Vince McMahon not at Smackdown in Portland tonight

After Vince McMahon reportedly created a bit of chaos and concern amongst WWE wrestlers and personnel with how involved he was at Monday Night Raw in Los Angeles earlier this week, he is not in attendance backstage at Smackdown in Portland, Ore. tonight.

Many believed Monday was a sign that Vince would be back on headset during shows and heavily involved in person every week at Raw and Smackdown again. If tonight is any indication, McMahon was so involved at Raw because he happened to be in L.A. for Raw and, perhaps, just wanted to steer things in certain directions to show ultimately that he still had the power to do so, even if that’s not his intent going forward. (I reported on this in Wednesday’s “Wade Keller Hotline” podcast for VIP members.)

That said, he could still be more heavily involved in WWE Creative and booking going forward post-sale compared to before the sale and after his retirement announcement last summer, but via long distance communication instead of on site. Word should get out regarding that by the end of the night if he’s changing plans the writing team and Paul Levesque came up with going into today again like he did on Monday.

McMahon is expected to be involved in WWE going forward more than he was late last year after his retirement and even earlier this year after his powerplay to return to power based on the terms of the WWE sale to Endeavor and the hierarchy and executive title he will have in the new spin-off company being formed that consists of both WWE and UFC.