I know it is going to make me sound like I'm wearing a tinfoil hat, but I can't help but feel like Vince will still be running things from his home on a cell phone. Hopefully not of course, but who knows. I know it won't likely happen, but man would it be cool if Vince has absolutely no influence anymore and we can eventually get another Forbidden Door, but this time AEW vs. WWE. I know its too much to ask, but if Vince is gone from creative I can dream.

Oh I'm sure he'll still exert some control, but it won't be as blatant or as obvious especially not while he's under investigation for many immoral and illegal activities. 

And wow I'd love to see an AEW/WWE forbidden door PPV, but I bet WWE would contractually have to win all the fights so it would just be boring. 

Oh yeah I could definitely see WWE demanding to win every match in a AEW vs. WWE event. Well it is probably best to keep dreaming about an event like this than to actually see it happen.

I think you may be underestimating just how deep the shit McMahon is in.

WWE had to recently revise their earning statements to reflect the 12 million or so McMahon has paid in hush money. Which means, Vince used 12 million dollars of WWE's money to pay off women he had sex with. In addition to how gross his behavior generally was, that is 12 million dollars that was embezzled. Also some possible tax evasion going on. Maybe Vince gets away with it because he's rich enough. Or maybe he goes to jail like Martha Stewart.

The moral of the story is, they never get you on the actual crime. They get you for the cover up. 

Oh trust me I'm not underestimating how bad it is, Vince will likely never be seen on WWE TV or even mentioned by name again. The man is radioactive at this point and with the rumors of HBO Sports (apparently Bryant Gumbel) doing a show on him, and other news outlets working on stories as well, this is only going to get worse.

Having said that, he may very well get away with not going to jail, he is indeed rich enough to pull it off sadly. I just would not be surprised if he secretly still sends HHH (who is in charge of creative now) booking ideas and stories despite everything. I guess in time we will see. I mean if the booking and creative still sucks in say 6 months, then Vince might be booking WWE from his home.

And if that's true, Triple H should delete those emails, shred those letters and dump them in the nearest trash can, and then just go about his day.

Ha, yeah that would be the smart thing for Triple H to do. Maybe change his email and phone number too.

I'm fine with Vince sending in ideas. It's not like everything he's ever done is bad, or even that everything he's done recently is bad. I think if he was just another voice in the room, and his suggestions were just suggestions, I think he'd be an asset. I think that's generally the case in the pro wrestling business. You need someone with a clear vision so that things aren't chaotic and random, but that person can't be the sole decision maker.

But... I think considering the situation, Stephanie is going to want to make sure Vince is completely separated from the product. He's beyond radioactive at the moment.

I'm not 100% sold on HHH as a booker. Partially because I didn't watch much NXT at its height, but also because it's generally hard to book a wrestling show. Particularly a show like Raw or Smackdown. With NXT, you can sort of target the "hardcore" wrestling fan. With something like Raw, when you have to go beyond the core fanbase, it's a bit trickier. Not saying the product won't improve, but I'm just saying cautious optimism is appropriate.

Yeah I have never really watched NXT so I can't speak to how HHH booked. I know a lot of people felt it was excellent until they put NXT up against Dynamite. At that point it seems HHH started counter-booking AEW and NXT suffered. Maybe things will be different for Raw and Smackdown since he is not up against anyone else, and he can just focus on each show without worrying about what the other person is doing. I guess time will tell.

Card for Summerslam is looking pretty mediocre.

Aside from Liv vs Rousey, which I'm not sure will work out because Ronda still needs someone experienced to help her out and Liv ain't it, and Logan Paul vs the Miz, the card is all matches we've seen before. They still will likely be pretty good, but it's hard to get excited about Brock vs Reigns again. Becky is in a weird position, because she's too popular to not be featured, but her feud with Bianca has run its course.

Maybe they'll sneak in some surprises, but the first PPV of the McMahon Helmsley regime is not terribly exciting.

Edit:

So I got the three Ws, Weed, Wings, Wrestling. I don't think they should have started with the women's match, because I think it's going to be hard to top. Becky and Bianca are so fucking good. Every move mattered. And, the thing about them is that their transitions are so smooth and hides the cooperation. The best example is the Spanish Fly spot towards the end of the match. I always hate that spot because you could always see it from a mile away, and you always see the obvious cooperation as they time the jump. This time, no. I didn't see it coming at all, and the move actually looked vaguely like something that would be possible without extensive choreography. And, it actually seemed somewhat possible that Becky would win. Ending with a handshake was a great way to bring (hopefully) an end to the feud, since it echoes what happened a year ago. 

