A day many wrestling fans thought they would never see, Vince McMahon is no longer running the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). In his place, his son-in-law and past main event talent Paul “Triple H” Levesque has taken over as CEO and head of creative. His short 6-month run so far has been the best the WWE has seen since the years of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

In recent years, the WWE under Vince McMahon had grown stale, and many fans said he was out of touch with his storylines and didn’t know what the fans wanted. In the meantime, Paul Levesque had been running WWE’s developmental brand, NXT, which is now regarded to have some of the most interesting and compelling storylines. All while being the “minor leagues” for the WWE. Fans were calling for change and finally got some when McMahon stepped down and Levesque took over. Levesque has been calling the shots for around six months now, and in this time he has brought hundreds of thousands of fans.

Levesque came in right away and made changes the fans wanted for years. He brought back past-fired superstars such as Bray Wyatt, Dakota Kai, and Johnny Gargano and is giving the wrestlers more freedom to be themselves in the ring. Under McMahon everything said and done was heavily scripted, and often seemed artificial. Levesque lets the stars portray their characters as they want, still with direction, but minimal. As a fan, the change is noticed instantly. Every match, every word, and every moment of every episode has meaning now. WWE is leaning into making wrestling believable again, something that hasn’t been striven for since the 90s.

The ratings speak for themselves. Since Levesque took over ratings have increased 15% on Mondays and Fridays (days of their weekly shows, RAW and SMACKDOWN). In recent months, clips of WWE shows are getting millions and millions of views, garnering bigger numbers than the company has ever seen. Namely, the return of what fans consider the most creative mind in wrestling, Bray Wyatt, who over the years has created larger than life and supernatural characters that have have become fan favorites. These returns and new stories have fans excited to see what’s happening on a weekly basis.

Because of new leadership, the WWE is in a better place than it has ever been. Casual fans are becoming dedicated ones, and people who were uninterested in the WWE are tuning in to see where it goes. Levesque took a company that was gradually losing fans on a year to year basis, and is turning it back into what it was in the 90s, mainstream. It is an exciting time to be a wrestling fan, and it only goes up from here.