Butch Describes Backstage Atmosphere At WWE SmackDown Day Of Vince McMahon Retirement Announcement

On July 22, Vince McMahon announced he would be retiring as CEO of WWE. 

The news came around 4 p.m. ET with SmackDown set to go live at 8 p.m. ET. Butch was backstage at SmackDown described the atmosphere to Stephanie Chase of Digital Spy. 

“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,” he said.

Triple H was named head of creative in the wake of McMahon’s retirement. Butch, who had success on NXT and NXT UK under the name Pete Dunne, is excited to once again be working with the man who first helped him during his WWE career. 

“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,” he said. 

Butch continued, discussing the transition from Vince to Triple H and what it was like under Triple H previously. 

“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,” Butch said. “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 currently aligned with Sheamus & Ridge Holland on WWE SmackDown.

Fightful provides live coverage of WWE SmackDown every Friday beginning at 8 p.m. ET.