Why Vince McMahon Missed Every WWE TV Taping Last Week

One constant at almost every WWE television taping over the last 30-plus years is the prescence of Vince McMahon. Some were struck by the fact that McMahon was not at Extreme Rules, nor was he at RAW or SmackDown this past week.

There's a very good reason for that. According to this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, McMahon simply took a one week vacation. Not only that, but mid-July has apparently been McMahon's typical time for a vacation for several years now.

It's also very interesting to note that McMahon absence coincided with a pretty significant event: Hulk Hogan's return to the WWE locker room.

Hogan flew to Cleveland, Ohio last week, then drove to Pittsburgh (site of Extreme Rules) to meet backstage with the WWE locker room. WWE also announced he had been reinstated into the WWE Hall of Fame (he was removed in 2015).

Hogan's backstage meeting consisted of an apology for some very racist comments that he made over a decade ago, which were captured on an unauthorized sex tape. The tape leaked in the summer of 2015, as did Hogan's comments, prompting WWE to remove him from Tough Enough (which was filming at the time), as well as announcing he had been suspended from the Hall of Fame.

Hogan's apology this past week has been a lightning rod for criticism. Hogan reportedly placed a lot of emphasis on how people really need to watch what they say these days, as you never know when you might be filmed.

Of course, that kind of a theme for his "apology" was problematic in that it made it seem like he was more sorry for the fact that he got caught than for the comments that he made. Would McMahon have conveyed this short falling to him had he been there? It's hard to say for sure.

Several of WWE's African American stars have been critical of Hogan's apology, notably the New Day and Titus O'Neil. While both acknowledged Hogan deserves a place back in WWE and a second chance, they both conveyed that they would like to see Hogan take more action to show he regrets the comments that he made.