Drew McIntyre Describes The Backstage WWE Vibe Before And After Vince McMahon Stepped Down
It's been just about two weeks since Triple H took the creative and hiring reigns of WWE from Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis. Both McMahon and Laurinaitis were named in a WWE Board of Directors investigation into a series of hush money payments made by McMahon to former female employees to silence allegations of sexual abuse, harassment, and misconduct. McMahon stepped down from all duties, corporate and creative, while Laurinaitis was quietly let go from the company recently. While Triple H is now handling creative and hiring, McMahon's daughter Stephanie has taken over corporate leadership of WWE, sharing the CEO position with company President Nick Khan.
Triple H's young reign as Executive Vice President of Talent Relations has already seen the return of numerous superstars that were released by McMahon and Laurinaitis, including Dakota Kai, Dexter Lumis, Scarlett, and her husband Karrion Kross, who is pegged to be added to the main event scene under the new leadership.
'There's been a lot more outside the box things going on'
"The vibe is very positive," former WWE Champion Drew McIntyre told Las Vegas's KXST. "I'd also be lying if I said the vibe was very positive prior also. I can't remember a time where everybody was just down the whole time."
McIntyre says that the usual mentality of "keep your head down and give it all you've got, keep improving in your weak areas and you're accountable to the person in the mirror and opportunity will come and it's up to you to smash it," keeps people from getting too down in the dumps backstage.
As far as the new direction under Triple H, McIntyre says "there's been a lot more outside the box things going on" which he describes as not only exciting for the WWE audience "but also for the locker room as well. Somebody comes back in the locker room that we miss, that's cool, but obviously, it also adds some buzz and excitement to the show."
According to McIntyre, the return of Kross got people talking, and the returns add much-needed depth to the roster.