AEW commentator Jim Ross has a long history with former WWE CEO Vince McMahon and believes that McMahon will have his fingerprints on WWE's upcoming WrestleMania 42.
Speaking on his podcast this week, Ross commented on McMahon's involvement in WWE moving forward, suggesting that he will be "instrumental" in shaping the event and that TKO execs Mark Shapiro and Ari Emanuel would welcome back Vince becuase he "built the whole damn thing."
"No matter what his other issues may or may not be, all that stuff, it’s still Vince. And I think anybody that’s listening to this that have worked in WWE know full well it’s all about Vince and it will remain that way until they bury him. He’s an awesome influence. And how’s it going to hurt for Vince to chip in with an idea or two and a general direction? He was always very good with that."
"He was always really good at picking out somebody that he wanted to get over and having a plan to make that happen. And I think that’s kind of where we are right now. There’s some massively marquee matches. And I think that Vince is. He’s in the kitchen and he’s making pies and we’re going to see how his pies taste sooner than later."
Host Conrad Thompson asked him if he sees McMahon returning to the company's creative team:
"Absolutely. No doubt about it. I don’t even have no question in my mind. It’s the old cliche, where there’s smoke often times there’s fire and there’s been a lot of smoke regarding VKM in WWE and what his future may or may not be and how he can still contribute. He’s a big picture guy and that takes a lot of detail work and planning, but he can do that. He can make all that happen. And you know he’s hungry. I don’t think there’s any doubt in my mind that Vince will be instrumental in this year’s WrestleMania as far as creative is concerned."
Ross then further doubled down on his opinion that Vince will be involved with WrestleMania:
"Yeah. He’s not going to wait on anything. As John Wayne would say, we’re burning daylight. Something’s going to happen. And I believe that McMahon will be able to contribute to this year’s WrestleMania."
"There’s a lot of smoke out there right now and I think through the haze that Vince McMahon will rise again to some level. And this may be main events, this may be titles or whatever, I don’t know, but I can’t see this much talk and speculation about Vince for there not to be something there. It may not be as active as I perceive that he might, but I don’t know. I just think that he’s going to be involved in WrestleMania in some shape, form, or fashion."
