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0:00 Subscribe, hike, like, click the notification bell, and turn on all notifications. And donate with a super thanks donation in the comments section below for the unfiltered, unapologetic Shaun's View end. Your home for WWE news, rumors, and backstage chaos. This is where gossip gets exposed around the clock. Now, here's your host. The brash Sea's View end. Boy, do we have a situation brewing just an hour before Monday Night Raw on Netflix. Isn't it great to be alive on a Monday night to the excitement of the viewers, the fans, the subscribers? I want to say something out loud that a
0:45 lot of people are thinking but are almost embarrassed to admit. Now, when Vince McMahon left the WWE, when TKO took over, a huge portion of the fan base, right, celebrated, finally a new era, Triple H's running creative, a fresh start, no more nonsenical booking, no more burying talent, no more Vince's personal quirks getting in the way of good storytelling, right? And for a while, it was better. Genuinely, it was better. But something happened over the last year and a half. slowly, quietly, and then all at once, like the quote about going bankrupt. Fans started feeling something that they didn't expect to feel. They started missing a McMahon. Most importantly, Vince McMahon. Not the controversies, not the
1:32 lawsuits, not the courtroom drama, not the creative decisions that made you want to throw your remote at the wall, but something else. Something that is very hard to put into words, but I'm going to try. for my viewers, my fans, my subscribers. And for more videos like this, remember to like, comment, subscribe, click the bell, and turn on all notifications because right now, after Backlash 2026, after the mass releases, after the pay cuts, after the $30 ESPN app, after the ads that are on the ring mat, the celebrities hijacking Wrestlemania main events, fans are asking a question that nobody predicted. Was WWE actually better under Vince McMahon than it is under TKO? Because what the TKO era has given us is the gingerbread man, a gingerbread man
2:17 funeral. They have given us a lot of things that are making us shake our head. Now, before you click off, I want you to hear me out because this video is not a Vince McMahon defense. His flaws were real. His controversies were just as real. But we are going to talk about all of that. But we are going to be honest about what fans actually lost when TKO took over. And that list, it is longer than most people want to admit. Stay with me because this is going to be a big one. Before we get into what the fans miss, we have to be completely honest about what Vincent Man got wrong because this video only works if we're fear. Vince's booking was infuriating at times. Part-timers coming in and burying full-time roster members right now, right? Right before WrestleMania. talent getting uh over
3:03 organically connecting with fans on a real level only to get de pushed because Vince man didn't see himself Katy Vic anybody the creative could be maddening too many rematches too many repetitive storylines the product in his final years had generally stagnated and then there are the personal controversies the Janelle Grant lawsuit the sex trafficking allegations the NDAs the conduct investigation those are serious serious matters and nobody here is dismissing any of that Vince McMahon the person who has real significant ificant problems. Full stop. But here is where this conversation comes about and this is what it's actually all about. This is what it all boils down to. It is not about Vince the person. It is about what his philosophy for WWE meant for the fans and for the talent. And when you separate those two things, a very
3:48 different picture starts to emerge. Because the number one thing fans are screaming about right now, the thing that hits close to home for most people and why there's a call back for the return of Vince McMahon, a call back for a McMahon to buy back the WWE or have some sort of thing something to do with the company and not just an appearance from Stephanie McMahon. Has nothing to do with storylines. It has to do with their wallets. And Mark Shapiro actually said it out loud and didn't realize how bad it sounded. Mark Shapiro, TKO's president, said on in an earnings call that Vince McMahon was primarily uh pricing tickets for families. He said it like it was a problem. Fans heard that and immediately pushed back because pricing tickets for families is the point. Professional wrestling was built on families driving to their local arenas, buying a ticket that they could
4:34 afford, and creating memories together. That was the foundation. That was the core audience. under TKO's dynamic pricing model borrowed directly from UFC ticket prices have gone through the roof. Randy and found that out that a four seat at Wrestlemania 41 cost $30,000. His reaction on social media was to call it quote embarrassing. One of WWE's own top stars called the ticket prices embarrassing. Let that sink in. And it's not just about the premium events. The cheapest the cheapest ticket to a recent WWE show called Wrestle Palooa was $129. $192 before fees. $192 as the entry point for a family of four. That's nearly $800 before parking, food, or merchandise. Vince McMahon ran house shows in small markets. Towns that would
5:20 never get a Raw or Smackdown. Towns where a family could drive 35 minutes, pay a reasonable price, sit close to the ring, and watch their favorite wrestlers in person. Those shows are basically gone now. TKO cut them because they weren't generating enough revenue. So, the family in a small town, the family that was the backbone of WWE'se's audience for years, is now priced out. Priced out of house shows that no longer exist. Priced out of premium events that they can't afford. Priced out of a product that they used to belong to them. Vince McMahon understood that accessibility builds loyalty. TKO understands quarterly earnings reports. And if the prices weren't enough, what TKO has done to how fans watch WWE at home is just as painful. Because there was a time when you could watch every single pay-per-view for less than $10 a month. $9.99. Remember the WWE Network?
