December 19, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Vice on WWE behind the scenes, Wrestle Kingdom 11 card

Vice Media published a tremendous story on WWE behind the scenes, written by Ian Frisch on 12/9. The story included the first revelation that in 2012, Shane McMahon made a major pitch to head creative and was rebuffed.

The story was that in March 2012, leading up to that year’s WrestleMania, Vince McMahon called a surprise meeting at the WWE Production Office, and Shane McMahon was there with James Frey, the author of “A Million Little Pieces” and CEO of Full Fathom Five, a content creation company.

“When Stephanie found out Shane was going to be there, she went white in the face” the story quoted a source as saying. “And Paul (Levesque) freaked out.” Shane had set up the meeting through Kevin Dunn, WWE’s Executive Vice President of Production (Dunn was the same person who was the conduit to John Gaburick when TNA attempted to sell the company, largely for the value of the videotape library as the company wouldn’t have continued to operate). “Kevin Dunn is very close to Shane. And there’s tremendous tension between Kevin and Paul and Stephanie. They feel like the company is theirs, but they don’t have the power to control Kevin.”

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