Former WWE Writer Says Vince McMahon Has Tightened His Inner Circle In Recent Years

Former WWE writer Chris DeJoseph opens up about how Vince McMahon has changed between his two tenures as a WWE writer. 

On May 30, 2020, it was reported that then-lead WWE SmackDown writer, Chris DeJoseph had been let go by WWE. Reports also suggested that this release came on the heels of a major promotion for DeJoseph, who would later say that he did not have any interest in being a slave to the whims of one individual.

His 2020 employment was not DeJoseph’s first stint in WWE. He was also part of the writing team in the mid-2000s and appeared on camera as Big Dick Johnson, a male stripper who was comically used in sketches with Vince McMahon and D-Generation X. Having worked with Vince McMahon both on-screen and behind the scenes in a very close manner, he is one of the most qualified individuals to discuss any changes in Vince McMahon’s mindset in recent years.

When asked by Wade Keller of PWTorch how, if at all, Vince McMahon has changed in recent years, DeJoseph would say that one of the biggest changes is the lack of access to Vince McMahon and lack of ability to communicate with him directly.

“I think that there’s a lot less contact with him. I think he’s a little bit more like not as accessible. You know, he’s obviously a little older,” said DeJoseph. “I’ll tell you, he’s pretty damn sharp still, you know? There’s a lot of different processes where I think for a while there was a larger group of people that were able to access and communicate with him. I think he’s really shrunk down the people that he’ll communicate with basically.”

He continued, “In my experience, for a while when I started on the road just doing SmackDown, he wasn’t at a lot of the TV. So it was just Bruce running the TVs and I love that, you know, that’s great. But still, it’s funny. Like, a lot of ‘the more things change, a lot stays the same.’ [Vince] still goes over the show with a fine-tooth comb every single time. But the problem is, I feel like is that sometimes. because he’s got so much on his plate that it’s like — he was trying to run a football league and all this stuff. I feel like everything just gets pushed and sometimes you’re just sitting around for hours and hours and hours waiting for answers. Then the next thing you know, it’s time to do the show and it’s like, ‘hey, we just kind of got this done.’ So, there’s a lot of wasted time there sometimes.”

Currently, WWE creative is headed by Bruce Prichard. Bruce is the Executive Director of both Raw and SmackDown. He took over the respective roles of Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman and has headed creative since June 11, 2020.

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