Paul 'Triple H' Levesque Reportedly Facing 'Internal Criticism' Over WrestleMania 42

There's still over two months to go before WrestleMania 42 emanates from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, but WWE's Chief Content Officer is reportedly facing some internal criticism over the build to the show.

The Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer is reporting that advanced ticket sales for the 'Showcase of the Immortals' is down about 18 percent compared to WrestleMania 41, which was held in the same exact city and venue.

There is apparently a belief from some within the company, according to Meltzer, that Levesque's recent adjustments to the creative direction have contributed to the slump in sales. Meltzer himself noted that the correlation between the two doesn't really add up, and he's not wrong.

Unless you're among the portion of fans who keep up with constant updates over matches that were reportedly planned, but never officially announced, you very likely are out of the loop that Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes were initially supposed to face one another for the third time in four years. Or that Bron Breakker was a heavy favorite to win the Royal Rumble until Roman's plans were changed, and Cody Rhodes pushed to drop the WWE Championship to Drew McIntyre.

All of those moves have a natural trickle-down effect, but some in WWE have been critical of the decision-making process. Meltzer even mentioned comparisons to the last minute, and oftentimes chaotic changes that Vince McMahon would make during the latter years of his creative control.

That said, the card for WrestleMania 42 is starting to come together. 2026 Men's Royal Rumble winner Roman Reigns will face CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship, while 2026 Women's Royal Rumble winner Liv Morgan will challenge either Women's World Champion Stephanie Vaquer or WWE Women's Champion Jade Cargill. The No. 1 Contenders for the other two world titles will be determined on Saturday, February 28 at WWE Elimination Chamber, with Randy Orton and Tiffany Stratton qualifying for their respective matches Friday night on SmackDown.

source: si.com

Rumor Mill - Stephanie McMahon Reportedly Upsets ESPN With Podcast VPN Advice

Stephanie McMahon seems to be having a lot of fun with her spot in the pro wrestling world today.

Vince McMahon's return to WWE as chairman in January 2023 prompted Stephanie's immediate departure from the company, but since her reemergence in early 2024, McMahon has maintained a steady presence in and around WWE.

She spent months producing her "Stephanie's Places" interview show on ESPN+ which debuted in March. In the show, McMahon traveled the country and interviewed WWE superstars at locations that mean a lot to each guest.

McMahon also launched her podcast "What's Your Story? With Steph McMahon," where she interviews "the most interesting people in sports, entertainment, business and of course WWE to find out their personal stories of hardship and success"

And it's there that the controversy started.

McMahon's most recent guest on the show was the longest-reigning world champion of the modern era, Roman Reigns. One of the sponsors of the episode was a VPN company was a company called Surfshark, which gives people access to the internet through different locations allowing them to unlock content that's not available in their own country.

While completing an ad read for Surfshark, McMahon gave a useful yet unethical tip to her viewers as to how they should go about maximizing the Surfshark VPN's capabilities.

"A lot of you are still watching WWE the old school way: on cable. Dealing with boring commercials while I'm enjoying uninterrupted action. Let's fix that with today's sponsor: Surfshark VPN!"

WWE fans all over the world reacted hilariously to the quotes considering the conflict of interest. McMahon is employed by WWE, but is encouraging fans to pirate their way into watching WWE programming for less or no money through a VPN.

WWE PLEs are only available on Netflix to international viewers and a VPN could give American users access to those same PLEs through Netflix as well instead of ESPN once the events move over to that platform.

ESPN will be hosting all WWE PLEs starting September 20 beginning with Wrestlepalooza inside the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. The new direct-to-consumer app is likely bracing for potential VPN users looking to finesse their way into watching premium WWE programming, especially after McMahon's move.

A report by Fightful Select revealed that a source at ESPN did not appreciate the remarks by McMahon on her podcast. The source also did not expect the issue to become significant, but that they weren't thrilled to hear her promote the product that way.

ESPN has about three weeks until Wrestlepalooza when the surge of WWE fans looking to watch future PLEs will join the platform. How much damage McMahon's promotion of Surfshark has done to potential subscriber growth is unknown.

source: si.com

Rumor Mill - Triple H And Vince McMahon's Roles In WWE Creative

Rumors began to emerge yesterday suggesting that Paul "Triple H" Levesque is fully in control of WWE creative following the formation of TKO Group Holdings. In this scenario, it was said that Vince McMahon still retains his position on the board, but is no longer submitting last-minute creative changes to "WWE Raw" and "WWE SmackDown." On today's "Wrestling Observer Radio," journalist Dave Meltzer shared what he's heard regarding the creative situation in WWE.

