After former WWE chairman, CEO and head of creative Vince McMahon's return to the company's board of directors, Triple H will reportedly retain his role as head of creative.

According to Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer (h/t Sunil Joseph of Ringside News), WWE sent a letter to employees and talent on Friday informing them that McMahon's return won't impact the power structure that initially replaced him:

"Today, WWE formally announce that our founder Vince McMahon has rejoined the company's board of directors. The management team will remain in place with Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan as the co-CEOs and Paul Levesque [Triple H] as the Chief Creative Officer."

McMahon retired from his roles in July amid findings by the WWE board of directors that he paid millions of dollars to multiple women in exchange for their silence regarding sexual relationships, encounters and alleged misconduct.

It was officially announced in a filing to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday that McMahon had returned to the board of directors, bringing former WWE co-presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson with him:

JoEllen Lyons Dillon, Jeffrey Speed and Alan Wexler were removed from the board, while Ignace Lahoud and Man Jit Singh resigned from the board, per Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp.

Lauren Thomas of the Wall Street Journal reported on McMahon's desire and intention to return to WWE's board of directors on Thursday, noting that he wanted to do so to pursue a sale of the company.

McMahon later released a statement in which he stated the importance of rejoining the board to have a hand in WWE's television rights negotiations since the company's deals with NBCUniversal and Fox expire at the end of 2024:

"WWE is entering a critical juncture in its history with the upcoming media rights negotiations coinciding with increased industry-wide demand for quality content and live events and with more companies seeking to own the intellectual property on their platforms. The only way for WWE to fully capitalize on this opportunity is for me to return as executive chairman and support the management team in the negotiations for our media rights and to combine that with a review of strategic alternatives. My return will allow WWE, as well as any transaction counterparties, to engage in these processes knowing they will have the support of the controlling shareholder."

Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics tweeted transcripts of letters between McMahon and the board of directors from last month. The board of directors was resistant to allow McMahon back into the fold because of an ongoing investigation by the SEC and U.S. Attorney's Office into him, but McMahon insisted and said he wouldn't be able to approve any media rights deals if he wasn't allowed to return:

While every statement and indication has suggested that the 77-year-old McMahon's primary motivation in returning is to negotiate rights deals and potentially even a sale, questions have persisted about whether he might get involved with the product on a deeper level.

Fans have largely viewed WWE programming as better since Triple H replaced McMahon as head of creative, and there is some thought that McMahon would want to take back booking power after having served in that role from 1982 until his retirement.

Triple H appears safe in his position for now, although it is fair to wonder if McMahon returning to power and remaining controlling stakeholder in WWE will embolden him to block potential signings or release some of the talent Triple H has brought back since McMahon's retirement.

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