Vince McMahon’s return to power was probably the biggest shocker of 2023 so far. Having major skin in the game, McMahon strong-armed his way back into WWE and initiated its sale. Although initially McMahon was said to have no say in the Creative, people forgot that he is a creature of habit. After Endeavor took over WWE, McMahon was seen operating from the gorilla position, running Raw after WrestleMania. A new report suggests that the WWE chairman was expected to be present at Backlash.
While speaking with Nick Hausman from the Haus of Wrestling, Rick Bassman divulged that Vince McMahon was set to make his appearance backstage at Backlash. Rick Bassman is a former Disney Executive with major experience in MMA and pro wrestling.
Wrestling legends such as Sting and Ultimate Warrior were brought to the spotlight courtesy of Rick.
Vince McMahon was expected to be present at Backlash 2023 in Puerto Rico
During the interview, Bassman discussed how he wound up attending Backlash in Puerto Rico. At one point, he was asked if he met Vince McMahon backstage. He stated that Mr. McMahon was not present, but he had received an email from McMahon stating that he would make it. Bassman, however, met the top stars of the company.
“No, he wasn’t there,” he revealed. “But I got a really nice email from him Saturday morning saying, ‘Hey, I’m not going to make it. But let’s, you know, I’ll talk to the guys after the meeting. And we’ll continue on from there.’
I did wind up meeting with the top guys in the company after events. But he was initially scheduled to be part of that, yes.”
It’s worth noting that Vince monitors the WWE events remotely. Bassman also revealed what his new job entails. He runs “all entertainment and sports industry relations for a company that does hyper-real synthetic media.”
Bassman’s company is known as Metaphysic. The tech juggernaut deal with WWE is what made it so that Bassman ended up attending Backlash.
I run all entertainment and sports industry relations for a company that does hyper-real synthetic media, which is often known as the dark, nefarious, deep fake.
And we’ve got a really cool activation potential underway with WWE. So we were there meeting with the top brass about that.”
WWE Backlash 2023 was the most successful event in the history of Backlash
WWE Backlash was replete with action-packed matches. The event had two main events. In the first half of the main event, Bad Bunny and Damien Priest slugged it out in a barn burner of a street fight. The second main event featured Brock Lesnar and Cody Rhodes.
According to a report from WWE, the event had an upsurge in viewership by 28%. This led the event to surpass the viewership of Backlash 2022. The show was sold-out with 17,944 fans in attendance. In addition, the event marked the largest gate against any WWE show held in Puerto Rico.
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