Gerald Brisco has shared some details on the first-ever meeting between Vince McMahon and Brock Lesnar.
Brisco was recently interviewed by Sportskeeda where he detailed the meeting between the three, where McMahon was extremely impressed with the former NCAA Division I Heavyweight Champion.
Lesnar’s physical appearance certainly impressed McMahon, but it was his determination in his voice that also seemed to get “The Chairman Of The Board” excited about the potential of “The Beast.”
“We’re at a PPV. Brock has on one of those tight T-shirts for that pull real tight and his bicep looks huge. Vince can’t resist a good bicep. All of a sudden, he (Vince) stopped in his tracks, walks over to Brock, and shakes his hand.
“Vince said, ‘’Young man, congratulations on winning the national championship. Are you ready for showbiz?’ Brock Lesnar looked him right in the eye and said, ‘I’ve been ready all my life.’ What an answer to give the boss. I see that smile come on Vince. That really showed Vince that this guy is ready to do this and wants to do this,” Brisco said.
In terms of financials, Lesnar’s asking price was high. So high, in fact, that Brisco claims that WWE’s budget guy would complain that signing Lesnar would kill their entire developmental budget.
Brisco was of the belief that it was worth the investment, recognizing that Lesnar is a once in a generation talent. As it turns out, he was right.
“Vince and I got together and he said. ‘What’s it going to take?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. That’s J.R.’s department. I got the guy here, now you guys do your job.’ There was resistance. I know Brock was asking for a lot of money. Looking back, it seemed kind of silly with the numbers. I mean, he’s just looking for a six figure number to sign on.
“I would get complaints from the budget guy that this guy is going to kill our entire developmental budget with one guy. I kept telling him, ‘He’ll make you more money than that. Overlook this one year. This guy is one of those guys that comes along once in a lifetime’, and sure enough he was.
“So they threw all that stuff aside and said, ‘Okay, let’s figure out what it’s going to cost and how we can manipulate it into our budget.’ They figured that out and they finally came to an agreement with Brock. It was probably a two or three month negotiation period back and forth.”
Since signing with WWE, Lesnar has become one of the company’s biggest names of all time. He’s a 10-time World Champion, a King Of The Ring winner, a Money In The Bank Winner, and a two-time Royal Rumble winner.
He’s currently slated to challenge Roman Reigns for the WWE Undisputed Title at SummerSlam.
Quotes via WrestlingNews.co
