According to Bully Ray, former WWE CEO Vince McMahon would have likely turned down an offer for Las Vegas to host WrestleMania for the second consecutive year if put in the same situation. The possibility of returning to the city may have been considered for a future point in time, but considering that another deal would have already been struck, Ray believes McMahon would keep his promise to New Orleans, the original host of WrestleMania 42.

“This is where TKO and Vince McMahon differ,” Ray said. “And I don’t know Vince McMahon like he’s my best friend in the whole world. I know the man that I worked for seven years, so I have a little bit of an idea of the guy. TKO has shown us now this is about one thing and one thing only: the almighty dollar. Vince would have made a deal with New Orleans. He would have shook on it. He would have signed on the dotted line. And if Las Vegas would have come over the top a couple of months later and said, ‘Hey, Vince, we’ll give you $3 million up front,’ Vince would have said, ‘Thank you. Maybe I’ll see you the year after. I already have a deal with New Orleans.’ That’s the businessman that Vince was.”

Looking back on TKO’s decision to replace New Orleans with Las Vegas as the site for “The Show of Shows,” Ray noted that the company wasn’t necessarily wrong to do so from a business perspective at that point in time, especially given that “Sin City” previously succeeded in making money. With the benefit of hindsight, though, Ray, like many others, now see that it is not working out as expected due to a variety of factors.

“They’re scrambling to make things work,” Ray added, referencing the creative and promotional tactics now being used to potentially boost WrestleMania ticket sales.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.