When Vince McMahon came out of retirement, the news was not welcomed by fans. Despite vowing to remain hands-off with creative, the WWE Chairman was heavily involved with the RAW after WrestleMania...perhaps one of the worst episodes of that show ever.
Since then, he has mostly taken a backseat but is said to have been responsible for one recent bizarre change to RAW and SmackDown.
We've recently seen a number of WWE Superstars given Stan Lee-like alliterative new nicknames such as "Dirty" Dom, "Scintillating" Santos Escobar, and "Big" Bronson Reed. Well, those were all Vince's ideas, no great surprise given how completely out of touch he is with what fans want from pro wrestling today.
However, the response was negative enough that the concept has already been scrapped.
In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer explains, "It was confirmed to us that all the alliterative nicknames on the 7/17 Raw were a directive from Vince McMahon."
"It wasn’t pushed nearly as hard on Smackdown on 7/21 or Raw on 7/24, so it looks like it was just an idea he had (and that most thought was bad), and he gave up on it after."
There's been a lot of unhappiness backstage in WWE about McMahon's continued interference, and it was even reported last month that there are those within the company attempting to "Vince-proof" plans before he can sabotage them.
That includes making sure to advertise matches in advance as often as possible, all in the hope it will deter the elderly Chairman from tampering with them.
Ultimately, Vince is gonna Vince and that's not good news for WWE. While these silly nicknames aren't exactly the end of the world, they're indicative of someone who fails to realise fans want an edgier product instead of the juvenile nonsense the 77-year-old so often favours.
Stay tuned for updates.