Tag: Vince McMahon

Brock Lesnar And Vince McMahon Got Into A Verbal Altercation After WrestleMania

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Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that they have confirmed with multiple sources that Brock Lesnar and Vince McMahon got into a real-life verbal altercation after WrestleMania 34.

Details are still scarce, but we’re told Lesnar was livid when he returned to the backstage gorilla position and went off on the WWE Chairman … who was not happy about it.

Sources tell Pro Wrestling Sheet the brief, but heated incident ended with Brock throwing the Universal Title belt — some say at Vince, some say at a wall — then walking away. No word yet on what set him off.

Pro Wrestling Sheet was told there’s a belief that Brock may have gone off script a little bit near the end of the match, but they have not been unable to confirm if this is true.

Alberto El Patron (Del Rio) Met With Vince McMahon At WWE HQ

Impact Wrestling star Alberto El Patron (Alberto Del Rio) was at WWE headquarters in Stamford, CT last week, according to PWInsider. Patron was there to film interview material for a future project on Rey Mysterio but he also met with Vince McMahon while there.

There has been talk within WWE of Vince being very interested in Patron returning to the company, even before last week’s visit. Vince has always been high on Alberto as a character and a performer.

Alberto, a former WWE Champion, last worked for WWE in September 2016. His current deal with Impact is set to expire in April but company officials have been working to negotiate a new deal. There’s hope that Alberto, would likely be the highest paid talent in Impact, will sign a new contract after weekend talks with Impact officials were said to be positive. Patron is scheduled to face Impact World Champion Austin Aries at the April 22nd Redemption pay-per-view.

Source: WrestlingINC

Backstage Talk On Triple H Taking Over Vince McMahon’s WWE Duties

There continues to be talk within WWE about Triple H taking over the main duties of the company from Vince McMahon, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The talk is that Triple H has been assembling his team in WWE NXT to have them ready when the time comes. We’ve noted how Triple H recently took over the WWE 205 Live duties. It was also noted how Triple H and Stephanie McMahon negotiated Ronda Rousey’s WWE contract, not Vince. While Triple H made the announcement, The Observer reports that Vince is the one who negotiated the deal for WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar but there’s no word yet on if Vince will re-negotiate Lesnar’s deal when it comes up or if Triple H and Stephanie will handle the talks.

Source: WrestlingINC

Triple H Expected To Have More Control In WWE, Vince McMahon On His WWE Role After XFL Relaunch

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On today’s WWE earnings call, WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon addressed the relaunch of the XFL. He once again noted that his near-$100 million stock sale will not be enough to fund the league, and that the venture will require more investment capital. He also reiterated that the league will not affect his role in WWE, and that there will be a separate management team for it.

Despite Vince’s comments, Dave Meltzer reported in The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the feeling is that Triple H will be given a lot more control in the company, simply because of the realistic demands in running both a pro wrestling company and a football league. Triple H has been putting his own team together, which includes Jeremy Borash, who left recently Impact Wrestling to come on board. Meltzer added that there have been others talked about recently to join his team to eventually fill key roles when he is in charge.

As noted, PWInsider reported this week that Vince recently stepped aside to put Triple H in charge of running 205 Live, which explains the different feel of the show the past couple of weeks. That change, however, was done more to reboot the brand as opposed to a workload issue with Vince. While the original Cruiserweight Classic concept, under Triple H, did very well on the WWE Network, 205 Live usually struggles to make the top 10 episodes of the week on the streaming service. Vince had been trying to make the show more character-driven, while Triple H is now bringing back some of the original aspects of the Cruiserweight Classic, including more of a focus on the in-ring work and the original presentation of the talent.

Source: WrestlingINC

Vince McMahon Steps Aside And Puts Triple H In Charge Of ‘WWE 205 Live’

There are major behind-the-scenes changes going on with the WWE 205 Live brand as Vince McMahon has stepped aside and is no longer personally producing the show, according to PWInsider. The changes began with last week’s episode, which featured new 205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick and kicked off the 16-man tournament that will end at WrestleMania 34 with the crowning of a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion.

Triple H is now overseeing 205 Live and he has brought back some of the aspects of the WWE Cruiserweight Classic tournament, including the style and presentation of the wrestlers. Vince had personally worked with the 205 Live Superstars to bring out their personalities to present them in a certain way but there has been more focus on the in-ring work under Triple H.