McMahon has reportedly "backed off" of the company's creative. However, that is only for the time being, and McMahon still retains the power to change things if he desires. As of now, though, the creative direction is said to be almost entirely set by Levesque. Meltzer stated he was unsure why exactly McMahon seems to have chosen to take a step back willingly, as he has expressed no desire to do that in the past. In fact, McMahon pushed hard to return to the company in the wake of his retirement last year, and for a period of time was said to be making a number of creative changes to WWE shows.

While the details are not yet clear, McMahon is currently under investigation by the federal government. The investigation is likely diving into alleged "hush money" payments made by McMahon to several women previously employed by WWE. Several months after news of the scandal first broke, McMahon stepped down as WWE CEO, and soon after announced his retirement. Early this year, however, McMahon would shockingly re-appoint himself to the board, quickly changing the rules to allow himself to become the company's Executive Chairman. McMahon then presided over the merger between WWE and UFC under the umbrella of Endeavor, which was finalized last month.

Rumor Mill - Stephanie McMahon and Triple H had opposed a sale of WWE

Axios.com featured a piece on all the rapidly developing twists and turns within WWE corporate over the last week that originated with Vince McMahon forcing himself back into a major role in the company to potentially faciliate a sale.

Interesting to note that in their coverage, it is noted, "Sources told Axios that Stephanie McMahon and her husband Paul "Triple H" Levesque, the company's chief content officer and a retired professional wrestler, had opposed a sale."

Should that be accurate, it certainly adds a new dimension to Stephanie McMahon's decision to resign from the company earlier this week.

Rumor Mill - NXT Expected To "Somewhat" Return To Triple H’s Vision For The Brand

Shawn Michaels has been in charge of the day-to-day running of NXT since Triple H’s took leave last year with health issues, Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard were also overseeing the booking but with McMahon now gone it is believed Triple H will be more involved with the brand.

In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that “in NXT, the belief was that the product will revert back somewhat to Levesque’s previous vision of it.”

Meltzer noted the belief was that while they will continue to heavily recruit top-tier athletes, WWE would be open to using more experienced wrestling talent, and going forward, “the door would be more open to better wrestlers who weren’t as big or as good looking as [Vince] McMahon wanted on the roster.”

Rumor Mill - Triple H Not Returning To WWE NXT Anytime Soon

WWE Hall of Famer and Vice President of Talent Development Shawn Michaels has stepped up in a major way while his best friend has been away. Michaels is seen as the main person in charge of NXT 2.0 right now, and WWE officials are very high on his work.

There’s a feeling that Michaels has been under pressure to make new stars fast with the recent changes in the show, and he is credited with quickly making people like Grayson Waller, Tony D’Angelo, LA Knight, NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes, and NXT Champion Bron Breakker into stars very quickly. It was noted that this was not Michaels’ job when he was hired to work as a NXT Producer/Coach, but the workload fell upon him when Triple H took time off last year, and higher-ups feel like he has great aptitude for the creative process, and the understanding of how to make stars, and to make key talent stand out.

While Michaels is the main person in charge at NXT right now, he still has to answer to the top of the company, which includes WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon and Senior Vice President Bruce Prichard. The Observer notes that even with the perception that McMahon and Prichard are running NXT, that’s not really the case as Michaels is in charge but McMahon has the final say.

Rumor Mill - Vince McMahon Reportedly Looking To Make WWE NXT 2.0 An Edgier Product

WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon reportedly has some significant plans in store for the WWE NXT 2.0 brand.

Word going around WWE is that McMahon has plans for NXT 2.0 to be a more edgier product, according to Fightful Select. This would be a part of the ongoing revamp for the brand.

It was reported that the NXT 2.0 brand may target more of a P18-34 demographic, which would go for everything from in-ring work and aggression, to harsher language, and the like. It was also noted that there may be more lenience when it comes to the attire worn by female Superstars, although it wasn’t specified exactly what that means. Another point brought up was that the brand may “keep up with current affairs with promos and character verbiage.”

There’s no word on when these changes might be implemented, and it was noted that sources haven’t heard much more outside of a brief internal acknowledgement that the changes have been discussed.

At least some officials at the USA Network are aware of the potential changes, and are said to be in support of them.

Rumor Mill - Vince McMahon And Bruce Prichard Reportedly Producing The WWE NXT Brand With Revamp

WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon and Senior Vice President & Executive Director Bruce Prichard are set to produce the WWE NXT brand moving forward.

As we’ve noted, NXT will return to airing live weekly shows on the USA Network beginning with the September 14 episode, which will feature the wedding of Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell. This will mark a reset for the brand, with a new logo, new theme song, a new look for the weekly show, and a new creative direction.

It was noted by Bryan Alvarez on today’s edition of Wrestling Observer Live that McMahon and Prichard will be producing the weekly NXT TV show when the brand returns to live TV later this month.

Furthermore, Dave Meltzer adds that McMahon and Prichard will be behind the big decisions for the NXT brand, but not the smaller ones. They will also be responsible for marketing, promotion and direction of the NXT brand.

