WWE: Without Vince Part 1

Two weeks ago in a shocking turn of events it was reported that Michele Wilson and George Barrios have been removed from their positions as Chief Marketing & Revenue officer and Chief Financial Officer respectively. Both Barrios and Wilson had been within the ranks of WWE for over a decade and have had stable presence on WWE Board of Directors, but for whatever reason a corporate restructuring was chosen and now news outlets are reporting that WWE doesn't have a plan in place for when Vince either retires or dies. Well how did we get this point? 

​On October 19, 1999, WWE officially went public and changed the future of the company as now there would be shareholders that needed to be heard and kept in the loop. Previously, Vince had been able to run his company the way he saw fit without interference from anyone outside the walls of the headquarters in Stamford. I know that over the years to the knowledge of fans we haven't seen much interference from shareholders that would make this out to be a bad idea. For the most part WWE going public gave the company a bit more credibility then it had before. 

As Vince has been getting older and nature is taking it's course questions have been arising for the last few years about who will take over after Vince is gone. Famously, Punk even referenced this question during his legendary "pipebomb" promo on June 27, 2011 offering his opinion on the situation. In that time a lot has changed within the ranks of WWE namely seeing Triple H move up the ranks of the WWE corporate ladder and taking control of talent development specifically with NXT. Background is always important when covering something like this especially now we move forward and explore if WWE really doesn't have plan for the era after Vince McMahon.