In 2007 WWE ran one of their biggest storylines in the company’s history.
A storyline that saw Vince McMahon blow up with an unsolved mystery.
However a real world tragedy cut the story short and in its place was another failed
angle.
I am Luke Owen and this is the true story behind Vince McMahon blowing up.
Our story begins in the early part of 2007, where Vince McMahon got into a heated feud
with Donald Trump, which led to McMahon getting shaved bald at WrestleMania.
He then won the ECW Championship from Bobby Lashley, but lost it back to Lashley at One
Night Stand on June 3rd.
The storyline was that the loss of the ECW Championship had led Vince into a downward
spiral, prompting him to create Vince McMahon Appreciation Night for the June 11th episode
of Raw.
The night was mostly Vince being told what a jerk he is by wrestling legends such as
Steve Austin, Roddy Piper and Bret Hart as well as WWE Hall of Famers Snoop Dogg and
Donald Trump.
The night finished with Vince walking down to the ring sedated, and he stood in the ring
while the crowd chanted “you suck” at him.
He then said thank you, dropped the mic and walked to the back.
He passed all of the wrestlers and exited the building.
He paused before getting into his limo, then shut the door, and the car exploded.
“And so Vince went to meet God again, whom he feuded with in 2006.”
- Bryan Alvarez, F4W #625, June 18th 2007
It was a very shocking angle, and one that no one really saw coming.
WWE had filmed the explosion the previous Sunday, but blew up another limo live at the
arena so fans could see the burning wreckage when they left the building.
The following day some news outlets believed the storyline to be real, and Triple H revealed
that Trump even called the WWE office to make sure everything was okay.
“He’ll probably be mad at me for saying this, but like, Trump called, and was like,
‘Did something happen to Vince?’
It’s just the magic of television.”
- Triple H, Opie and Anthony, 2008
The following week saw WWE.com run various stories about McMahon’s explosion, and made
it very clear that a body had not been found - hinting that this would not be a permanent
exit for Mr. McMahon.
However just four days later the angle was already talked about being dropped.
Not only did Smackdown’s viewing figures not increase following the explosion - which
caused McMahon to blow a gasket - wrestling legend Sherri Martel passed away.
WWE were in a quandary.
Their worry was that talking about the very real-life death of Martel would disconnect
fans from the storyline death of Vince McMahon.
The idea they came up with - which was suggested by Kevin Dunn - was to mention Sherri’s
passing on the website but ignore it on television.
“There were a LOT of people lobbying all day for that to be changed.
In a very last-minute decision, the compromise was made to put up a graphic an hour and 20
minutes into the show, just prior to the women's match.
A number of agents who were very close to her lobbied hard all afternoon and finally
managed to get it done.”
- Bryan Alvarez, F4W #626, June 25th 2007
And then, over a 3-day period in late June 2007, Chris Benoit killed his wife Nancy,
his son Daniel and himself at their home in Georgia.
WWE found out about the tragedy just before a 3-hour taping of Raw was set to take place
- another an episode based around the Vince McMahon storyline.
The decision was made to cancel the show, and drop the angle entirely.
But where would the storyline have gone?
Several people have speculated it was meant to last a few months, while others say it
was going to last longer.
What is consistent though is the players.
According to rumours from the time, the cancelled Raw would end with Linda McMahon being arrested
for the murder of Vince McMahon, but would then be acquitted the following week.
A future episode of Raw would then see the wrestlers watching a video will left by Vince,
who would then reveal he was leaving his entire estate to his illegitimate son, Mr. Kennedy.
“This would be the giant revelation.
This would also lead to the revelation that HHH was married to Steph and was Vince's son-in-law,
and thus we'd get a long Hunter vs. Kennedy program where Hunter, the knight on the white
horse, would be fighting to bring Camelot back to the McMahon Family.”
Bryan Alvarez, F4W #633, August 13th 2007
Vince would then return to television to reveal that he faked his own death, and that he and
Mr. Kennedy were in on the whole thing from the very start - and would culminate in a
match between Vince McMahon and his real-son Shane.
In August 2007 WWE carried on this basic storyline but removed the ‘Vince is dead’ aspect.
Vince was informed he had an illegitimate son - who was on the Raw roster - which was
originally intended to be revealed as Mr. Kennedy.
However Kennedy failed a Wellness Policy and was suspended for thirty days - and was written
out of the storyline.
It was then revealed that Hornswoggle was in fact Mr. McMahon’s illegitimate son - but
that was changed to him being Finaly’s son and the whole thing was a scheme concocted
by Linda McMahon, Shane and Stephanie. 2007 was an awful year for WWE storylines.
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I’ve been Luke Owen and that was wrestling.