There are several people backstage in WWE who took Vince McMahon’s “grabbing the brass ring” comments as a joke. While no one would actually say it publicly,
McMahon is the one controlling the pushes of the talent, not the talent themselves. There is also a feeling that McMahon won’t take any blame for WWE’s current problems.
-- As noted earlier here on the website, during Tuesday night's WWE SmackDown television taping, a vignette aired hyping the main roster debut of NXT tag-team The Ascension. The promo aired during the start of the number one contender's match between The Usos and Tyson Kidd & Cesaro.
It's possible that The Ascension will be wrapping up business in NXT at this Thursday's NXT Takeover: R Evolution special, where they are set to work with Hideo Itami and Finn Balor.
The tag-team made a main roster appearance back in September, defeating Los Matadores on an episode of WWE Main Event.
-- The NXT Takeover: R Evolution preview special is scheduled to air on the WWE Network tonight at 10pm EST. The one-hour show, hosted by Renee Young, will preview this Thursday's live special on the WWE Network.
-- While no one wants to admit it publicly, privately there's said to be many WWE talents who considered Vince McMahon's "brass ring" comments to be a joke.
It's no secret that McMahon is the one who ultimately controls the way WWE talents are used and the feeling is that with the way things are set up, there's only so much talents can do to get a push for themselves.
There's said to be a feeling that McMahon won't blame himself for the issues in WWE, but they also know that they can't make more money anywhere else, so they are pretty much stuck making the best of the situation.
Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Also read: ?Backstage Update On Vince McMahon's Rule On WWE 'Total Divas' & The Divas ChampionsAs of about a month ago, the word making the rounds regarding Total Divas was that Vince McMahon did not want anyone on the cast of that reality show to hold the WWE Divas Championship. People who know Vince, however, claim that this is one of those Vince "rules" that could change at any minute. As you know by now, Nikki Bella won the WWE Divas Title at the Survivor Series pay-per-view so it was another case of Vince changing his mind from week to week.
Speaking of Total Divas, it is said that there is a lot of booking frustrations regarding the reality show recently. McMahon reportedly goes through "phases" where he wants the storylines on Total Divas to synch up with the storylines on RAW, however the reality show is taped so far in advance that it has become problematic in that there are communication issues as to what content airs when and people have trouble all being on the same page.
-- This week's episode of Total Divas on E! scored 1.313 million viewers. The show finished with a 0.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is an increase from last week.
-- Yahoo! Sports' The Post Game has published a story on Vince McMahon's $350 million loss in one day last week.
-- Variety has a report on WWE's conference call yesterday over the stock drop and their new TV deal with NBC Universal.
Birthdate: 08/24/1945 (age 69) Height: 6'2" Weight: 248 Ib Vince McMahon is credited with being the greate... 
