant changes to the show’s plans, on top of several last-minute changes made by Chief Creative Officer Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque. As a result, many of the matches and segments that occurred on the show were not advertised in advance.
Whilst it isn’t known at this time what exact changes McMahon made, Meltzer went on to say that those behind the scenes believed the changes were for the better of the program overall despite there being so many. McMahon is also believed to have not been at the show physically but rather was involved in the production via a remote connection.
Last night’s RAW was also significant in likely being the final WWE event with Vince McMahon in majority control of the company, should the Endeavor takeover of WWE (and the company’s subsequent merger with UFC into TKO Group Holdings) complete today as expected.
This will mark the first time a McMahon family member will not have majority control of WWE since the company’s founding and very first event as Capital Wrestling Corporation back in January 1953. Since then, Jess McMahon, Vince McMahon Sr, Vince McMahon Jr, and Stephanie McMahon have all held majority control of the company.