Vince McMahon is once again the chairman of the board. The long-time WWE executive ended his brief retirement earlier this month, storming back into the company he helped create alongside former WWE co-Presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson. Vince’s return came with subtle but significant change, as he has restructured WWE’s bylaws to make him no longer need stockholder approval for decisions. Within these shifts came casualties, as three members of board were removed, two more quit, and then-WWE Chairwoman and co-CEO Stephanie McMahon resigned from her corporate positions.
Still standing amidst the chaos is WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque. Levesque took over main roster creative responsibilities this past summer and has assured the WWE roster that his division will not change despite Vince’s return.
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With all eyes on the road to WWE WrestleMania 39, Levesque has admittedly not been concerned with Vince’s daily activities.
“F–k if I know,” Levesque told Variety when asked about what Vince was doing while he was retired. “I didn’t know what he was up to every day when he was here! I’ll be honest, I don’t know what he’s doing. I think he’s keeping himself busy.”
Even though they do not work directly together these days, Vince’s fingerprints are all over the current WWE machine.
“[Vince was] always thinking long term. Whether it gets executed that way or whether it wasn’t, I don’t know,” Levesque said. “But for me, it’s how I think because it’s how I was taught by him. I’m always trying to think about the long-term storyline. I was at SummerSlam and one of the first things I talked to the team about is ‘Okay, where do we want to go for WrestleMania?’”
Levesque contextualized his booking strategies by likening it to a navigational system.
“It’s like a GPS. As long as you put in the destination, the GPS will keep rerouting you if it needs to. If there’s an accident, it’s going to move you this way. If you miss a turn, it’s going to take you another way, but you’re gonna get to your destination,” Levesque continued. “And as long as we are aware of where we want to get to, then we can get there. We’ll adjust along the way. The destination might change. We might decide halfway that we want to go in a different direction. But at least you constantly are aware of your of your target. I think without that, you’re just floating around in the ocean.”
The third “big four” premium live event under Levesque’s regime, WWE Royal Rumble, streams this Saturday, January 28th.
