Vince McMahon Described As A "Grumpy Old Man" Back

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Vince McMahon was recently described by one backstage source as being a "grumpy old man" these days. Vince has been very hard to approach lately and has sometimes harshly shot down, and in some cases publicly humiliated, individuals who pitched ideas to him.

Some interpret this behavior as Vince trying to prove to people that he’s not “old” and weak, and is still sharp. There is a large portion of the company who feels that Vince is in fact too old and, more importantly than his age, is out of touch with the audience. Triple H is seen as perhaps not the most ideal replacement, but the most realistic replacement for Vince at the head of the company. The consensus backstage, even among his former enemies, is that HHH is in touch with what the fans want. One source was quoted as saying (roughly) that he has his finger on the pulse of the fans right now.

According to some fan reports from Raw in Nashville, Jamie Noble was taken from the ring on a stretcher following his brief match with Mike Knox. While it was not shown during the broadcast, Noble was loaded onto the stretcher and taken from the ring while the Chris Jericho/Ricky Steamboat segment was taking place on stage. Stay tuned for an update on the story.

As reported this evening, Jamie Noble was taken from the ring on a stretcher following his brief match with Mike Knox on Raw. For those wondering about the legitimacy of the injury, it definitely looks that way.

According to a fan in attendance at the event, "people were running around like crazy trying to get the medics, stretcher, etc." Medics tended to Noble while the entire Chris Jericho and Ricky Steamboat segment was taking place on the nearby stage. Medics spent at least ten minutes in the ring with Noble.

If you look back at the tape, Noble strangely had his legs bent and in the air instead of flat on the mat immediately following his pinfall loss to Knox.

No word yet on the severity or nature of Noble's injury.

WWE's website has an article up at this link looking at the stinger he suffered at Monday night's Raw taping in Nashville, TN during his match with Mike Knox. Dr. Chris Amann added, "All of Jamie's tests were negative. I expect him to be sore for the next several days, but I think he will do fine."

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As of Monday at RAW, the WWE creative team still didn’t know the full card for WrestleMania 25. ProWrestling.net reports that Vince McMahon is keeping the writers in the dark regarding the big PPV. The writers obviously have a good idea of the direction they will be heading into, as the fans do because of the current storylines, but they haven’t been officially told the full WM 25 lineup.

There are also no plans set for the WWE Draft as of yet. WrestleMania is the top priority right now, and no serious conversations have even taken place regarding possible draft moves.

There are various theories regarding why Vince is shying away from the creative team. The two issues that continue to come up are Vince’s lack of faith in the writers, and his fear that there are leaks who will let the lineup information get out before he wants it to. He’s been getting upset lately over the last couple months regarding the amount of info that’s gotten out, most notably the information that Christian was supposed to be Jeff Hardy’s mystery attacker.

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As reported earlier, TNA wrestler Booker T has plans to run a huge wrestling convention on Friday, April 3rd in his hometown of Houston, Texas. The event will be held nearby festivities for Wrestlemania XXV.

Since word of the convention came out, WWE has contacted a number of talents scheduled for the TNA star's show and instead booked them to appear in some fashion over Wrestlemania weekend, including the company's AXXESS sessions.

A few names have pulled out of Booker T's convention including Torrie Wilson, Tito Santana, Nick Bockwinkel, Tito Santana and Ron Simmons. In the case of most, plane tickets purchased for their travel had already been purchased. WWE began contacting them last week to bring them in for AXXESS and the Hall of Fame ceremony, instead.

Sid Vicious has also pulled out of Booker T's show, although it is unknown at this time whether it was due to WWE. There has been back and forth talk about him getting a tryout with the company over the last year and half (specifically, John Laurinaitis has pushed for it), but it has yet to come to fruition.

Despite the changes, a number of big names are still scheduled for the event including Sting, Kevin Nash, Samoa Joe, Amy "Lita" Dumas, Booker T, Sharmell, Team 3D, Ernest Miller, Christy Hemme, The Beautiful People, Jimmy Hart, Jake Roberts and Brian Knobbs. Tully Blanchard and Iceman King Parsons will also be appearing.

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There is word that WWE has apparently started to sour on Vladimir Kozlov. One of the biggest supporters of Kozlov up until this point has been Vince McMahon himself, which explains his televised victory over Undertaker. It looks as though things will be cooling off for Kozlov shortly.

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RVD has started blogging on the WWE Universe website at fans.wwe.com.

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According to some new reports making the rounds, there is said to be lots of frustration among WWE's creative team due to Vince McMahon's behavior as of late.

It is well known that working under Vince can be very challenging for everyone involved in WWE as he is described as being very frantic and changes his mind constantly about the creative direction of the company. In turn, this frustrates many employees as it means a lot of extra work that many see as unnecessary.

One WWE source described Vince has being especially hard to work with lately, noting that he has been snapping at people and constantly changing his mind about storyline directions. Those who are immune to Vince's behavior seem only to be the wrestlers as he rarely has a negative word to say to them. Instead, the support staff around Vince ends up taking a brunt of it.

One big company initiative taking place right now reportedly is to stop leaks to wrestling media news sources than ever before in the past. Vince was described as being almost obsessed with stopping stories from leaking out of the company and his lieutenants are making this very clear to their subordinates. One example of this already was Vince ordering the ring crew to cover the Elimination Chamber earlier in the day at the site of the No Way Out PPV to prevent leaks from hitting the internet of Edge's involvement in both matches while wrestlers worked out spots for the show that evening.