There has been a lot of internal talk over the past few months about why 205 Live wasn’t succeeding like they had hoped. Vince reportedly believed that a character-driven show was the best way to get the brand over, which is why former WWE Superstar Enzo Amore was brought over to be the top star of the brand. Enzo’s arrival helped with viewership and buzz for the show but there were still people in the company that wanted to present the show like the Cruiserweight Classic was presented. Their feeling was that having smaller talents that were just echoing the Superstars from RAW and SmackDown was not going to showcase what made the cruiserweight talents unique, and it wasn’t going to help 205 Live grow into its own brand, more than just a weekly WWE Network TV show.

The product we’ve seen over the last few weeks is said to be very much in line with the original plans for 205 Live before Vince became personally involved with the direction of the show and the development of the cruiserweight talents.

While WWE is still considering non-televised 205 Live live event shows in the future, there are currently no plans to run more cruiserweight-exclusive events as the plan is to focus on re-building the brand by presenting strong athletic characters with strong in-ring competition.

Vince finally made the decision to let Triple H run the show back in mid-January as a way to reboot the brand, or fix it. Triple H is running the show, making all decisions, while Jonathan Baeckstrom is the current lead writer. Baeckstrom has worked on the WWE creative team since August 2013 and has been a lead writer since November 2016. Former WWE Performance Center Coach Adam Pearce is still working as the lead producer for the brand.

Regarding roster changes, there may be more additions in the coming weeks. WWE NXT Superstar Roderick Strong was brought up to help freshen the roster and the show. As noted, Strong defeated Hideo Itami last night to advance in the 16-man tournament.

Source: WrestlingINC

Vince McMahon Announces XFL Is Returning In 2020

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Yesterday afternoon Vince McMahon announced that the XFL will return in 2020.

McMahon held an online press conference yesterday afternoon which kicked off with a commercial for the XFL revival that stressed the games will be quicker, simpler, safer and have reformed rules.

Vince kicked off his portion of the presser saying the XFL plans to give football back to the fans by listening to those who love the game over the next two years.

“We will present a shorter, faster-paced, family-friendly and easier to understand game.” Vince explained, “Don’t get me wrong, it’s still football. But it’s professional football reimagined.”

The WWE Chairman revealed that they intend to launch with eight, forty-man teams and a ten game regular season that would finish with two semi-finals and a championship game.

Additional details McMahon revealed during the press conference:

  • He claims the XFL return won’t affect his role in WWE.
  • There will be no crossover between WWE and XFL.
  • Vince says the XFL revival will have nothing to do with politics or social issues. He doesn’t think fans want to deal with things of a political nature while watching. They just want good football.
  • The players will have rules in regards to the National Anthem that players have to abide by.
  • Players with a DUI will not be allowed to compete in the XFL.

Watch the full press conference below:

Vince McMahon To Make Major Announcement Today

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Has WWE confirmed that Vince McMahon is getting back into the football business? WWE announced the following today:

WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon to make live sports announcement today at 3 p.m.

WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon will make a major sports announcement today at 3 p.m. ET, streaming live from the digital platforms of his new enterprise, Alpha Entertainment.

The live stream will be available via Alpha Entertainment’s Twitter (@AlphaEntLLC), Facebook (facebook.com/AlphaEntLLC) and YouTube (youtube.com/alphaentertainment) pages, as well as AlphaEntLLC.com.

According to PWInsider, WWE’s production team has begun working on video footage for the eventual return of the XFL. The report stated that the XFL will officially make its comeback in 2020 to make sure they have a proper foundation put together for the league. This would include building out rosters and coaches.

Vince McMahon had started a company separate from WWE, called Alpha Entertainment – which in a statement given from WWE last month – is geared to “explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football.” Since that times multiple trademarks had been filed by McMahon’s company, including: “UFL” and “United Football League.”

Last month, McMahon sold 3.34 million shares of WWE to fund his Alpha Entertainment, LLC. The sale netted McMahon just under $100 million.

While the initial hype of the XFL generated a strong audience, die-hard fans of the NFL heavily criticized the league, and numbers started to reflect the dissatisfaction. As a result, the XFL lasted only one season in 2001, with it resurfacing earlier this year on the ESPN 30 for 30 This Was the XFL documentary.

Source: WrestlingINC

Vince McMahon Sells $100 Million Of WWE Stock To Fund Alpha Entertainment, New XFL Trademarks Filed

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As we previously reported, Vince McMahon is apparently once again interested in getting into the football business. The news, which was originally broken by freelance writer Brad Shepard, was reported by Deadspin after they reached out to WWE regarding the possible relaunch of the XFL. The response from WWE is that Vince McMahon has started a company separate from WWE, called Alpha Entertainment, and is geared to “explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football.” In conjunction with the trademark filing in June, the WWE spokesperson did not confirm or deny the possible resurrection.

