Backstage news regarding Vince McMahon’s decision to retire from WWE

As previously noted, Vince McMahon has announced his retirement from WWE.

According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com, the belief is that McMahon privately made the decision around “a week or so ago” and possibly as far back as ten days ago. Johnson wrote the following regarding the announcement of McMahon’s retirement…

“We are told that the decision was made to place Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan into the co-CEO role shortly after it was clear that McMahon would be exiting. The timing of releasing it on a Friday afternoon was obviously to blunt any negative fallout in terms of media and stockholder response.”

Johnson also noted that it was a “very closed circle” that knew about the decision. There is said to be shock with some long-time employees that never believed that they would be working for WWE without McMahon in charge.