Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The latest sign in what insiders are seeing as Stephanie McMahon and Triple H running WWE as they see fit is in her recent takeover of the official WWE website. Not only has Stephanie taken over the talent side, but she is now overseeing WWE.com as well.
There is a major philosophical difference on how the site should be run between Shane McMahon and Stephanie & Triple H. Shane feels that pretending wrestling is real and not delivering real news, when wrestling websites such as rajah.com do, makes the site a laughing stock. On the otherhand, both Stephanie and Triple feel that the site should soley be for storyline advancement and to sell merchandise. But with Stephanie put in charge of overseeing the site, with Michael Cole running it, the Steph/Triple H vision has won out. The effects are already starting to sink in because you don’t see as much shocking insider stuff on the site as much as you did in the past. A good example of this is that today, WWE is playing up RVD’s possible departure from the company due to the second storyline concussion he suffered at last night’s pay-per-view.
TV producer Kevin Dunn will be running the site from a business standpoint (setting the budget, hiring & firing workers), but Stephanie will be setting the creative & reporting direction of the site. She will throw anything out that may compromise the characters or storylines. Furthermore, Chris Chambers, who put up a lot of insider stuff on the site (like reporting when Stephanie had a baby and listing Triple H’s real name), has been forced out of the company. You’re not going to be seeing that type of stuff on WWE.com anymore. The baby announcement greatly upset the dynamic duo and his duties of running the website were subsequently taken away a few weeks later (March 2006). They kept him on the payroll for the better part of another year, but he has since been let go.
Furthermore, the feeling is that Stephanie & Shane will be publicly portrayed as a brother & sister duo running the company, but in actuality, Big Steph has all the power. Shane will be the McMahon who represents the company to the public and goes to business meetings. His strong suit is that he’s very personable and he gets along with people quite well. Stephanie isn’t bad at representing the company, Shane is better socially and Steph is more like Vince when it comes to business decisions.
