Vince McMahon responsible for releasing well-liked veteran close to Triple H following his return: Reports

There have been a lot of shake-ups since Vince McMahon returned to WWE as the Executive Chairman. Apart from Stephanie McMahon resigning from the company and her post as co-CEO, two other big names, Adam Hopkins and Stefanie Fiondella, were also let go.

Both Hopkins and Fiondella were Vice Presidents of Communications, and both were allegedly let go because of Mr. McMahon.

Adam Hopkins was a part of WWE for 25 years and was well-liked by everyone around him. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter recently stated that Hopkins was close to Triple H and had worked with The Game when he led NXT to publicize events like the NXT Takeovers.

Dave Meltzer also claimed that the belief among people backstage is that despite Nick Khan being responsible for the hiring and firing of executives, it was Vince McMahon's call to let go of Hopkins and Fiondella.

''In theory, when it comes to hirings and firings of executives that was supposed to be the domain of Nick Khan, although both coming the same week that Vince McMahon returned to power led to people believing differently,'' Meltzer said.

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Details on the roles of the two people released by Vince McMahon

Meltzer also stated that it was Hopkins who was primarily responsible for arranging conference calls with Triple H and Shawn Michaels in NXT, and that Hopkins was well-loved backstage and had a good reputation. His release came as a surprise to many Superstars and backstage personnel.

''Almost everyone who knew him would tell you how pleasant he was to deal with, and he was regularly put in positions that were unpleasant," Meltzer said. "I used to say that his role was to clean up the mess made by the company or smooth things out with people who had been wronged by the company, which was not an enviable position to be in. He was a key person in arranging the conference calls that Levesque and Shawn Michaels did for NXT.''

Meltzer further revealed that Stefanie Fiondella's key job at WWE was to maintain a healthy relationship with various business publications like Business Insiders, Sports Business Journal, Forbes, and the ESPYs. She recently won the Cynopsis Top Woman in Media award.