WWE Referees Gets Recognition Under Triple H’s Leadership Following Vince McMahon’s Retirement

It was clear that nothing would ever be the same after Vince McMahon left the business. After four decades as its leader, he built it into the biggest pro wrestling promotion. It won’t be incorrect to say that The Big Man, with his sharp mind, made a number of decisions over the years. Some of these turned out to be admirable and beneficial, while others had serious impacts. As of now, it seems that Triple H is trying to fix the problems that have persisted ever since McMahon’s time.

In keeping with many other decisions H took after regaining control of WWE, he also chose to break the established guidelines that had been in place for a long time.

Alexa Bliss and Asuka defeated Damage CTRL to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles on this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW, in case you missed it. During this, Referee Shawn Bennett’s name was called up in the run-up to the game. This was an unusual sight under McMahon’s leadership.

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Referees play a significant role in WWE and are an integral component of it. The iconic black and white stripe shirt is the first thing that most people think of when you mention the referee. However, McMahon forbade it. He made sure that their name had not been called during matches.

What caused Vince McMahon to discontinue addressing WWE Referees on television?

Speaking on the ‘Chat Grapple and Cheap Pops podcast’, a former WWE ref, Marty Elias talked about the reasoning behind the company’s decision on not to mention the referee’s name on television. In his words, “It’s sad that referees aren’t acknowledged. And you know, I remember Kevin Dunn when they stopped saying referees’ names at WWE. That was Kevin Dunn. He went to Vince and said that referees are irrelevant, and he told Vince that nobody pays to see a referee, so that’s why they stopped saying our names on WWE television.”

He added, “Well, Michael Cole lets it slip every now and again. And you know that’s what that happened. And then right around that time when I was just getting into WWE, John Laurinaitis decided that referees didn’t deserve royalties, so they f***ing took all the royalties away from referees.”

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Many referees, like Elias, are crucial to the business but didn’t receive the proper recognition. It was indeed disappointing. Meanwhile, once HHH took charge of this and many other things, he also fixed it, and it appears that the referees will now receive the required acknowledgment.