Ex-WWE Star Says Controversial Storyline Was Vince McMahon’s Idea
A former WWE Women’s Champion is putting the heat on Vince McMahon when it comes to a bullying storyline that upset a lot of fans.
The Netflix docuseries titled “Mr. McMahon” was a six-part documentary that covered the life and career of former WWE Champion Vince McMahon. who allegedly tried to buy the documentary to prevent it from airing.
In the documentary, they covered the Janel Grant sexual harassment and sexual trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon although they didn’t go in-depth with it. There were comments from Wall Street Journal reporters about it to provide some details to the viewers. They also shared Vince McMahon’s lawyers commenting that Vince denied the allegations. A day after the lawsuit was filed, Vince resigned from the TKO Board of Directors and he eventually sold all his WWE stock, so he’s no longer part of the company.
There were also many parts of the documentary that covered controversial topics from Vince’s days of running WWE. Throughout the documentary, McMahon often brushed off some of the harsh criticism and made it clear it was just part of the WWE show.
An example of being part of the show was a SmackDown storyline in late 2009-early 2010 involving former WWE Women’s Champions Michelle McCool & Layla mocking former WWE Women’s Champion Mickie James over her weight. Even though Mickie was in great shape, McCool & Layla referred to James as “Piggy James” while doing an infamous skit featuring farm animals on the screen.
The storyline ended when James eventually got her revenge by beating McCool in a short match at Royal Rumble 2010 to win the WWE Women’s Championship. However, most people remember the Piggie James angle for the awful nickname James was given rather than remembering the match that ended the story.
Layla Makes It Clear That WWE’s Piggy James Angle Came From Vince McMahon
During her nearly decade-long run in WWE, Layla was a two-time WWE Women’s Champion, who was also part of the memorable Laycool tag team with Michelle McCool.
Layla recently appeared on the They Made Their Way to the Ring podcast where she admitted she didn’t like saying the Piggy James name, but she did blame her former boss, Vince McMahon, for putting the storyline on television.
“The first name, which was Mickie James, is very controversial, so I’m not even going to say it. Mickie James….Vince actually came up with that. We had nothing to do with that. We got a lot of heat for it. That wasn’t our creation at all.”
As she continued, Layla recalled other instances of Laycool coming up with names to mock their rivals, which included “Smelly Kelly” for Kelly Kelly, the former WWE superstar with the same name twice.
“I think that was Michelle. I want to say Michelle came up with that one. Maria, the ‘Unfed Redhead,’ I can’t recall. I didn’t even know we called her that. ‘Manazon’ (for Beth Phoenix), I’m not too sure.”
“They fit in that era and time. They fit, they were offensive, they did their job. You guys weren’t supposed to like us. You’re supposed to hate us, but find us funny, but also take us seriously and we’re obnoxious.“