Vince McMahon Ignored Backstage Advice & Pushed James Ellsworth In WWE

James Ellsworth made a name for himself ever since he made his debut as an enhancement talent against Braun Strowman back in 2016. He eventually went on to have a memorable run in the company due to his angle with AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose. Now it appears Vince McMahon ignored backstage advice and pushed Ellsworth in WWE.

The former WWE Superstar was one of the highlights of Friday Night Smackdown back in 2016 thanks to his storyline with AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose. He was even a major part of the Survivor Series match that year.

While speaking on the Oh You Didn’t Know? podcast, Road Dogg revealed that pushing James Ellsworth was entirely Vince McMahon’s idea. This was despite McMahon being advised against pushing Ellsworth.

“I’ll tell you whose idea a lot of this stuff with Ellsworth was, and that’s Vince McMahon. Man, he saw it, and he was right. When it comes to ratings, which is how you judge if somebody’s right or not in the TV business, we did well with Ellsworth. Like it was Ellsworth and AJ, Ellsworth and Dean Ambrose. It was like what are you doing? What are we doing here? And it was like, ‘No sir, we don’t want to put him in the main event.’ And he was like, ‘God, you have to.’ And he was right every week. It did better and better. It was like people had to see what we were gonna do here.”

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James Ellsworth is also interested in becoming Rhea Ripley’s love interest. Regardless, only time will tell whether James Ellsworth will make his way to Vince McMahon’s company somewhere down the line.

What’s your opinion on what Road Dogg said? Did you like James Ellsworth in WWE? Share your thoughts in the comments!