Stephanie McMahon appears on WWE SmackDown, leads ‘Thank You, Vince’ chant

A new era for WWE began with Stephanie McMahon opening Friday night’s episode of SmackDown.

Just hours after her father announced his retirement, Stephanie appeared at the start of Friday’s SmackDown and addressed the crowd. She welcomed the fans to the show and gave a brief speech, bringing up that Vince McMahon wanted to make sure that he thanked the “WWE Universe” and everyone associated with WWE in his retirement announcement. Stephanie said this was their moment to thank Vince together, and she ended her speech by leading the crowd in a “Thank You, Vince” chant.

The live crowd booed when Stephanie mentioned her father’s retirement. The fans began to chant “Thank You, Vince” before being prompted to by Stephanie.

Stephanie is WWE’s new chairwoman and is one of WWE’s new co-CEOs alongside Nick Khan. Stephanie had been serving as interim chairwoman and interim CEO since Vince McMahon announced last month that he was stepping away from those roles during the WWE Board of Directors’ investigation into his alleged misconduct.

WWE has yet to announce who will be in charge of creative following Vince’s retirement.