This year's Royal Rumble saw Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins earn the opportunity to main event WrestleMania and both matches - and the show, in general - was a lot of fun. However, during a recent interview, WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson (the creator of the match) revealed that Vince McMahon actually hated the idea and it was the involvement of a TV exec that helped him sell the CEO on it.
"I had a big meeting with Vince McMahon and Dick Ebersol. I’m there with Vince and we’re talking to Dick Ebersol, he’s on NBC Network, wants a big show, something special, something that’s never been done. So, I gave my idea to Vince. He knew the idea but he didn’t like it, but I gave him the idea. And Vince says, “Alright, tell Dick Ebersol that stupid idea you’ve got.” I said, “Well first of all, it’s not a stupid idea.” So, Dick Ebersol, I told him the idea. One guy, two guys, bing boom! Dick Ebersol went crazy, he says, “Vince, this is unbelievable for television.”
"You know what he called that? When a guy runs in from the dressing room – it’s a run in. He’s not supposed to be there. But these were legal run ins. Beep! You’ll go! You know what I mean? You think, for television it would be great. We did it. And I’ll never forget that morning, I had it all in my head about how it was going to work, and now, the next day – the day of, Vince says to me, “Well, have you set up your Royal Rumble?” I said, “No.” He said, “Well, f–k! You got to do it.” I had to do all that by myself. I did. It worked."
The popularity of the Rumble match obviously helped Vince change his mind...after all, he did ultimately wind up winning it himself in 1999 and has made a number of appearances in the bout. These days, it's also one of WWE's biggest PPVs and they just sold out most of a baseball stadium for this year's edition. With that in mind, it obviously won't be going anywhere in the near future!