During the latest edition of the 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson looked back at the premiere of SmackDown on FOX last October. There was a lot going on in the company at the time, and the episode include an appearance from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Kofi Kingston losing the WWE Championship to Brock Lesnar, and Cain Velasquez's WWE debut.
Bischoff started talking about Vince McMahon's appearance on the show, and explained why he was under the impression that the WWE Chairman wasn't keen to be part of that debut episode on FOX.
"It was my impression that Vince didn’t really want to do it," the former SmackDown Executive Director explains. "I can understand it. There comes a point when you are getting older that you realize the strength and the credibility that you bring to television isn’t what it used to be. It is what it is, we all get older. When you spend your life on television, you are aware of how you look and how you can present yourself. It was my impression that Vince didn’t really want to do it. It was also my impression that Stephanie really did want him to do it."
"Guess who won? I saw it go down. I wasn’t standing inches from them, but I was a couple feet away. I saw the hesitation from Vince and I saw the pressure put on by Stephanie. First of all, it made my heart fall seeing that father-daughter relationship and that exchange. It was really important to Stephanie. When they went out and did it, it was exciting as hell. It was the right thing to do, it brought tears to my eyes…But I think there was some awareness on Vince’s part that his time as a television character was in his rearview mirror."
This lines up with reports that Vince no longer wants to be on television because he's older now and hates appearing on camera. That decision is understandable, of course, though he has appeared on RAW and SmackDown a handful of times since.
What do you guys think?