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SmackDown moves to a live Tuesday broadcast next week on July 17, and besides a lot of posturing by Shane and Stephanie McMahon (and yucks from past General Managers lobbying for the job), we still don’t know who will be running the show. More importantly, we don’t know who will be selecting the roster when they bring back the draft gimmick next Tuesday.
Raw tonight (July 11), built toward that reveal all night. In fact, WWE began teasing the return of Mr. McMahon last week, hinting his purpose would be settling the issue.
In the main event segment, Shane & Stephanie headed to the ring, and their father, the Chairman, busted out his signature strut to join them. Vince expressed his disappointment that his kids hadn’t delivered the “figurative blood” he asked for when he put them in charge together back at Payback.
The current co-GMs were given a chance to plead their case. Steph listed the company’s accomplishments, and said her brother is a kiss ass who runs down Vince every chance he gets. Shane replied that fans have responded not just to him, but the change he’s brought to WWE over the last five months. He vowed to make everything fresh to save the business from his family’s ways. And he told the boss he’ll stand up to him.
VKM asked for a drum roll (and it was a long one), then revealed that Shane would run SmackDown!
But he wasn’t done. He also revealed Steph would run Raw.
McMahon wants his children to compete across the board - in ratings, merchandise sales, social media engagement, live event attendance... pretty much everything Wrestling Observer follows.
The two will serve as commissioners. They have until next Monday to reveal their General Managers.
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK!