Major Update On WWE Creative Following Merger With UFC

Vince McMahon addresses whether he'll one again be involved in WWE creative.

by Andrew Pollard
Vince McMahon
CNBC

With it today formally announced that WWE and Endeavor have agreed a deal for WWE and UFC to merge together to form a new publicly limited company which will have Vince McMahon serving as Executive Chairman, many have pondered what impact this might have on the market leader's creative process.

Of course, Paul 'Triple H' Levesque has been steering the creative ship as Chief Content Officer since Vince retired in disgrace last July.

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Once McMahon strongarmed his way back into the Executive Chairman role earlier this year, questions have been regularly asked of whether Vince has been back involved in the creative process. The official company line on this is that McMahon has had zero creative input, and that his return was solely to oversee the sale of WWE and to negotiate a new TV rights deal.

Now, Vince McMahon himself has addressed whether he'll be reverting to being as involved creatively as he was previously.

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Speaking alongside Endeavor's Ariel Emanuel on CNBC's Squawk Box (via WrestlingNews.co) earlier today, McMahon explained:

"Yes and no [I'll be involved creatively]. On a higher level, yes. In the weeds, which I always loved to get into the weeds in the past... no, [I] can't do that."

In a follow-up to this, POST Wrestling's John Pollock has been told that "an internal email was sent out in WWE and included the line that 'Paul Levesque will remain WWE's chief content executive'."

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While the announcement of this Endeavor and WWE deal listed McMahon as the new company's Executive Chairman and Nick Khan as WWE President, some were concerned when no mention was made on Triple H's role within the organisation. Now, it would appear that the Levesque will maintain his job heading up creative - at least for the foreseeable future.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.