Vince McMahon’s 2023 WWE Return Allegedly “Made Everything Weird” Backstage

Former WWE star Luke Gallows is opening up about what it was like when Vince McMahon briefly returned to the company in 2023 — and according to him, the vibe instantly shifted.

Speaking with PWMania.com, Gallows recalled the exact moment he and Karl Anderson saw McMahon reappear.

“Yeah, when we [Good Brothers] came back in October of 2022, it felt great. It felt fresh. It felt new. Then, a few short months later, we’re in New York and we’re getting ready to leave the building and a limousine pulls up and we see a mustachioed man pop out and it was Vince McMahon coming back for the first time, we happened to see him in the parking garage.”

From that moment forward, Gallows said, things felt different inside WWE.

“I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors there, but from that point on, everything certainly got weird. Whether it was the Vince thing and then the eventual sale to TKO and however that timeline worked. But, you know, you could feel the winds of change.”

The Good Brothers ended up finishing out their contracts, but Gallows described it as a frustrating stretch where they were sidelined instead of being actively used.

“So the last year or so of that contract, we were there, you’re getting paid, you’re doing your thing but it was kind of like golden handcuffs for us because we love to be doing something, we love to be active, we love to be entertainers, and we number one love to be professional wrestlers. So, you’re just kind of spinning your wheels when you’re just kind of on the sidelines. It was what it was, no hard feelings.”

Gallows’ comments shine a light on how McMahon’s brief 2023 return and WWE’s eventual sale to TKO impacted talent behind the scenes, leaving some stars stuck in limbo.