Vince McMahon suffered a serious injury in a memorable moment at the 2005 WWE Royal Rumble. In a recent podcast episode, John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) discussed the backstage atmosphere after the incident.
Batista was supposed to win the 2005 Royal Rumble match by eliminating John Cena at the end. However, both men’s feet touched the floor at the same time, prompting McMahon to march to the ring and resume the match. In doing so, the former WWE Chairman tore both his quads while entering the ring.
JBL said on Something to Wrestle that McMahon threatened to fire WWE stars if they watched him in agony backstage:
“When Vince came backstage, he either collapsed or had to sit down, and literally he said it, ‘If anybody looks at me, I’ll fire you.’ He would have. How he walked out with two torn quads, that’s not humanly possible. When he came backstage, he was in a horrible mood.” [29:36 – 29:55]
After McMahon restarted the match, Batista quickly eliminated Cena to win the Royal Rumble. The Animal went on to beat Triple H in the WrestleMania 21 main event to capture the World Heavyweight Championship.
How Vince McMahon felt about the 2005 Royal Rumble chaos
Although Vince McMahon was angry at the time, John Bradshaw Layfield thinks his former boss likely enjoyed how the Royal Rumble drama unfolded.
JBL added that McMahon disliked a formulaic structure and became more motivated when he was forced to fix a bad situation:
“Vince loves it. Vince loves when things go wrong because he gets to fix them. I can tell you, I was there when times were bad against WCW, I was there when guys left him. And Vince, it was like something got lit on fire inside of him, and it’s like all of a sudden now he gets focused. What Vince hates is boredom. He hates when things are just going right or just going kinda meandering along. He hates that.” [30:49 – 31:12]
The WWE Hall of Famer also reminisced about the exact moment McMahon decided not to fire Cena in 2002.
Do you have any memories of Vince McMahon’s injury? Hit the discuss button and let us know.
Please credit Something to Wrestle and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
