Brian Damage
In the storyline-verse of WWE, 2007 was not a good year for Vince McMcMahon. He would have his head shaved by his arch nemesis Donald Trump at WrestleMania and then lose the ECW title to Bobby Lashley at One Night Stand in June of that year. Seemingly distraught, embarrassed and depressed, WWE scheduled a Mr. McMahon appreciation night for Monday Night Raw on June 11, 2007 to buoy his spirits. It didn’t work and Mr. McMahon walked away from his WWE empire and entered into his limousine. Once McMahon entered the vehicle and shut the door, the limo exploded.
That particular episode of Raw ended with that cliffhanger, the following day, a press release was made to inform WWE fans that Mr. McMahon was presumed dead in that explosion. The storyline was built up as a ‘who done it?’ Was Vince McMahon really dead? If so, who killed him? It was a storyline that never happened. Two weeks after this angle was shot, it was revealed that Chris Benoit had killed his wife, son and himself in a real life murder suicide.
For all the obvious reasons, the angle was scrapped and we never knew exactly where or what WWE had planned for the Mr. McMahon character. It wasn’t until 10 years after the storyline was dropped, that fans got some insight into where the angle was headed and who was going to be involved in it. Former WWE creative writer Court Bauer revealed on his podcast, “The World According To Wrestling” that there was to be a three hour memorial show for McMahon complete with a 10 bell salute.
A funeral was scheduled for Mr. McMahon which would introduce WWE fans to someone no one was yet familiar with. During Vince’s memorial service, his long lost brother Roderick would attend. Yes, Vincent Kennedy McMahon’s real life older brother Rod was going to be used in a WWE storyline. Vince and Rod were raised by separate families and were not very close growing up. From all indications, Rod was never interested in getting involved in the professional wrestling business.
As the years moved on, Roderick and Vince formed a closer relationship and Vince wanted to utilize his brother in this storyline. According to Bauer, the “other” McMahon family would be used to run WWE programming with Roderick the anti Vince character. Apparently, Rod was going to be nice and kind and everything Mr. McMahon wasn’t. It would eventually lead to a McMahon civil war over control over the entire WWE empire.
Was Roderick and his family responsible for he attempted murder of Vince? We will never get answers to that question because the entire angle had to be dropped for a real life tragedy. Roderick along with his wife Jamice and his sons Troy and Rome reside in Houston, Texas. Rod is the president of a steel company based in that area. From all accounts, Rod is very quiet and reserved unlike the charismatic and boisterous personality of his famous wrestling promoter brother.
While this angle never quite developed, Rod and Vince still stay in touch and has been spotted at several WWE events that are held like the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony. What could have been? Was this an angle that was worth viewing if it happened?
Ring the Damn Bell 
That could have been an interesting story if it had been allowed to play out. Rumors also abound that the “Mr. Kennedy is Vince’s illegitimate son” story would have come out of the limo storyline as well. We’ll never know what could have been, but it sure is fun to speculate!
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Maybe it would’ve been revealed that Mr. Kennedy is a McMahon but Rod’s son. That would’ve been even more interesting. It’s a shame it never went through as Rod was probably not really into “sports entertainment”.
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