Vince McMahon pushed 38-year-old star to main event status despite doubts from backstage officials, according to WWE veteran
WWE Hall of Famer "Road Dogg" Brian James recently revealed that Vince McMahon was the brains behind pushing James Ellsworth to main event status.
Ellsworth had a dream run with WWE back in 2016. After a quick loss to Braun Strowman in a singles contest, fans wanted to see more of him. The company capitalized on this opportunity and inserted him into the WWE Championship scene with AJ Styles.
He shared significant screen time with Styles and Dean Ambrose, besides playing a vital role as the mascot for the SmackDown team in that year's traditional Survivor Series match.
This week on the Oh You Didn't Know? podcast, Road Dogg mentioned that pushing Ellsworth was Vince McMahon's idea. He explained that they were drawing good ratings with the 38-year-old in the main event because every week, fans tuned in to see what would happen next.
"I'll tell you whose idea a lot of this stuff with Ellsworth was, and that's Vince McMahon. Man, he saw it, and he was right. When it comes to ratings, which is how you judge if somebody's right or not in the TV business, we did well with Ellsworth. Like it was Ellsworth and AJ, Ellsworth and Dean Ambrose. It was like what are you doing? What are we doing here? And it was like, 'No sir, we don't want to put him in the main event.' And he was like, 'God, you have to.' And he was right every week. It did better and better. It was like people had to see what we were gonna do here." [1:13 - 1:50]
You can watch the full video here:
James Ellsworth had a decent run in WWE
After a run at the top of the card on SmackDown, James Ellsworth aligned himself with Carmella. The duo formed a formidable team on the blue brand.
Ellsworth even helped Carmella win the Women's Money in the Bank briefcase in 2017. The duo split up for a while, only to band together again. During this time, Ellsworth helped The Princess of Staten Island in her feud with Asuka.
He left the company in 2018 and worked the independent circuit with the gimmick of an intergender champion.
What did you think of Ellsworth's run in WWE? Let us know in the comments section below.
If you use the quotes from this article, please credit the Oh You Didn't Know? podcast and add a H/T to Sportskeeda for the transcription.