Does Vince McMahon play favorites? Chris Jericho thinks so

Former WWE star Chris Jericho says Vince McMahon puts stars “in the corner” when he’s done with them

Chris Jericho isn’t the first WWE Superstar to jump ship and run to All Elite Wresting (AEW), and he wasn’t the first one to be vocal about it either. But on Monday, he said some things that could highlight why the WWE is losing talent to the competition. Here, he references AEW’s Shawn Spears, formerly known as Tye Dillinger in WWE.

“I don’t know why [Spears] sat on the sidelines for eight months,” Jericho said. “I don’t know why a lot of guys sit on the sidelines for eight months. But you know how it works up North, brother. If you fall out of grace, you’re finished being played with as Vince’s [McMahon] toy, you get put in the corner.”

He continued,

"“Thankfully, Shawn got his release. He’s the last one that will. Nobody will ever get their release from WWE again. Nobody. He got his release, Cody and him are friends. Cody knew what he was capable of. I knew what he was capable of. I championed to get him. The guy is a tremendous heel. He’s an old school heel. He looks the part. Putting him with Tully Blanchard is a great idea. He’s a main eventer. We’re going to make him into a star, just by putting him with Cody Rhodes.”"

So the question is, does McMahon really put stars “in the corner” when he’s done with them? Well, it would certainly explain why we continue to see the same Superstars over and over while others are stuck on the back burner. Apollo Crews, Shelton Benjamin, Robert Roode, Chad Gable, Titus O’Neil, Dana Brooke, Sarah Logan, Liv Morgan; the list goes on. None of those stars have been prevalent in some time. Sure, a few of them have had matches in the last few months or have been placed in the King of the Ring tournament, but none of them are part of a storyline, and they aren’t alone.

Another example is Sasha Banks, who went missing after WrestleMania when she and Bayley lost the women’s tag titles to the IIconics. Ronda Rousey is still under contract, but also hasn’t been seen since WrestleMania. Banks has since returned, but a large part of the reason she was gone was due to how things are run.

Then take a look at Shane McMahon, who seems to have free reign to do whatever he pleases on both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live. He puts himself in the front of the storyline to get airtime on TV instead of allowing other stars to shine. He doesn’t need that airtime, and very few people in the WWE universe care to see his face week after week, yet that’s what happens. His interference in matches is beyond frustrating.

And if Jericho is right in saying he doesn’t think WWE will allow stars to be released from their contracts, it’s going to have repercussions. They won’t sign as many new talents as they have in the past because there are more options for places to wrestle. Contract negotiations will be very different for the stars they do sign because athletes won’t want to be trapped. And it’s likely they’ll continue to lose current talent as contracts expire simply because the stars don’t like the way things are being run.

Sure, there are some athletes who aren’t going to go anywhere, but the majority will want to see some changes in order to stick around. As predicted in this post, AEW could very well oust WWE as the favorite in the world of US wrestling.

It won’t happen overnight, but there’s a reason Vince is paying more attention to his startup XFL than he is to WWE. He knows where his future is. Unless some changes are made, his future isn’t with wrestling.