Regarding NXT creative, it was noted that McMahon and Prichard may be only be booking the wrestlers at the top of the brand.

Word is that NXT will be like “the old NXT” moving forward, which appears to be a reference to how the brand was at its peak, around 2015-2018 or so.

There’s no word yet on what the changes will mean for Triple H and his team, which includes WWE Hall of Famers Shawn Michaels and “Road Dogg” BG James, but we will keep you updated.

WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan recently confirmed that there will be a complete revamp for the NXT brand coming soon. You can click here to read his comments.

As noted, rapper Wale recently revealed a bright new color-changing logo for the NXT brand, and a snippet of the new NXT theme song, which includes several familiar hip-hop samples. That same teaser has aired on WWE TV and social media this week. You can see those teasers below.

Rumor Mill - The Rock Returning To WWE At Survivor Series

Andrew Zarian of the Man Men Pro Wrestling podcast is reporting that The Rock is scheduled for the Survivor Series pay-per-view in November which will be celebrating his 25th anniversary since his debut with WWE.

Zarian noted that the current plan is for the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY to host the big event, which is fitting as The Rock’s 1996 debut was in New York City in Madison Square Garden.

It remains unknown right now if The Rock will compete on the show, although there are rumors it will be a tag match, building toward a singles match with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 38 in 2022.

Rumor Mill - WWE In Talks With Major League Wrestling

WWE is reportedly in talks with Major League Wrestling, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 

The deal would allow some NXT developmental wrestlers appear on MLW TV, and would be a very similar deal to what they had with EVOLVE. 

The deal would also help talent they have signed have further exposure, instead of sitting on the sidelines while the company is currently off the road due to the COVID19 pandemic.

We recently reported, WWE filmed a new pilot for a show titled, "NXT EVOLVE" with the idea that it would air weekly on Peacock and feature some of WWE’s developmental talent. It remains unknown if this idea will materialize into something.

WWE also wants to be viewed as forward-thinking and open to working with other promotions, given the fact AEW has partnerships with the likes of IMPACT Wrestling, New Japan and AAA.

Rumor Mill - Triple H Returns To Work After Quarantining

Triple H has reportedly returned to work after recently going into quarantine following the latest COVID-19 outbreak in WWE NXT. It was reported on March 19 that Triple H had missed the March 15 RAW and then missed the March 17 NXT episode as he was under quarantine due to COVID-19 concerns. The report noted that Triple H’s situation was being kept secretive and that he was put into quarantine over concern that he may have been involved in the outbreak, but not that he actually had the coronavirus.

Rumor Mill - Triple H In Quarantine Following COVID-19 Outbreak

Triple H has reportedly been in quarantine following a COVID-19 outbreak in NXT.

Earlier this week, reports emerged stating that there had been another COVID-19 outbreak in NXT. This was caused after several members of talent and staff had been moving rings in the Performance Center without using proper safety precautions.

Further reports noted several talents who were absent from NXT this week. One of the names mentioned was Triple H, who also didn’t show up to Raw or NXT television. As per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Triple H is now under quarantine. It was noted that his situation is being kept secretive, and it doesn’t necessarily mean he has tested positive. NXT producers Road Dogg and Shawn Michaels took Triple H’s place as head of NXT production.

Rumor Mill - WWE NXT Moving To A New Night

There are rumors on the WWE NXT TV show possibly moving to Tuesday nights on the USA Network.

It was reported today by the Mat Men Pro Wrestling podcast that NXT is set to move to Tuesday nights beginning April 13, which would be the first NXT show after WrestleMania 37 weekend. The report noted that an official announcement should be made fairly soon by WWE.

WWE has not confirmed the schedule change as of this writing and it should be taken strictly as a rumor for now, but some people in or around NXT have heard of the rumor making the rounds.

Furthermore, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer noted on Twitter that NXT moving to Tuesday night was definitely a topic of discussion in WWE as of February 24, which was last Wednesday, but at least at that point the change was not final.

Mat Men later noted that they heard the same thing about the February 24 rumblings, adding that NBC staff were told of the move this week. Meltzer said he expected this would happen when the NBC Sports Network shut down, which could bring some NHL content to Wednesday nights.

