Vince McMahon is responsible for several WWE Superstars becoming main event stars. As the head of creative for multiple decades, he seemingly made the final call on who should be pushed and who shouldn't. That was the case during the Attitude Era when the legendary promoter decided to push Billy Gunn, per Vince Russo.
King of the Ring has been the launching pad for many legendary careers in WWE. In 1999, Billy Gunn, primarily known as a tag team wrestler, surprisingly won the King of the Ring tournament. He defeated Ken Shamrock, Kane, and his former ally, X-Pac, to win the significant accolade.
Speaking on Sportskeeda's Legion of RAW, former WWE writer Vince Russo revealed that Billy Gun's push was entirely on Vince McMahon.
"No, no, no. I can tell you this, Billy was like a 100% Vince. That was 100% Vince. I gotta tell you, as ridiculous as this sounds, Vince got off on Mr. A**. He thought that was the greatest, like seriously, bro. Billy’s gift was not cutting promos. He was a great, great, great athlete, looked great. That was not his strength," Vince Russo said. (1:01:50 – 1:03:00)
Vince McMahon put an end to Billy Gunn's push in WWE, according to Bruce Prichard
Billy Gunn feuded with The Rock after his monumental win, losing to The Brahma Bull at SummerSlam 1999 in a Kiss My A** Match. He then briefly feuded with Jeff Jarrett for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Gunn eventually reunited with Road Dogg to reform The New Age Outlaws, ending his run as a singles wrestler.
In 2020, Bruce Prichard revealed that Vince McMahon put an end to Gunn's push.
"Vince is always going to make the final decision, I'm not putting all the blame on Billy. A lot of it goes to the booking, and the creative, and could we have done things differently, and the answer is yes. We should've taken Billy and built him and taken our time with it. Now you're automatically comparing him to #1 A and #1 B in the company. It was poor booking on our part."
Billy Gunn is currently in AEW along with his sons, Austin and Colten Gunn. The youngsters now hold the company's tag team championship.
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