The unexpected push of James Ellsworth, which would see him get multiple victories over then-WWE Champion AJ Styles, was solely down to Vince McMahon.
After being squashed by Braun Strowman in 2016, Ellsworth continued to be used on WWE TV and became a focal point of SmackDown in the weeks following the brand extension.
On his “Oh You Didn’t Know” podcast, ‘Road Dogg’ Jesse James looked back on Ellsworth’s tenure with WWE. He said,
“Ellsworth, I’ll tell you whose idea a lot of this stuff with Ellsworth [was] and that’s Vince McMahon. He saw it and he was right and when it comes to ratings which is how [we] judge whether someone’s right or not in the TV business, we did well with Ellsworth.
“Ellsworth and A.J. [Styles]. Ellsworth and Dean Ambrose. What are we doing here? and it was like, ‘No sir. We’re not gonna put him in the main event again,’ and he’s like ‘God, you have to!’ And he was right! Every week! It was better and better.”
After turning heel in late 2016, Ellsworth would align himself with Carmella, infamously capturing the Women’s Money in the Bank briefcase for her in 2017.
