5 WWE matches that Vince McMahon didn't like
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.