Rumor Mill - USA Network Reportedly Upset With WWE RAW Ratings

Monday's TLC go-home edition of RAW drew an average of 1.527 million viewers, down 12% from last week's 1.737 million viewers. Monday's show drew a new all-time low in total viewership, a new all-time low in viewership for each hour, and a new all-time low in the key demographic. Furthermore, last week's AEW Dynamite episode drew a 0.45 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, which beat every hour of this week's RAW in that same demo. You can read our full report on this week's RAW numbers at this link. In an update, WWE officials aren't the only ones who had a big reaction to this week's record-low numbers as there was a similar reaction at the USA Network, according to Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT. It was noted that USA Network management is furious with the drop in ratings, and they want more dark and violent content. "USA Network are furious. They want more adult content. Not sexy adult, but dark and violent adult," the source said. It was also said that WWE officials are hoping that the 2021 Royal Rumble pay-per-view can serve as some kind of a "big reset" for the company. This new report comes after it was reported earlier this week, via Wrestling Observer Radio, that the low numbers were a wake-up call for WWE. Dave Meltzer noted that everyone he knows in WWE were stunned at the numbers, and that people in WWE "got the message" as well. It was also reported this week, via @Wrestlevotes, that the record low numbers for Monday's RAW were not "sitting well" with WWE higher-ups. People in the company expected some "reactionary decisions" to be made, but no other details were provided. It will be interesting to see what WWE does to bring the numbers up, and if anything major happens at the TLC pay-per-view on Sunday. It will also be interesting to see if USA officials recommend any kind of major "reset" storylines as they have in the past.

Rumor Mill - Triple H Creates Team For New WWE NXT Show

Paul "Triple H" Levesque has created a team to oversee a new NXT show, which apparently would be an NXT minor leagues system. Gabe Sapolsky is leading the team. Levesque has given him several agents and writers to help him get more comfortable with writing television. Levesque is a big believer in Sapolsky, and this is said to be a case of Levesque giving him the ball. The idea is to create a show that was described to me as an "NXT for NXT". The biggest challenge has been to format the concept for TV. The original idea was for this to be akin to another promotion running in some of the smaller tier markets that NXT serviced. However, with house shows likely to not return, they are making it just a TV series. The goal was for the show to launch in early 2021, but it has been delayed before and probably will again.

Rumor Mill - Information On Cancelled NXT Concept

In a report by Fightful Select, it was revealed that there was originally plans for an NXT Underground long before RAW Underground was a thing. Apparently, the segment would have been different from what RAW Underground eventually became.

It was apparently going to use talent who wasn't being utilized at the time, as well as outside wrestlers with promotions WWE is partnered with (such as EVOLVE.)

The show was in it's planning stages as late as last month, and apparently a pilot was shot in the Performance Center, but some people were not happy with the concept. Eventually, the idea was scrapped.

Source: Fightful.com

Rumor Mill - Triple H and Stephanie McMahon Main Roster Presence Reduced Lately

Triple H and Stephanie haven’t been at the main roster TV shows in a while, outside of Triple H’s 25-year celebration and similar events. The pandemic has WWE creative down to smaller, focused teams, which is why Shane McMahon has been more involved with RAW creative. Bruce Prichard is still Vince’s right-hand man. Triple H has been mostly focused with running NXT.

Rumor Mill - WWE Is Reportedly Considering Cutting Back On Live Events Permanently

In the wake of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, many things abruptly changed within WWE earlier this year. This includes the company's demanding touring schedule that typically takes WWE superstars around the globe all year round.

It looks as though the changes to WWE's live event schedule may remain the same even after COVID-19 is a less prominent issue. There have been talks within WWE as of late to permanently cut back on the number of live shows produced, according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio.

It was noted that this will most likely affect house shows more than the major network shows like RAW, SmackDown, or NXT.

WWE stars of the past and present have been vocal about how demanding the yearly WWE schedule is on them.

Rumors On WWE Purchasing EVOLVE

There are a lot of rumors going around in regards to the future of EVOLVE and WWE. The two promotions have had a working relationship since 2015.

There have been reports of EVOLVE selling everything to WWE, including the tape library, and being done for good, but neither WWE or EVOLVE would confirm the reports to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter when asked.

EVOLVE has had major financial issues, and the COVID-19 pandemic hasn't helped. The canceling of WrestleMania 36 Week in Tampa was described by The Observer as catastrophic to the promotion.

EVOVLE, which was founded in 2010 by Gabe Sapolsky, has had a working relationship with WWE since 2015. WWE streamed EVOLVE's 10th Anniversary Celebration on the Network last July, which went head-to-head with AEW's Fight For The Fallen event.

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Rumor Mill - WWE Reportedly Moving This Week's SmackDown To The Performance Center Due To Coronavirus

The coronavirus continues to have an impact on the world of professional wrestling.

WWE has reportedly nixed Friday's SmackDown on FOX and WWE 205 Live episodes from the Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit, Michigan due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to PWInsider.

WWE will now broadcast Friday's two shows from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, where they aired tonight's WWE NXT episode on the USA Network from.

Tonight's NXT episode aired from the Performance Center due to a previously scheduled non-WWE event at Full Sail University, and not because of the virus.

WWE officials reportedly made the decision to make the drastic changes to SmackDown earlier this afternoon due to the outbreak. An official announcement will be coming soon.

There's no word yet on if Monday's RAW will still air from the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA, but we will keep you updated.