Vince McMahon Admits He Can “No Longer Be In The Weeds,” Promises A More Edgy Product & Takes Shot at AEW

During yesterday’s WWE Q2 Earnings call, Vince McMahon admitted he would be taking a step back from the product, discussing the new Executive Directors. Below are some highlights from the call with a H/T to Seeking Alpha for the transcriptions.

Vince discussed bringing Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman onboard, admitting that he can no longer “be in the weeds” every day.

“One the things that we’ve done is hire 2 Executive Directors, one for Raw and 1 for SmackDown and in doing so, it allows me to look at a longer-range story – our standpoint and also spend more time on talent development and not get into the weeds as much as I had to do in the past. That is a really, really good thing for a long-term as well as short-term. Actually, we’ve seen a big result already.”

Vince also discussed how much control both Bischoff and Heyman will have in their new roles:

“Why now question is a logical one,” Vince said. “I can’t personally be in the weeds any longer and we have these 2 individuals who have a longer range of point of view and a developmental point the of view. Both of these individuals have extensive backgrounds in the business from various aspects and with the organizational aspects that they have and the depth of talent, executive talent we now attract is going to be really good for our business. And how much latitude they will have, that’s again it allows me to have a broader overview of things and escape from just getting on the weeds. So they’ll have a lot of latitude.”

Vince McMahon also talked about how WWE will start becoming an edgier product, whilst taking a shot at AEW in the process:

“We’re going to be a bit edgier but still remain in the PG environment,” Vince revealed. “We’ve just come anywhere close actually to go into another level. So that will be something will do in terms of direction of content, more controversy, better storylines, etc. But at the same time, we’re not going to go back to the bold Attitude Era and we’re not going to do blood and guts and things of that nature such as being done on perhaps a new potential competitor. We’re just not going to go back to that gory that we graduated from. And again, a more sophisticated product. Again attracting much better writers and attracting better management things of that nature. So again, I feel really good about it.”