During the latest edition of his “Grilling JR” podcast, Jim Ross commented on the match between Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon at WrestleMania 17, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the Vince McMahon vs. Shane McMahon feud heading into WrestleMania 17: “It was plausibly real. Obviously, Vince never thought that it was a shame he had a son. So, it was personal, and again, plausible. I liked it woven into the fabric of the storylines and the show. This whole McMahon thing, it was a hot topic – Shane buying WCW. This match was unique, to say the least, and I like the theory of good reality-based storylines. That was plausibly real.”
On Linda McMahon standing up during the match and Trish Stratus’ involvement in the storyline: “That’s what they wanted to see. It also showed just how much Vince was over. They wanted him to get his comeuppance, and they saw that Linda had been so wronged and Vince had disrespected her with this debacle of an affair that he let go public. I always used to kid Vince about it too, ‘How many times are you gonna kiss Trish tonight?’ But it got him more heat. People felt sorry for poor little Trish. She wasn’t that little Jezebel, she was being taken advantage of and abused in a verbal kind of way. Trish did her role very well, and it had to be an uncomfortable role. What precedents were there for her to be cast like she was cast? She pulled it off very well. She did a phenomenal job in that presentation.”
On Shane hitting the Van Terminator on Vince: “You kind of hold your breath because it’s feast or famine. There are no retakes. It’s not done on a taped show where you can go back and pick it up and edit it back in. It was feast or famine. You either hit it, or you crash and burn and make yourself look like shit. They pulled it off. Rob Van Dam is one of the guys that could really pull it off right. He was always on his spot, so you wondered, can Shane execute the coast to coast as the creator of the coast to coast, RVD? You could see the spot coming. But they pulled it off. That’s not an easy spot to do, especially for a novice. He wasn’t a seasoned pro wrestler, he was more of a daredevil. He pulled it off.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)