Backstage Reaction To Vince McMahon's WWE SmackDown Appearance
How did those backstage take Vince McMahon's high-profile WWE SmackDown return last night?
The reactions ranged from "confused to enraged" when it came to Vince McMahon's high-profile SmackDown return last night, according to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp.
With this appearance coming hot on the heels of the boss stepping down from his position of CEO and Chairman of WWE on the back of misconduct allegations made against himself and Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis being investigated by the board, it's safe to say both fans and WWE talent alike were more than intrigued about what said showing would entail.
In the end, McMahon would take to the ring and emphasise the "Together" element of WWE's current "Then. Now. Forever. Together" tagline before quickly strutting back up the ramp. But this brief and bizarre development was enough to incite an understandably negative response from a number of folks backstage.
One current WWE talent would tell the site that Vince's show-opening promo was "tone deaf and embarrassing", with this star feeling that the appearance was done as a way to lessen the overall impact of the ongoing investigations.
A person who had worked with McMahon was said to have been "enraged" by the promo and "incredulous" upon watching it go down live, too.
Another former WWE talent would also note, "I'm happy it didn't last long, so I didn't have to sit through whatever bulls**t he was going to say. But it shows that he has no accountability, especially when something is directly his fault."
This follows on from McMahon being said to have been in a "great mood" when arriving to the Friday night show's taping, according to PWInsider, with the now-former CEO "joking around" in the SmackDown production meeting and not selling the highly publicised controversy surrounding him in the slightest.
Laurinaitis was said to have not been at last night's tapings, it should be noted.