Since the Attitude Era, WWE fans have grown to know the entire McMahon family, who have often been the focal point of the company’s top storylines. One McMahon who we haven’t met, but almost did, is Vince’s real-life brother, Rodderick McMahon.
On the latest episode of The World According To Wrestling podcast, ex-WWE writer Court Bauer of Major League Wrestling (MLW) revealed that a storyline was in place to introduce Vince’s brother around the time of the infamous ‘exploding limousine’ storyline.
“I always think what could’ve been because we were gearing up to do something with Vince’s little known brother Roderick,” Bauer explained. “His family was going to come in the following week and be part of the funeral for Vince McMahon and I was always pushing that I would love to get another side of the McMahon family involved with WWE. I think it would’ve been fascinating because people forget that Vince has a brother and I think that that story would’ve been amazing.”
With Stephanie, Shane and even Linda McMahon playing such prominant roles on televsion over the years, Bauer saw money in introducing fans to Vince’s brother, who took a back seat as Vince bought WWE from his father in the early 80’s and turned it into the global billion dollar empire it is today.
“How Vince the tycoon he is, the ruthlessly aggressive guy, you know, took over the family business,” he said. “His poor brother, what happened to him? And now there’s a refresh on the McMahon dynasty and all of the rivalries and stuff you could tell now, all of these new stories that are there because Roderick has children that you could play with in this setting.”
After the shocking exploding limousine angle, the entire storyline was dropped a week later due to the Benoit family tragedy. The June 25th, 2007 episode of RAW instead featured a Chris Benoit tribute, with Vince appearing on camera and breaking kayfabe to acknlwedge that his fiery demise just a week earlier was part of a storyline.
For whatever reason, the idea of introducing Vince McMahon’s brother on television was never revisited.