Today Vince McMahon sold 3.34 million shares of WWE to fund his Alpha Entertainment, LLC. Here is the full SEC form detailing the sale, which will net McMahon around $100 million:

“On December 21, 2017, Vincent K. McMahon (“Mr. McMahon”), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (the “Company”), sold 3,340,000 shares of the Company’s Class A common stock in a block trade made in accordance with the provisions of Rule 144 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Mr. McMahon executed the sale primarily to fund a separate entity from the Company, Alpha Entertainment LLC, which Mr. McMahon established to explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football. Mr. McMahon has informed the Company that he has no current plan to sell additional shares of the Company’s stock and that he intends to continue in his capacity as the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for the foreseeable future.The shares sold by Mr. McMahon represent approximately 4.3% of the Company’s total outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock. After the sale, Mr. McMahon beneficially owns 32,193,375 shares of the Company’s Class B common stock, which represents approximately 82.8% of the Company’s total voting power and approximately 41.8% of the Company’s total outstanding shares of common stock.”

ESPN Sports Business Reporter, Darren Rovell, also noted that Alpha Entertainment filed for five trademarks to “XFL” on December 16 with it showing up in the trademark office filing today. This is in addition to McMahon recently filing additional football trademarks, which included “URFL”, “United Football League”, “UFL”, and “For the love of football.” As noted, WWE filed for XFL trademarks back in June with the foreign filing deadline expiring on December 28.

While the initial hype of the XFL generated a strong audience, die-hard fans of the NFL began to heavily criticize the league, and numbers started to reflect the dissatisfaction. As a result, the XFL lasted only one season in 2001, with it resurfacing earlier this year on the ESPN 30 for 30 This Was the XFL documentary.

Source: WrestlingINC

More On Vince McMahon Possibly Reviving The XFL

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As we previously reported, Vince McMahon is apparently once again interested in getting into the football business. The news, which was originally broken by right-wing writer Brad Shepard, was reported by Deadspin after they reached out to WWE regarding the possible relaunch of the XFL. The response from WWE is that Vince McMahon has started a company separate from WWE, called Alpha Entertainment, and is geared to “explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football.” In conjunction with the filing in June, the WWE spokesperson did not confirm or deny the possible resurrection.

However, the spokesperson did say that “Mr. McMahon has nothing further to announce at this time.”

Despite this, the original reporter of the story stated that an announcement about the XFL could be made on January 25, 2018. This is the Thursday following the 25th Anniversary of Raw.

FOX Sports noted that because the news was broken by a political source, the league could be linked to Donald Trump, who has been extremely critical of the NFL during his presidency. Trump owned the New Jersey Generals in the United States Football League in 1984 and 1985, but that organization folded as well, after only three seasons. Trump was often blamed for the failure of the league, as he pushed it to move to a fall schedule against the NFL which cost it lucrative offers to air games in the spring.

The report also states that McMahon recently filed additional football trademarks, which included “URFL”, “United Football League”, “UFL”, and “For the love of football.”

Unfortunately, there were not many ex-XFL players who would go on and have successful NFL careers after the league folded. Rod Smart, who was arguably the most notable XFL player, who went by the nickname “He Hate Me,” would only go on to play in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers from 2002-2005, of which only two of those seasons he played more than 12 games. He was, however, a member of the 2003 Panthers team, which finished the season as NFC Champions and Super Bowl XXXVIII runner-ups.

When the company folded in 2001, former NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol stated, “We knew it wasn’t going to work (in prime time) from early March on. The launch worked, the people were there, and we didn’t answer their expectations, I guess.” However, at the conclusion of the “This Was The XFL” 30 for 30 special, both he and Vince teased possible interest in bringing back the company.

Source: WrestlingINC

Dave Meltzer On Vince McMahon Possibly Selling WWE

Apparently there’s been increased talk about Vince McMahon selling WWE in the future since Stephanie, Shane and Linda are all pursuing things outside of the WWE and now Vince is starting his own company focusing on non wrestling things. For the longest time the talk has been Disney would be up to buy it.

Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer discusses the possibility of it and that now would be a good time to do so.

Meltzer talks about Triple H being the only one in the McMahon family who would have interest in continuing to run the company. Meltzer says he doesn’t know if Vince would actually sell to have funds to support other business’s such as reviving the XFL. He says Vince would like to be known as somebody besides a wrestling promoter, but he doesn’t know if Vince ever wants to be not running wrestling.