'#FireVinceMcMahon' Trends Amid Reports Of Reclaiming WWE Creative

WWE fans have shared their displeasure amid reports that longtime chairman Vince McMahon has reclaimed creative control of WWE.

The hashtag, '#FireVinceMcMahon,' has trended on Twitter since Tuesday after Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer reported that McMahon "was running TV" during the live broadcast of RAW on Monday (April 3) night, hours after his company was sold to Endeavor.

“He's back. It's what it was. It will be what it was before. And if people think that was bad, it will be bad. And that's just the way it is," Meltzer said.

Sources told PWInsider.com that several late rewrites were ordered about 15-20 minutes prior to RAW's live broadcast, which was reportedly described as not "feeling" like changes expected to be made by McMahon's son-in-law, Paul 'Triple H' Levesque, who took over as the head of creative following McMahon's retirement announcement last year and earned praise from wrestling fans. Levesque was reported to be on headsets at the beginning of the show, but McMahon was increasingly involved as the point person by its conclusion.

"Levesque will be head of creative and will be doing the busywork and all that stuff. Vince is going to have the final say in everything," Meltzer said.

McMahon was also "reported to be on headset producing a few times" during WrestleMania 39 over the weekend, but was not at the gorilla position and directly overseeing creative until RAW's taping, according to PWInsider.com. A source told PWInsider.com that the "place felt nuked" while described the feeling of McMahon potentially replacing Levesque as the head of creative moving forward, which seemed to be expected.

The report comes hours after McMahon claimed he would not be "in the weeds" of creative while appearing alongside Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel amid the company's purchase of WWE and announced merger of the sports entertainment brand with its other asset, Ultimate Fighting Championship, with McMahon set to serve as executive chairman.

“Given the incredible work that Ari and Endeavor have done to grow the UFC brand – nearly doubling its revenue over the past seven years – and the immense success we’ve already had in partnering with their team on a number of ventures, I believe that this is without a doubt the best outcome for our shareholders and other stakeholders,” McMahon said. “Together, we will be a $21+ billion live sports and entertainment powerhouse with a collective fanbase of more than a billion people and an exciting growth opportunity.

"The new company will be well positioned to maximize the value of our combined media rights, enhance sponsorship monetization, develop new forms of content and pursue other strategic mergers and acquisitions to further bolster our strong stable of brands. I, along with the current WWE management team, look forward to working closely with Ari and the Endeavor and UFC teams to take the businesses to the next level.”

In January, WWE was reported to have hired JPMorgan to help advise a possible sale, CNBC reported at the time. The move came within of McMahon officially returning and electing himself to WWE's board of directors on Friday (January 6).

McMahon still had majority voting power through his ownership of the company's Class-B stock, which allowed him to add himself, as well as former co-presidents and directors, Michelle Wilson and George Barrios, to WWE's board, a move required three former directors to vacate their positions.

WWE's board of directors had previously rejected a move to reinstate McMahon since his retirement last year.

McMahon announced his retirement amid a sexual-harassment scandal in an official statement shared by the company, confirming his daughter, then-acting chairwoman and CEO Stephanie McMahon, and WWE President Nick Khan, would take over as co-CEOs amid his departure.

Paul 'Triple H' Levesque, McMahon's son-in-law and a former top in-ring performer, took over WWE creative amid McMahon's departure.

In August, an SEC filing confirmed McMahon paid a total of $19.6 million in personal expenses.

The payments, which were uncovered during the company's ongoing investigation into claims of sexual misconduct committed by McMahon, made two payments in 2007 and 2009 that should have been included in the company's consolidated financial statements.

In July, the Wall Street Journal, which exclusively reported WWE's investigation a $3 million hush-money settlement paid by McMahon to a woman over an alleged affair, reported that the 76-year-old paid more than $12 million in hush money to four women during the past 16 years in an effort to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.

McMahon initially stepped down from his responsibilities voluntarily amid the ongoing investigation into alleged misconduct and would be replaced by his daughter on an interim basis.

Since then, McMahon had made multiple in-character appearances on both Friday Night SmackDown and Monday Night Raw, though not directly addressing the allegations or investigation and appeared publicly at the UFC 276 event in Las Vegas shortly after the conclusion of WWE's Money in the Bank event in the same city.

According to the Journal, an agreement was made in January 2022 to prevent the woman, a former WWE paralegal, from discussing her relationship with McMahon or making critical statements about him publicly.

A spokesperson for WWE confirmed to the Journal that the company was cooperating with the board's investigation -- which was launched in April -- and that the relationship between the 76-year-old and the former employee was consensual.

McMahon has been married to his wife, Linda -- who served as WWE's president and later CEO from 1980 to 2009 and later as Small Business Administration chief as part of former President Donald Trump's administration from 2017 to 2019 -- since 1966.

The Journal also reports that the board's investigation revealed other nondisclosure pacts stemming from misconduct claims involving other women who had previously worked for WWE, which involved McMahon and John Laurinaitis, WWE's general manager of talent relations, who was reportedly fired on Monday (August 8), according to PWInsider.

McMahon had previously disposed 38,519 of his shares of World Wrestling Entertainment stock at $0 following his recent retirement, but still remained the company's top shareholder, according to an SEC filing shared on WWE's official corporate website on July 26.