WWE Already Showing Signs Of Change After Vince McMahon Retires

WWE fans have been speculating a lot about what WWE might look like without Vince McMahon for decades. After McMahon announced his retirement yesterday, that talk got a lot more serious. On last night’s episode of SmackDown, there were already some noticeable differences.

Vince McMahon became famous for his distaste for certain words. WWE fans have long mocked the idea of referring to a hospital as a “local medical facility.” Championships were never to be called “belts.” There is a long list of terms that McMahon has banned the use of over the years.

During SmackDown, it was apparent that the show had a looser feel than usual. On today’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez pointed out some of the things he noticed during the broadcast. A lot has already changed.

“Even watching SmackDown tonight, I mean obviously tonight is still, you know, they re-wrote portions of the show and everything like that, but I mean the commentary was more relaxed, there was nobody screaming at the announcers on the headsets.

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The New Day was out there. They mentioned Ring of Honor. They mentioned the IWGP Tag Team Titles. Michael Cole was talking about the fans and he actually called them fans, he didn’t say ‘the WWE Universe,’ he said ‘the WWE fans,’ so there were little things on the show that, to me, made the show already feel more organic than it did even a week ago.

Given, you know, Hunter… He was willing to push guys that didn’t have the Vince McMahon look and the Vince McMahon body and the whole nine. He was willing to look at the top stars on the indie scene. So, I am hopeful that we will see more of that and less of this very, very rigid [broadcast style].”

Time will tell just how far these changes will go. More relaxed announcers using less quirky language instantly made an impression on fans. With McMahon only missing one show so far, much more could be on the way.

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Transcription by Ringside News