Butch Describes Backstage Atmosphere On Day Of Vince McMahon Retirement

WWE

WWE star Butch has described the backstage atmosphere on the day of Vince McMahon’s retirement.

On July 22, Vince McMahon announced his decision to retire as CEO and Chairman of WWE. The news came around 4PM EST with SmackDown set to go live at 8PM EST.

Speaking with Stephanie Chase of Digital Spy, Butch described the backstage atmosphere at SmackDown that day.

He said:

“To be honest, up till now, it all feels strangely normal. Even the day when we were at SmackDown and we got notified that Vince had retired, obviously there’s that second of people looking around like, ‘Did you see that? Can you believe this has happened?’ But then after that, everyone’s so focused on the job that’s at hand it kind of feels strangely normal but exciting at the same time.”

The former NXT UK Champion continued on to discuss Triple H becoming the new Head of Creative for WWE and his influence on his career, saying:

“I credit him for getting me to where I am, to be honest. I think people forget that, when that UK tournament happened, [the participants] hadn’t really had much exposure. That UK tournament was really just, taking a bunch of talent and just trusting in us to go out there and have three, four matches in one weekend on the [WWE] Network. They just put full trust in us and it springboarded us to where we are now, where I can provide for my family. I’m living out of Florida, it’s a completely different lifestyle than I ever would have had without the likes of him, [William] Regal people like that. They just trusted in talent. So to be able to work with [Levesque] again, it’s going to be incredible. I’m excited for what the future holds.”

The former Pete Dunne concluded with discussing the transition from Vince to Triple H as Head of Creative.

He said:

“One thing everyone will say about [Levesque] is, he is extremely approachable and he’s excited to put out the best content we possibly can and that’s what NXT was always about. Going into it we would be saying, if we were paired with Wrestlemania, SummerSlam, or a Royal Rumble, we wanted to make sure that this was the best show of the weekend. He had that same vision, the same as us who were out there competing. So I’m sure he’s going to transition over just fine and from what we’ve seen already just off the back of the shows last night [Raw] and on Saturday [SummerSlam], I think there’s already an excitement around it,” he continued. Just watching those shows, they feel slightly different and as a fan I’m excited to see what the future holds and obviously, as a performer it’s the same.”

Butch is a former NXT UK Champion and NXT Tag Team Champion. He is now a member of the SmackDown roster where he is aligned with Sheamus and Ridge Holland as the Brawling Brutes.

Keep track of Butch’s win-loss record in WWE (for televised matches) at this link.

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• Vince McMahon retirement
• Butch
• Smackdown
• wwe

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