WWE veteran says Vince McMahon only views one of his kids as the "golden child"

Vince McMahon's children, Shane and Stephanie, began their careers in the wrestling business as teenagers. Vince Russo, a WWE writer in the late 1990s, recently disclosed details about the former authority figures' relationships with their father.

Vince McMahon oversaw WWE's creative direction between 1982 and 2022. The 78-year-old often appeared in family-based storylines, particularly in the Attitude Era when he feuded with Shane, Stephanie, and his wife Linda.

Russo reviewed the Backlash 1999 event on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast. Reminiscing about storylines from that era, he mentioned how Vince McMahon was stricter on Shane in real life compared to Stephanie.

"I saw it first-hand," Russo said. "No matter what he [Shane McMahon] did, it was never good enough. It was never good enough. But, my God, Stephanie was the golden child. The relationship between Vince and those two was so dramatically different." [13:16 – 13:37]

In January, Vince McMahon resigned from WWE's parent company TKO amid misconduct allegations. Stephanie McMahon returned at WrestleMania 40 in April, a year after her WWE exit coincided with her father's return.

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Why Shane McMahon and Vince McMahon remind Vince Russo of Dixie Carter

Between 2003 and 2016, American businesswoman Dixie Carter was the president of the TNA wrestling promotion.

Vince Russo wrote for TNA for several years and believes Carter sometimes made decisions to try to impress her rich father:

"Dixie was the same way, bro, because her father was a millionaire in the energy business and her brother was her dad's right-hand man, so Dixie was always, 'Look at me over here, dad! Look at me over here! Look what I'm doing!' That's what really drove her. And Shane was like, the same exact way, so there was a lot of that stuff really going on behind the scenes." [13:38 – 14:03]

Shane McMahon's WWE role is currently unclear. He has not appeared on television since tearing a quad muscle at WrestleMania 39 in April 2023.

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