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WWE has a team of over 20 writers and a head of creative, Bruce Prichard, for both RAW and SmackDown, but the majority of matches and storylines that we see on WWE television have to be approved by Vince McMahon before they make it to air.
In recent years, WWE Superstars have been able to connect with fans on a personal level like never before thanks to social networks, media interviews, and podcasts.
Not only has this allowed the men and women of WWE to build fanbases outside of their on-screen personas, but it also means we hear more backstage stories about Vince McMahon than in any other era of sports entertainment.
In 2018, for example, a ‘WWE 24’ documentary on the WWE Network showed Vince McMahon telling Seth Rollins that he should be proud of the performance he produced in his WrestleMania 33 match against Triple H.
However, Rollins also revealed in 2019 that Vince McMahon once ordered him to redo a match because he did not think the former Shield member carried out his orders correctly.
Let’s find out all the details behind that story, plus four others, as we take a look at five WWE matches that Vince McMahon did not like.
#5 Vince McMahon disliked Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler
Vince McMahon disliked Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler so much that, according to Cole, he described it as “the worst thing I have ever witnessed in 60 years”.
The two WWE commentators went one-on-one at WrestleMania 27 in a match that lasted a total of 14 minutes, making it the fourth-longest match on the 10-match card.
Steve Austin added star power as the special guest referee, but even he was unable to prevent Cole’s WrestleMania victory from being viewed as anything but a disappointment.
Cole explained on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast in 2020 that Vince McMahon was not overly pleased by his performance.
“I got carried out of there a bloody mess. As I go to the back, I walked to the back, and I’m like, ‘Man, I thought that went pretty good.’ I go to the back and I look at Vince, and Vince looks at me and he goes, ‘That is the worst thing I have ever witnessed in sixty years.’ So, that was my WrestleMania match, but the check cleared and I’m still undefeated!”
Despite the disastrous WrestleMania match, Cole and Lawler went on to face each other at Extreme Rules and Over The Limit in the two pay-per-views that followed ‘Mania.
#4 Vince McMahon disliked Seth Rollins vs. Kofi Kingston
Seth Rollins emerged as one of Vince McMahon’s top singles Superstars in 2014 when he separated from The Shield and won the Money in the Bank briefcase just four weeks later.
Between those milestone moments, Rollins defeated Kofi Kingston in a relatively meaningless three-minute match on a June 2014 episode of SmackDown.
Unfortunately for the former Shield member, no match is meaningless in Vince McMahon’s eyes, and the WWE Chairman was furious when both Superstars returned backstage after their match.
"Vince was furious about it! Like, furious! Just, 'Get over here!' And he's yelling at me, and he's just like, 'If you're gonna be my guy, you're gonna be my guy, that's not what I want!'" [H/T Wrestling Inc., quotes via E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness]
It turned out that Vince McMahon did not like the amount of offense that Rollins allowed Kingston to have in the short match, so he ordered both men to go back out in front of the same audience to record the match again.
Rollins said he was “so angry and embarrassed” but it made him learn that it is okay to make mistakes in WWE, just as long as you do not make the same mistake twice.
#3 Vince McMahon disliked Bray Wyatt vs. Matt Hardy
Matt Hardy defeated Bray Wyatt in an Ultimate Deletion match in the main event of WWE RAW in March 2018. The match was widely considered a success, especially amongst fans on social media, but it seems Vince McMahon did not feel the same way.
Speaking on Talk Is Jericho in 2020, Hardy revealed that Vince McMahon admitted to members of WWE’s production team that he “didn’t get it” and he questioned how many viewers would stay tuned in to watch the final segment.
“He watched it in the production meeting and a few people in there had watched it already. After it was over, it ended and everybody clapped and stood up, and he was kind of looking around and he told a couple of people, ‘I don’t get it, I just… I don’t get it. If it does good, if it does a number, then I’m truly out of touch.’ I think he said that.”
The Ultimate Deletion match ended up getting over three million viewers in the final hour of RAW, while it continued to trend on social media for four hours after the show had finished.
WWE brought out merchandise based on the unique match type, but it turned out to be Hardy’s one and only Ultimate Deletion match during his time in WWE.
#2 Vince McMahon disliked Rhyno vs. Tajiri
In 2003, Vince McMahon temporarily decided he would attend WWE live events in the same way he oversees the production of RAW and SmackDown on a weekly basis.
Before one particular show, he told Rhyno that he could not afford to make any mistakes in his match against Tajiri, while a producer advised the ECW legend to frustrate the fans even more if they chanted “Boring! Boring!” at any stage during the match.
Sadly for Rhyno, he took the advice of the producer and held Tajiri in a submission move when the “Boring!” chants began. This prompted Vince McMahon to go off-script by walking down to the ring before sending both Superstars to the back.
Speaking on Talk Is Jericho, Rhyno opened up about Vince McMahon not liking his match against Tajiri. He also revealed that the WWE Chairman increased his pay for the show, presumably to make up for embarrassing him in front of a live audience.
“In the long run, I don’t hold anything personally against [Vince McMahon]. Hey, it’s your company. Actually, what’s funny is I think afterwards he kind of realised that it was a d*** move – he would never admit to it – but my pay check was actually really good that day.”
Vince McMahon told Rhyno after the show that the producer who gave him the advice “must not have been a top guy”.
#1 Vince McMahon disliked Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens
The most famous example of Vince McMahon disliking a match came at WrestleMania 33 when he made it clear to Kevin Owens that he did not enjoy his encounter with Chris Jericho.
In Owens’ ‘WWE 365’ documentary on the WWE Network, cameras showed the Canadian Superstar attempting to talk to Vince McMahon in the backstage area immediately after his match.
Owens said, “We good?” to the WWE Chairman, who simply replied, “No.”
The second half of the former Universal Champion’s documentary largely focused on his struggles to regain his confidence after that comment from Vince McMahon.
Speaking to Inside The Ropes in 2019, Jericho revealed that Vince McMahon told Owens that the match “was one of the worst in WrestleMania history”.
"Do I think it was a great match? No. Do I think it was the worst match in WrestleMania history? Absolutely not. Overall, it was very hard to put on a match that would live up to the hype of the match."
Vince McMahon must have still trusted Owens following the WrestleMania match, as he allowed his Superstar to attack him on an episode of SmackDown five months after ‘Mania.
