Stephanie McMahon announces leave of absence from WWE

Stephanie McMahon announced on social media Thursday that she was taking a leave of absence from “the majority of my responsibilities at WWE,” effective on May 20.

Stephanie McMahon announced on social media Thursday that she was taking a leave of absence from “the majority of my responsibilities at WWE,” effective on May 20.

McMahon is currently Chief Brand Officer of WWE, a position she has held since 2013. She was previously executive vice president of creative, having progressed through a number of roles with the company since she was in her 20s.

The 45-year-old daughter of Vince McMahon is also well known to longtime WWE fans for her various on-camera roles. Over the years, she’s appeared as a manager, authority figure, and even participated in matches herself, most recently teaming with husband Triple H to take on Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 34. But like Vince, Stephanie had appeared much less frequently in recent years, a far cry from the early 2000s when all four McMahons — including mother Linda and brother Shane — were fixtures on WWE television.

A mother to three daughters, McMahon’s desire to spend more time with her family would be an understandable reason to want a break from corporate life, especially given Triple H’s health scare last fall. His heart episode required the implantation of a defibrillator last September, and he announced in March that he was officially retired from in-ring competition as a result.

Nevertheless, the wrestling community is bound to be in full speculation mode about McMahon’s announcement, given that she and Triple H were long thought to be the people who would most likely guide WWE into whatever a post-Vince era would look like. With Stephanie stepping back, WWE has the least McMahon family members at the helm as it has ever had, and while her tweet makes it clear she expects to return to the fold, it’s at least fair to wonder what it would mean for the company if she doesn’t.