Then after the match... well, if people had their doubts about HHH running things differently, they should have less now. Bayley coming back was a surprise on its own, and a welcome one since she was probably my favorite female before leaving. I was hoping she would come back with the Bailey classic gimmick but she still has dark hair and looks mean. Then right after that, Dakota Kai, who was released for some crazy reason a couple of months ago, comes back. Then, Io Shirai comes out. The best part is that it's Dakota Kai and Io Shirai, not two new characters with some completely new name and gimmick. Looks like transitions from NXT to the main roster may be treated differently with Mr. Helmsley at the Helms... ley.

So, yeah, this was a good start to the event. We'll see where it goes from here. 

And the second match is really fun. If I hadn't known, I would have thought Logan Paul was just another wrestler. Gotta give him his due, and of course to the Miz for helping him look that good. Quite possibly the best celebrity match I've ever seen. That being said, it wasn't an amazing match by any stretch. It was well choreographed and built around some fairly impressive spots Paul had learned, but in terms of emotion or storytelling. Meh. Personally I'd prefer that the spot had been given to an actual full time wrestler, but there's an audience for this, and if they had to do a celebrity match, at least it was a good one.

And I've been watching like five minutes of commercials now. I PAID FIVE BUCKS FOR THIS PEACOCK, WHAT THE HELL?!

Seriously, there are still commercials. But that Stalone movie looked pretty badass. Which may be a sign that I'm enjoying this so much cause I'm high.

THEY SHOWED THIS FUCKING COMMERCIAL FOR WOMEN POOPING TWICE IN ONE STRING. WHY THE FUCK ARE THERE LIKE TEN MINUTES OF COMMERCIALS! I PAID FIVE DOLLARS! GRRRRR!!!!

Ok, I'm not just so high I'll enjoy anything. Cause Theory vs Lashley. Meh. It was similar to their match at MITB, and I enjoyed that, but not so much I needed to see it again. 

Mysterios vs Judgment day is also meh. The stuff in the ring was fine, but I just couldn't get invested at all. The judgment day is aimless, and they just seem to be going after Rey because that's what you do when you're a new bad guy. Edge returned and looked great. But I don't know if that can held the judgment day stuff.

Whoever decided to have a choir sing Bum Ass Corbin deserves a fucking raise. The match was ok. Unlike Logan Paul, you'd easily pick Macafee out as the celebrity wrestler. He did some very nice spots, but they just weren't smooth and looked overly planned out. But, it was fun. Best part was announcing.

Graves: I liked you better when you weren't allowed to have an opinion.

Cole: Well that's changed a lot has changed.

Guys, wait for Vinnie's body to get cold before you cremate him. XD

Street Profits and Usos had a great match... Like they did last month. And a week or so after that. These guys have been involved in matches with each other in some form10 times or so this year. It's always good, but it's hard to still care. Oh and Double J was there for some reason. They're teasing a break up for the Street Profits... but if the tag team roster is so thin they have to do this match every other week, that seems like a bad move.

Riddle called out Seth Rollins who came out and kicked his ass. I dunno what the point of that was.

Liv vs Ronda was better than I expected. They kept to Ronda's strengths letting her continuously put Liv in holds where she tried to squirm out. The match itself was fine. But, Live got basically no offense in, and won the match with a screwy finish. Ronda had her in an armbar with Ronda's shoulders down. Liv taps right before the three count but the ref doesn't see this. This is feeling like some other title runs. Big E, Nikki ASH, for instance, where someone gets the title but still clearly isn't treated as championship material. I'm trying to be optimistic, but it feels like Liv will be back on the mid card by Survivor series.

Reigns vs Lesnar was not a wrestling match. It was sports entertainment. And it was fucking glorious. It had weapons, run ins, managers interfering, managers getting put through tables, and the ring getting overturned by a tractor. It seemed impossible that either man would lose, and they used that to take advantage of the stipulation. It took me a while to get into it, but by the end I was on the edge of my seat for every ten count. It was ridiculously over the top in the best of ways, and it was a blast.

Overall, it's hard to judge this event. It started out with a great wrestling match, it ended with a great sports entertainment match, and in between those was a whole bunch of stuff that was varying degrees of decent. If this was the old days where we payed 50 bucks for PPVs (unless you had the illegal cable box), I might have felt a different, but for the five or ten bucks I paid for Peacock, I got a solid amount of enjoyment. I felt like spending tonight stoned in my recliner, and this was a great way to do that.