The real story behind Vince McMahon's removal from his own WrestleMania main event (Exclusive)

Vince Russo knew when he booked Vince McMahon to win the 1999 Royal Rumble that the WWE Chairman was not going to headline WrestleMania 15.

Royal Rumble winners usually go on to challenge for a World Championship in the main event of WWE’s biggest show of the year. However, in 1999, a storyline twist saw Steve Austin replace McMahon before winning the show-closing match at WrestleMania against The Rock.

Speaking to Sportskeeda Wrestling’s Dr. Chris Featherstone, Russo said he and fellow writer Ed Ferrara came up with the idea of McMahon’s surprising victory. He also explained that his former boss was never seriously in consideration to headline WrestleMania.

“The important creative there was obviously Vince can’t wrestle Austin at WrestleMania," said Russo. "That’s not going to happen. So we’re going to have the shocker of Vince winning the Royal Rumble, but then, bro, you have to have really good storytelling in getting Vince out of that match before WrestleMania.” [1:14-1:37]

Watch the video above to hear more of Vince Russo’s stories about booking Vince McMahon’s villainous Mr. McMahon persona.

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Vince Russo appreciated Vince McMahon’s character work

Vince McMahon appeared prominently on television during Vince Russo’s tenure as WWE’s head writer in the late 1990s.

While some superstars disliked the creative team’s ideas for their characters, Russo said McMahon was always willing to follow the script:

“What I loved about Vince was, whatever Ed and I wrote for him… bro, he did it," Russo continued. "He didn’t concentrate on himself. Like when we were going over the Vince part of the show, it was just like we were going over DX [D-Generation X]. When it was Vince, it wasn’t, ‘Okay, let’s talk about Vince now for two hours.’ It was just like he was another character on the show.” [2:54-3:21]

Russo wrote for WWE during a time when RAW drew the highest ratings in the show’s 29-year history. Earlier this week, the one-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion advised WWE to focus more on character development to improve its weekly viewing figures.

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