WWE Rumors: Vince McMahon’s Raw Creative, Backstage Morale, Cody Rhodes and The Rock

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Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from WWE and AEW.

Vince McMahon’s Meddling Returns to WWE Raw; Superstar Morale Down

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

The days of coherent, well-booked WWE programming flew out the window Monday night as Vince McMahon reportedly had a heavy hand in creative booking for the Raw after WrestleMania.

Mike Johnson of PW Insider reported McMahon was “firmly” back in charge of creative, having his own office and making several rewrites to the script in the hours leading up to the event. Some changes transpired as the show was on the air.

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported there were two women’s triple threat matches slated for the card that were removed at the last minute.

This marks a major shift versus how Triple H has been running things since taking over creative. While not every idea the Hall of Famer has put out has been a home run, there has been a consistent vision, and rundowns for Raw and SmackDown largely went as written. The latter years of McMahon’s tenure running creative were rife with last-minute rewrites and chaos that drained talent.

Johnson’s report noted a “huge negative shift in morale” among performers who were at the Raw taping. One source told Johnson the “place felt nuked.”

Triple H has earned the trust of talent across the roster, with many wrestlers having a strong relationship with him dating back to their days in NXT.

Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio said (h/t Trevor Dame) parties have become resigned to WWE shifting back to its previous way of running things, with McMahon having the “final say” in all decisions.

“He’s back in charge. He was running TV tonight. He’s back. It will be what it was before…Paul will be head of creative. So he’s going to be doing the busy work and all of that stuff. Vince is going to have final say on everything,” Meltzer said.

Cody Rhodes in Strong Standing Under Vince McMahon; More on The Rock

One talent that won’t see much change in his standing at the top of the card is apparently Cody Rhodes.

Meltzer said McMahon’s personal involvement in recruiting Rhodes to leave AEW will help keep him in main-event status moving forward (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News).

“Another thing is that Vince is the one who personally recruited Cody Rhodes, not Triple H. Not that Triple H didn’t use him well. He used him great. But, Vince was the one who flew to Cody with Bruce Prichard and Cody at the time wasn’t looking to go.”

“Bruce Prichard called and asked ‘are you interested,’ and Cody said ‘I might as well hear them out, I’m a free agent.’ Then Vince flew down to see him, and once Vince flies down to see you, you know, he’s got that aura, and he’s convince. Cody still had to go back and forth and everything, but it was Vince who largely was the one who got this deal done, so Cody’s not some guy that Vince hates, he’s a guy that Vince brought in.”

It’s also worth noting Meltzer touched on Rhodes’ placement in the main event of WrestleMania 39, saying it was always going to be the American Nightmare or The Rock at the top of the marquee.

“It was always going to be Cody or The Rock vs. Roman, and that was up to The Rock, either way. That didn’t change with Triple H. That was Vince McMahon’s thing,” Meltzer said.

The Rock declined placement on the WrestleMania card due to concerns about being in ring shape.