Former WWE Official Questions Whether Vince McMahon Is Actually Retired
Since Vince McMahon announced his retirement from the WWE, current and former wrestlers have grappled with the fallout from their controversial former boss resigning from his various high-profile roles with the company. With Vince stepping down, his daughter Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan have taken on his former role as Co-CEO and will serve as Co-CEOs of WWE. Triple H has taken over as Head of WWE Creative and made noticeable changes to the product. Including bringing back several talents that were let go under Vince's watch, like Karrion Kross this past Friday on "SmackDown."
The news of Vince McMahon's retirement came after it was reported that there were investigations into millions of dollars in hush money payments made by Vince to female employees. The payments were reportedly made in order to silence the women from making accusations about harassment, abuse, and misconduct against Vince McMahon and former Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis.
Some have suggested that the former Chairman would still be running the WWE from behind the scenes, but according to several sources, that isn't the case. Although the on-screen WWE product seems to be changing, one person who still believes Vince has a say in what's going on is former WWE referee Mike Chioda.
Did Vince McMahon really retire?
"Do you really believe that Vince McMahon is really retired?" Chioda said on the latest episode of the "Monday Mailbag" podcast. "All he could be doing is sitting home on a phone or FaceTime on an iPhone on a Zoom chat and he'll be Zooming every day for TV."
Chioda recently appeared in All Elite Wrestling, reffing the finals of the Men's Owen Hart Tournament, and was also seen refereeing Ric Flair's Last Match. With Triple H now in charge of WWE, Chioda also addressed whether or not a return to the company he spent 31 years with is in the cards.
"It's never say never, I'd love to go do something for WWE," Chioda said.
Chioda has discussed having a great relationship with Triple H in the past, going so far as to say The Game discussed a retirement plan with the 30+ year ref. Unfortunately for Chioda, his WWE tenure came to an end in April 2020 and he recently referred to refereeing Flair's last match as his "last chapter."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Monday Mailbag with Mike Chioda with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.