Shawn Michaels Takes Dig at Vince McMahon's Leadership of WWE

"We have good stories, and we have very sad and tragic stories. I want theirs to be a story that ends with joy and happiness and peace. That's something that Hunter put into the Performance Center when he started it 14 years ago, a culture that was going to be unlike the business that we broke into. We want to pass the tools of professional wrestling forward, but we want the culture of our business to be different and to be more positive than when we got into it."

What Was Michaels Really Saying?

Wrestling fans who have been around for a while know what Michaels was saying.

While he and legends like Triple H credit McMahon for the success of their careers, they also want to get away from the negative culture Vince created.

The Netflix docuseries Mr. McMahon, released in 2024, was a first-of-its-kind look into the complicated personality who ran WWE for 40 years. The series featured the perspectives of the legends Vince made famous, such as Hulk Hogan, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and Shawn Michaels.

The docuseries is one of many unfortunate headlines for the embattled former Chairman and CEO of the sports entertainment juggernaut.

After Janell Grant filed her lawsuit against McMahon on the same week that: WWE closed a 10-year, $5 billion deal with Netflix, Dwayne Johnson became a TKO board member, and the Royal Rumble was set to emanate from Tropicana Field in Florida, McMahon resigned in disgrace from the company he built — a moment that seemed impossible ten years prior.

Since then, WWE has been removed all mention of McMahon on television. His image was even blurred out on WWE 2K24. Only recently has his name been officially mentioned, like in Triple H's Hall of Fame acceptance speech or the WrestleMania 43 Saudi Arabia press conference.

Under TKO's leadership, WWE is moving to the center of the mainstream. Major deals with Netflix and ESPN, which is owned by Disney, will bring more eyes — and accountability — to the company. The corporate structure of WWE is unlike the past. While Triple H might be sitting in Vince's seat in the Gorilla position, he did not assume all of McMahon's responsibilities nor power. Nick Khan is a respected business executive with relationships and interests outside of the WWE. TKO's board members and executive leadership have connections in every sector of the sports and entertainment world. WWE cannot run like it used to because it would risk the reputations of people more powerful than McMahon in his prime.

I think Michaels is sincere. He desires the newer generation of talent to have better lives than the previous era of wrestlers for their own sakes.

But this is also about the longevity of the business. If WWE did not address its negative culture, then WWE would have become like Vince McMahon: a relic of the past.