While Vince McMahon was in charge of WWE it wasn’t uncommon for up and coming stars to find their rise to the top ended at the whim of the former Chairman.
Sometimes McMahon simply didn’t see a particular wrestler as a star, while on other occasions he would abruptly change his mind and a performer would find themselves out of favour. At the other end of the spectrum McMahon was also known to have his favourites, and they would be pushed on television at the expense of others who enjoyed more support from fans.
One Superstar who found themselves on McMahon’s good side was Lars Sullivan. The star first began working with WWE in 2014, debuting on NXT television in 2017. After being featured heavily on the black and gold brand Sullivan was scheduled to move to the main roster in January 2019, but his debut was postponed due to anxiety issues. Sullivan finally arrived on Raw in April but suffered a serious knee injury two months later.
Although he briefly returned to SmackDown in October 2020, the star was quietly released in early 2021.
Vince McMahon Put Too Much Pressure On Lars Sullivan
Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, Oh You Didn’t Know, Road Dogg, who worked backstage during Sullivan’s run, recalled his time in the company. The WWE Hall of Famer said that he expected the star to go on and be something special, a feeling he shared with Vince McMahon. However, Road Dogg added that this pressure from McMahon perhaps overwhelmed Sullivan, sparking his anxiety.
“I didn’t get to know Lars that well, to be quite honest with you. Look, I thought he was, I thought Lars was going to be something special in this industry, a good guy when I met him, respectful. I don’t want to use the word in a derogatory way but freak of nature, like he’s, he has, I don’t know what it’s called, but gigantism or whatever. But so he was probably six, two or three, but 320 pounds of solid muscle like man, you know what I mean? Like it was incredible.
And so I just thought oh, this guy is going to be somebody, Vince thought the same thing. I think it put too much pressure on the kid and he kind of backed out of it all. You know what I mean? And so I don’t know but I thought, I thought he’s gonna be somebody. And the other kid is somebody who just beat Miz, and won about 12 grand the other night in a ladder match on Monday Night Raw.”
Lars Sullivan hasn’t wrestled since defeated Chad Gable on the October 23rd, 2020 edition of Friday Night SmackDown.
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