Vince McMahon WWE Return Inspires ‘Fire Vince’ Movement From Furious Fans

The era of Mustache Vince is here, and it’s as toxic as ever.

Vince McMahon reportedly returned to WWE Raw in a significant capacity. McMahon recently rose from the ashes after being forced to retire due to allegations of hush money payments and sexual misconduct. In the midst of backlash against the WWE Chairman, some of the top trends from seething fans included:

• #WorstRaw
• #WWEWomenDeserveBetter
• #FireVinceMcMahon
• #FireVince

Fan backlash has only intensified since the tumultuous return of McMahon. A “fire vince” chant reportedly broke out Tuesday night during a taping of WWE NXT. McMahon was installed as Executive Chairman during WWE’s blockbuster sale to Endeavor. Reports of McMahon’s comeback painted a scene of locker room disarray amid last-minute rewrites and changing plans on the fly.

Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler of Schism reportedly requested their release. The former Grizzled Young Vets competed as recently as NXT Stand and Deliver, and despite these reports, they were spotted at Tuesday’s NXT Level Up taping.

WWE Raw was universally panned with minimal wrestling and maximum chaos. The booking of also women came under heavy scrutiny with just one women’s match. This gave way to #WWEWomenDeserveBetter trending.

“Damn, this is where we are? #WWEWomenDeserveBetter” Tweeted Those Wrestling Girls.

The lone women’s match pitted Damage CTRL against Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan, with the winner becoming the No. 1 Contenders for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. Conspicuous by her absence was Bayley, who did not appear on Monday’s Raw. Bayley’s status with WWE is suddenly under question following a cryptic tweet that read “And sometimes the most romantic love story comes to an end. Bye.”

Vince McMahon Return, Cody Rhodes Loss Creates Toxicity

In the matter of 48 hours, WWE undid nearly nine months of goodwill established by the Triple H Era, which transcended wrestling through long, predictable and—most importantly—satisfying stories. Perhaps it’s fitting that WWE failed to pull the trigger on what should have been an inevitable WrestleMania 39 win for Cody Rhodes.

Cooperative crowds were the new normal in the Triple H Era. But WWE’s polarizing decision in the WrestleMania main event led to intense fan backlash against a WWE storyline, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the previous Vince McMahon era. Instead of finishing the story with a happy ending, the Triple H Era went out with a whimper, and suddenly seems like a lame-duck entity. Perhaps WWE was preparing fans for the backlash on the horizon, with McMahon’s presence threatening to cripple its creative process.

“What I would say to that is first, ‘drag things out’ sounds negative. It’s not ‘drag things out,’ it’s tell the story. It’s telling a story,” said Triple H at a WWE press conference after dragging things out with a Cody Rhodes loss.

“Where do you want to go with a story and how do you want to get there? I think in the moment, you think like ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe….’ If you’re watching a movie and you thought every scene in the movie was the last scene in the movie,” Triple H explained, “the entire movie would be like, ‘I can’t believe they just did that, it was the worst movie ever,’ and then you go, ‘Oh wait, there’s more.’ Oh wait, there’s more.”

MORE FROM FORBESVince McMahon’s Polarizing Return To WWE Creative Is InevitableBy Alfred Konuwa

Treating its WrestleMania main event like a secondary pay-per-view, Reigns retained with the same basic Bloodline interference WWE has employed in the rare instances he competes. Clearly romanced with the potential of Reigns’ 1,000th day as WWE Universal champion, the dubious milestone exists with Reigns wrestling on a very limited basis.

Roman Reigns celebrating 1,000 days as champion is like an absentee dad celebrating 1,000 days of fatherhood.

WrestleMania 39 Breaks Records As WWE Sells To Endeavor

Hailed as “the most-successful and highest-grossing event in company history,” WrestleMania 39 boasted a live gate of $21.6 million with sponsorship revenue eclipsing $20 million. WWE also reported record-breaking viewership on Peacock:

• WrestleMania 39 on April 1-2 delivered the highest weekend usage ever on Peacock.
• Live viewing of WrestleMania 39 on Saturday, April 1 and Sunday, April 2 (including Hall of Fame ceremony and NXT Stand & Deliver) exclusively on Peacock was +29% in hours viewed and +32% in reach vs. live viewing of last year’s WrestleMania 38 weekend.
• WrestleMania 39 generated most hours watched of any live event on Peacock with the exception of the Super Bowl.

As was the case under Vince McMahon, WWE will continue to do staggering business in spite of looming creative issues. Endeavor’s purchase of WWE, which will now merge with UFC, created a $21 billion company after McMahon reportedly sought $9 billion for WWE.

Just about anybody currently employed with WWE has every reason to be paranoid. Many returning WWE Superstars were fired by McMahon during the previous regime, and with Endeavor taking on more debt through the purchase of WWE, the vaunted McMahon-era budget cuts seem like all but a formality.