Latest On New Stephanie McMahon WWE Burial Controversy
More on Stephanie McMahon, WWE's reported attempts at burying her in the media, and more.
Stephanie McMahon's name has been back in the headlines this week, with Business Insider publishing an article framing the former WWE Chief Brand Officer's departure from the company as a sacking rather than a voluntary leave of absence.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer later reported the story was planted by WWE. An attempt at burying Stephanie, it allegedly belied the reality of the situation, with Meltzer suggesting something must have happened between McMahon announcing her leave on 19 May and the article's publication to trigger WWE's move.
In an update, Fightful Select reports that people who had been involved with WWE before Nick Khan's rise to power have indicated that Vince McMahon did not execute his daughter's departure, as Business Insider had suggested. Additionally, while there were some issues with Stephanie's performance as CBO (Business Insider cited WWE's poor corporate sponsorship revenue compared to the UFC), they weren't something that would have contributed to "the end of her job."
Fightful, like Meltzer, has stated that the decision to walk away from WWE, temporarily or otherwise, was Stephanie's own.
McMahon had still been receiving production emails until this week's episode of Raw, when she was taken off the list as a housekeeping measure.
Stephanie's 19 May announcement indicated that she was looking forward to focusing on her family during her time away from WWE, though she intended on returning to the company.