In a move that surprised many, Vince McMahon has been absent from WWE TV tapings lately.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the WWE Chairman wasn't at Raw or Smackdown the past couple of weeks, and is likely to miss more time. McMahon is not scheduled to be at the go-home RAW and SmackDown episodes before SummerSlam on August 15 an 16, respectively. So far, there is no word of the reason on why he has not been present for those tapings,
Even though Vince has not been present in person, he was still in communication with everyone backstage and was on the phone during the production meetings for the last two weeks. Vince was still micro-managing every detail of RAW and SmackDown before the shows went live. It was also reported that Vince also missed the June 20th RAW and June 21st SmackDown tapings, one of the last sets before the WWE's live draft.
Vince McMahon has been a staple both on and off WWE television for decades, serving as a chairman, writer, booker, performer, announcer, in addition to dozens of other roles while running day-to-day operations. McMahon missed a long stretch of time in 2005 while rehabbing a double quadriceps tear after an unfortunate slip at the Royal Rumble. Stephanie McMahon noted on a DVD release that Vince was constantly calling and keeping communication with the writing staff, which seems to be the case here as well.
