Vince McMahon almost left Triple H and Undertaker off WWE WrestleMania
WrestleMania 17 was one of the top WrestleMania events of all time for WWE. The event had the Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for the Tag Team Championship between teams of Edge and Christian, The Dudley Boyz, and The Hardy Boyz, as well as being headlined by 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and The Rock. However, it appears before the event, there was one big match missing from the card that had to be added at the last minute by Vince McMahon — The Undertaker vs Triple H.
Jim Ross, on his Grilling JR podcast, talked about how Triple H and Undertaker were almost left off the card due to oversight from the creative team.
Vince McMahon had to make Undertaker vs Triple H match at WWE WrestleMania last-minute
During the podcast, Jim Ross described how he noticed during a WWE meeting that Undertaker and Triple H had both been missing from the match card at that time. He had to point it out to Vince McMahon, and when he did, the WWE Chairman was as shocked as he was.
"I was trying to manage the entire roster. I look at the card and say, 'It's a h*ll of a card Vince, but we got two guys who aren't booked, that need to be booked.'
Vince McMahon: 'Who?'
Jim Ross: 'Undertaker and Triple H!'
Vince McMahon: 'Oh God d*mn.'
Jim Ross: 'Yes, oh God d*mn is right.'"
Ross went on to say that Vince McMahon knew that both Undertaker and Triple H deserved and needed to be on the WrestleMania 17 card, and so they had to make changes to the matches taking place in the WWE event.
"They both deserve to be on WrestleMania. They work their a** off. They have been great soldiers, they have been great teammates. And they both got booked. Undertaker wrestled Triple H at WrestleMania 17 in a cold as ice match."
Jim Ross then went on to say that Vince McMahon immediately wanted that match added to the card, but also said that the fact that Undertaker and Triple H had been left off the card was not as a slight to either Superstar, but because of an oversight. The card that the WWE creative had handed Vince McMahon had not had either of the WWE Superstars set to feature. As a result, they ended up facing each other in a match which had no proper build on WWE shows.
"It was an oversight. You've got a lot on your plate, it's no excuse. Human error. But when he realized they had not been booked he quickly said, 'We got to fix that immediately!'
"The card that was presented to Vince by the creative people did not have the two stars on it. Which tells me that someone ain't paying f***ing attention."
Thankfully, later on, Undertaker and Triple H would face each other twice on WrestleMania.
Both times, they were able to steal the show at the biggest WWE show of them all.
You can watch Triple H talk about Undertaker as an opponent in the above video.