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Former WWE women’s champion Ronda Rousey believes former chairman Vince McMahon will still be in control of the professional wrestling company, while his ‘avatar’ Bruce Prichard will retain his leadership role within WWE.
McMahon stepped down from WWE parent company TKO on Friday amid claims from former employee Janel Grant that she was sexually abused and traded by him to his wrestlers and executives.
Prichard has not been linked to any charges, but has worked for WWE for the better part of the past four decades, including in his current role as executive director of the creative team.
WWE’s creative team is responsible for scripting the promos and storylines that make up each show. For a long time, McMahon had the final say on creative decisions within the company.
Rousey had two different stints with the WWE after ending her UFC career, one from 2018-19 and one from 2022-23.
Vince McMahon has resigned from WWE parent company TKO amid sexual abuse claims
Ronda Rousey is a former WWE and UFC champion and spoke out about the firing on X
Rousey McMahon will still have influence in WWE through his ‘avatar’ Bruce Prichard
“Bruce Prichard is basically Vince’s avatar, if he’s still around, Vince still has a hand in the business,” Rousey said on X. “Vince still ran things through Bruce when he was ‘away’ before.”
Rousey is referring to McMahon’s first retirement from WWE, after the Wall Street Journal revealed in July 2022 more than $12 million in hush-money payments that McMahon had handed out over the years.
The 78-year-old McMahon returned to the company last January with the intention of selling WWE, which he did to Endeavor in April 2023 for $9.2 billion.
McMahon has denied Grant’s claims against him, saying in a statement to DailyMail.com: ‘I stand by my previous statement that Ms. Grant’s lawsuit is full of lies, obscene fabrications that never happened, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth.’
Most of the responsibilities previously held by McMahon within WWE will be taken over by son-in-law Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, who works closely with Pritchard.
Levesque mainly dodged questions about the claims against McMahon and his firing early Sunday morning as part of a WWE post-show press conference, the company’s first press conference since the allegations became public.
“I choose to focus on the positive and yes, there is some negative, but I want to focus on that and leave it at that,” Levesque said.
WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes didn’t refuse to answer questions about McMahon, one of the company’s biggest stars that Prichard has been paying close attention to as he will main event WrestleMania for the second consecutive year.
Prichard is a longtime WWE employee, having worked for McMahon for more than three decades
Rousey’s last WWE match was against fellow MMA fighter turned pro wrestler Shayna Baszler
Rhodes, former founder and vice president of rival All Elite Wrestling, agreed with a reporter that there is currently a “dark cloud” hanging over WWE due to the allegations against McMahon.
“I know, as far as the news goes, we found out and read the same things you read,” Rhodes said. “You said definitely a dark cloud. As far as TKO is concerned, (WWE President) Nick Khan and the board clearly took it very seriously and acted immediately.”
Pritchard has not yet commented on the claims against McMahon or responded to Rousey’s social media post.
Rousey last wrestled for WWE in August and has since appeared on the independent circuit since leaving the company, as well as one televised match for the AEW-backed Ring of Honor.