6:07 $9.99 a month. Every pay-per-view included, every single one. You had the Raws, you had the Smackdowns, you had the NWAs, the ECWs, the WCWs, all on one app, ladies and gentlemen. All at your fingertips. Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam. All of it for less than $10. Plus the archive footage. Every episode, like I said, of Shotgun Saturday Night, WWE Sunday Night Heat, WWE Velocity, every classic pay-per-view in its entirety, the most fan-friendly content model in all of sports entertainment because of the McMahon's, because of Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon gave us all of that. And TKO pulled it all away, to put it on Peacock, to put it on Netflix, to put it on ESPN, to put it on this, that, and the other. Now, under TKO, if you want to watch a premium live event in 2026, you need a Netflix subscription for Raw. You need a cable package to
6:52 watch Smackdown on USA Network. And now you need an ESPN subscription at $29.99 a month for premium live events. These three separate subscriptions nearly triple the cost of the old WWE network just to watch the product you have already been watching for years. This company is getting torn apart. And that is why now there is a call, there is rumor, there is gossip, there is speculation again, a call for the McMahon's to buy back WWE. One fan put it perfect online. I used to pay 999 to watch Wrestlemania in my living room. Now I have to pay $30 just for Backlash. That's not progress for fans, guys. That is not progress. That is revenue extraction. And fans know the difference. This one might f sound small, but it matters more than people realize. Vince McMahon, for all his
7:37 faults, treated certain things as sacred, and the ring mat was once one of them. The ring is where the stories are told. The ring is the canvas. And you don't put a corporate logo on the canvas. Under TKO, the ring mat, the barricades, the announcer table, the turnbuckle pads, all covered in sponsor branding. Every service of the most sacred space in professional wrestling turned into a billboard. One fan on Kside seats wrote something that was stuck with me. WWE no longer sees or markets to us as a connected universe of passionate fans. We are data points to squeeze money from. Data points to squeeze money from. That's harsh. But is it wrong? Because when you watch Raw right now and every single surface of the ring has a corporate logo on it, it doesn't feel like you're watching a show. It feels like you're watching an advertisement that occasionally has wrestling in it. At least Vincent Man
8:23 gave us more wrestling than logos in commercials. Vince McMahon would have never allowed a sponsor logo on the ring mat because he understood what the ring represented. TKO sees it as an unrealized revenue. Under Vince McMahon, loyalty was real, imperfect, sometimes frustrating, but it was real. Veterans had a level of protection. If something were working creatively, a gimmick, a character, a pairing, Vince would try something else before pulling the plug completely. Palants who had put in years of service had some level of security, not guaranteed, but present. The New Day had multiple character reinventions under Vince. They went from a serious gospel trio that wasn't working to one of the most beloved factions in the history of WWE because someone gave them room to evolve. That doesn't happen if you're cut first and ask questions later. Under TKO, Kovi Case and Xavier
9:10 Wood signed five-year extensions in 2025. They didn't even look at AEW. They were loyal to WWE without condition. One year later, given two days to take a pay cut or leave, and when they left, quietly moved to the alumni section of the website. No statement, no tribute, no acknowledgement of 15 years of combined service. One WWE source told FO that they were disgusted by how it was handled. Disgusted. That's the word an insider used. Not disappointed, disgusted. Vince McMahon has countless flaws. still does. But the people who built WWE with their bodies and their careers, he took care of them, TKO treats them like items in a budget. And speaking about budgets, what TKO did with the pay cuts is something Vince McMahon simply would not have done. Not like this. Not with this kind of coldness. WWE was always elude.
