Vince McMahon’s SmackDown Promo Seen A ‘Tone Deaf’ Internally

Vince McMahon left his position as WWE’s Chairman & CEO. He made Stephanie McMahon as the interim Chairman & CEO of the company, as his leave may be temporary. This happened in light of report from Wall Street Journal, which broke the news of Vince McMahon being under investigation from the board.

Stephanie McMahon issued a statement to officially announce the transfer of reigns. SmackDown’s June 17th 2022 episode had Vince McMahon cutting an opining promo in the ring, where he talked to the fans. He addressed the fans and welcomed them to the show. However, he did not address anything about the current situation.

Sean Sapp revealed that he received a few reactions from talent, both past and current. He added that all the reactions ranged from being confused to feeling enraged.

I’ve received a bunch of reactions from current and former WWE talent about the Vince McMahon appearance on Smackdown that range from confused to enraged.

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Fightful also reported behind their paywall that a WWE talent gave them a statement about how they felt about the promo. They apparently were glad that the promo was short, and that it showed no accountability on his part. The talent even blames Vince, as they said that “something is directly his fault.“

The term “business as usual” was also constantly stated backstage.

“Business as usual” was a term constantly reiterated backstage. Few knew what Vince McMahon was going to say to kick off the show. What happened was Vince McMahon effectively explaining the “Then. Now. Forever. Together” tagline, saying “Welcome to Smackdown” and throwing the microphone.

Reactions that we received, unsolicited, ranged from confused to disappointed to “enraged.”

A top talent immediately contacted Fightful and said it was “tone deaf and embarrassing,” and believed it was his way of putting himself on screen as a power move to lessen the impact of an investigation’s findings.

A former top talent who left the company said that “I’m happy it didn’t last long, so I didn’t have to sit through whatever bullshit he was going to say. But it shows that he has no accountability, especially when something is directly his fault.”

Rene Paquette, who was a notable part of WWE as an announcer for many years, also took to Twitter to react to the promo. Her reaction was the iconic Steve Harvey gif. In the gif, Harvey looks very confused after a few seconds of trying to understand what’s going on. The situation is currently developing, but it seems that some of the talent is growing restless.