SmackDown Saw Big Changes After Vince McMahon’s Retirement

Vince McMahon announced his retirement from WWE amid an ongoing hush money investigation. McMahon has been in charge of the company for decades, and he has put his entire life into building the brand. Following his retirement, SmackDown will now undergo significant changes.

According to Sean Sapp behind Fightful’s paywall, Bruce Prichard is leading creative, and Ed Koskey was also a point of leadership with Triple H helping direct traffic at WWE Smackdown on July 22nd. Producers were informed that Prichard was temporarily filling many of Vince McMahon’s television responsibilities; however, nothing long-term was disclosed.

One talent noted that most have a strong relationship with Triple H, Nick Khan, and Stephanie McMahon. The talent they spoke with also looked at what creative challenges they would need to face. Nearly every talent they spoke with acknowledged that the expected adjustments will depend on the person in charge.

Many argued that if Prichard ends up in charge, then not much will probably change as a result, but if it’s someone else, the chances of progress are much higher. A creative source anticipated Vince McMahon would prefer a matchup, think it made sense, and then later forget that they’d done it so many times, thus they predict there to be fewer rematches.

There were plenty of people that we spoke to that believed that the impending leadership may not want to deviate from Vince McMahon’s vision out of “respect,” but think there are small improvements to be made that can make a big difference.

The Smackdown script underwent extensive revisions in order to exclude Brock Lesnar. He was reinstated into the show when he returned to the structure in a much better attitude. According to the script, Ronda Rousey and Liv Morgan’s section would have been longer and more of a Maximum Male Models presentation.

According to what was said, the chaos in the backstage area was caused by the announcement’s nature, the meeting at 5 PM, and Brock Lesnar’s departure. Fightful also discovered that many people thought it was a looser production, and many involved with that end of things believe that will continue to be the case going ahead.

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