9:56 WWE always had lean periods. There have always been roster cuts. Nobody pretending otherwise. But here is what is different about what TKO did. They reported 1.6 6 billion in revenue for Q1 2026. Record stock performance. The company is making more money than it ever has in its entire history. And that at that exact same moment, they handed wrestlers pay cuts offering with two days to decide. Take it or leave. No negotiation, no conversation, two days. And you see now just a small smidg, just a little preview, just a little preload as to why a McMahon return, as to why a Vince McMahon, a Shane McMahon has to buy back the WWE. You see the headline, you see the titles. Vince could be ruthless with releases. Absolutely. But he was not running a record profit quarter while simultaneously forcing his
10:43 talent to take 50% pay cuts with 48 hour notice. That combination, that specific combination of corporate greed dressed up as efficiency. That is a TKO invention. Vince loved celebrities. Muhammad Ali, Mr. T, Mike Tyson, Lawrence Taylor, Floyd Mayweather. He used pop culture figures brilliantly throughout his career. But here is the key difference. Under Vince, the celebrities served WWE. The celebrities was a tool to elevate the match. The moment, the wrestler, the wrestling story always came first. Under TKO, WWE serves the celebrities. Here is the fundamental difference, and this is the one that explains everything else. Vince loved professional wrestling. It was in his blood. His grandfather promoted, his father promoted, he grew up in it, sacrificed for it, built it from a regional territory into a global empire. For better or worse, and there were plenty
11:28 of worse, WWE was personal to him. It was his life's work, his identity. When Vince made a bad decision creatively, it came from a place of passion, even when that passion was misguided. When TKO makes a decision, it comes from a spreadsheet. Nobody wants to miss Vince McMahon. Nobody is celebrating his personal conduct misconduct. But when when the alternative is a corporate that sees wrestling fans as, in the words of another fan, data points to squeeze money from, suddenly the flawed, maddening, passionate showman who builds this thing from scratch starts to look pretty good. So, ladies and gentlemen, does the McMahon come back? Vince himself almost certainly not, but never say never in the wrestling world. The legal situation alone makes that a non-starter. TKO has zero interest in selling. They just saved 100 to 150 million in operational cost are not
12:15 walking away from that. The buyback rumors that serviced early this year were debunked almost immediately. But here is what is realistic. The sentiment behind the McMahon nostalgia is real and TKO would be foolish to ignore it because what fans are actually asking for is not Vincent Man the person. They are asking for the values of what WWE used to be. Affordable access, respect for the talent, the ring as sacred space, wrestling stories that serve wrestling fans. Those values don't require Vince McMahon. They require whoever is running the company to remember why people fell in love with WWE in the first place. And if TKO can't do that, then the conversation about Shane McMahon or someone else stepping in as a voice for the wrestling side of this company is going to get louder, much louder. your comments, your thoughts, your opinions, because if it weren't for you, there would be no Sha
13:00 View. Stay true to this very show. Should Vince McMahon come back? Should Vince McGman buy it back? What are your thoughts, your comments, and your opinions on all of that?
