WWE CEO Vince McMahon recently appeared on The Pat McAfee Show, and he didn't mince his words while addressing the amount of talent released by his company over the past two years.
At one point during the spirited conversation, McAfee broached the topic of McMahon's perceived heartlessness in relation to the multiple waves of mass layoff that have occurred at WWE since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “People always assume that you just have no heart, and you do not care at all about any of these people...are any of those decisions more difficult than others, or is it just always what will make the best show in your eyes?" McAfee asked his boss. McMahon explained that, as a businessman, he has a duty to please the audience.
“I’m always concerned about what’s best for the audience. Always," McMahon replied. "What does the audience want? And if you have dead weight around, you have situations whereby someone’s not cutting it, and you have an opportunity for someone else to come in, it’s like, okay, that’s probably the best thing," he continued, adding that the reason he brought stars like Hulk Hogan back to WWE was to please the fans.
The WWE boss explained that he used to run WWE predominantly with his heart, but was forced to start running it with his head after he took the company public in 1999. "Once you’re a public company, now you go stockholders. It is the business then, so it helps me make easier and better business decisions," he said. "‘Cause my heart, there’s still some of it in there, I know it sounds awful, but there is. But at the same time, it’s business, and there’s nothing personal about it in terms of whether I like somebody or I don’t like someone or whatever.”