"That character drew" - Hall of Famer defends Vince McMahon winning the WWE world title

Vince McMahon and WWE remained synonymous for almost 40 years. McMahon took the company mainstream by incorporating his vision of 'sports and entertainment' into the business model. A Hall of Famer has made a bold statement regarding his controversial former boss's previous world championship win.

It was in the Attitude Era that Vince Jr. would evolve his 'Mr. McMahon' character into this sadistic, narcissistic, and evil boss fans love and hate to this day. Under McMahon, WWE went from its golden age dominated by the likes of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage to the more chaotic form of entertainment known as the Attitude Era. His rivalry with fan favorite "Stone Cold" Steve Austin would become a focal point of the Monday Night Wars.

The Austin-McMahon storyline produced many pivotal moments for the company. One instance saw Austin help McMahon beat Triple H (then the biggest heel in WWE) to win the world title. According to John Bradshaw Layfield, Vince McMahon's world championship win made sense because of how instrumental his character was to ratings success.

Speaking on What Were They Thinking? on Backstage Pass, the WWE Hall of Famer defended the the company (and McMahon specifically) for putting the title on the former wrestling promoter while comparing it to WCW's decision to book David Arquette and Vince Russo as champions:

"One that's different is Mr. McMahon. There's no comparison between Vince and the other two. Vince was one of the biggest rating draws in the history of wrestling. The Mr. McMahon character against Stone Cold is one of the main reasons we beat WCW. That character drew... Vince drew massive, massive ratings," JBL said. [40:01 onwards]

JBL also attributed Vince McMahon's physique to his title run, noting it made sense for McMahon to win the title because he looked the part of a world champion:

"Plus, Vince looked like a freakin' bodybuilder. I thought the Vince Mcmaon title run... I thought it made sense. I was fine with that because you put it on the evil owner. You got this Stone Cold who, you know, is gonna ki*l him at some point. I thought that made perfect sense," he added. [40:22 onwards]

For those unaware, Vince McMahon won his first world title at the expense of then-champion Triple H on the September 16, 1999 episode of SmackDown. The match saw Austin hit The Game with a chair before proceeding to put McMahon's arms on Hunter for the three count.

The title win made Vince McMahon the oldest person to hold the WWE Championship, a record that stands to this day. He'd relinquish the title on RAW the following week to set up the six-pack challenge Unforgiven 1999 main event.

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