Vince McMahon returns to WWE television next week on SmackDown Live to address the suspension of SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon.
At this time, it’s unknown what the WWE Chairman has in store for his son and the future of the SmackDown commissioner role. News of the suspension comes after Shane McMahon attacked Kevin Owens on this week’s SmackDown Live broadcast. Shane logically can’t put his hands on a wrestler as an authority figure, but if he’s no longer Owens’ boss, anything goes.
Shane and Owens have been rumored to be squaring off in the ring at Hell in a Cell (10/8) and/or at November’s Survivor Series pay-per-view (11/19). We’ll find out next Tuesday if Shane’s attack on Owens and Vince’s announcement
After attacking Kevin Owens earlier in the night, Shane McMahon is informed by SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan that he has been suspended indefinitely as SmackDown LIVE Commissioner.
Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins recently made an appearance on the Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast and discussed his journey through WWE. “The Architect” was asked about his old finishing maneuver, The Curbstomp, which has since been banned by Vince McMahon. Rollins explained why the move was banned by “The Chairman Of The Board,” and claimed that he hated the decision and believed it was silly:
“No more blonde and The Curbstomp is gone, guys. It’s not my fault. Trust me. It’s not like I was [saying], ‘oh yes, I want a new finisher.’ No, they snatched it from me. They took it from me. No, so this is what happened, okay? After WrestleMania, I had won the [WWE] title, and I flew across the country to do the Today Show. For the Today Show, they put together a package of all of Seth Rollins’ awesome maneuvers. At the time, my finish was The Curbstomp”
“So Vince McMahon is sitting wherever Vince McMahon sits on a Monday morning and he’s seeing me on the Today Show and I look good in a suit. I’m representing the company. I look good in a suit. And I’m wearing the title and then he sees this package of me stomping another man’s head into the ground and it being called The Curbstomp on national television. And he thought to himself, ‘well, that’s not a good representation of what I want my top guy to do,’ so he just had a meeting with some of his people, and they decided, ‘well, we don’t need it – we can figure out another finish for you’ and the rest is history. I get it. I hate it. I think it’s silly, but it is what it is and it’s not my company. I’m doing the best I can with it.”
Ex-WWE official Bruce Prichard took to his podcast, Something To Wrestle With, to discuss the rise of Paul Heyman in the WWE. During the show Prichard discussed why Heyman was removed as head-writer of SmackDown, his dislike for John Cena’s early rapper gimmick, Heyman aligning himself with Brock Lesnar, and how The McMahons offended Heymen when he visited their vacation home. Here are the highlights:
Removing Paul Heyman as head-writer of SmackDown:
“He didn’t make deadlines. He’d be late for Vince’s meetings. It was a combination of things that Paul was almost begging to be off of the team and begging to just be a talent and not have to worry about writing the show from week-to-week because writing the show from week-to-week also came with heat.” Prichard recalled, “Paul argued at every chance he got! Paul and Vince were oil and water and Paul just didn’t know when to quit!
“You would think it was over, and then you’d get [imitating Heyman], ‘allow me one more volley, sir.’ There had to just be some point when Vince said, ‘I’m done. No more. I’m done. I don’t want to see him anymore. I don’t want to hear him anymore. I don’t want him on the plane anymore. I don’t want him in the writers’ meeting anymore. I’m done.’ As far as having a five-year no-cut contract, I don’t know of anybody that had a no-cut contract at any time.”
Disliking John Cena’s rapper gimmick:
“To quote Paul Heyman, ‘you put the rap gimmick on Cena and you will kill John Cena’s career. Paul felt that the rap gimmick was going to be the death knell of John Cena and that it would stereotype him and pigeonhole him and he would never be able to work his way out of it. Hated the idea, went to Cena and told Cena, ‘they’re killing your career’, ‘don’t do it’, ‘it’s going to be bad’. And [Heyman] went to Vince and told Vince it’s going to kill [Cena] and the fact that Paul petitioned so hard against it probably helped Vince [decide], ‘yeah, let’s try it.’ And I think it worked out alright for him.”
Aligning himself with Brock Lesnar:
“Overall, I’m going to say him aligning himself with Brock Lesnar is without a doubt one of the most genius things Paul ever did for himself and Paul did for Brock Lesnar. They’ve done very well by each other.”
Being offended by the McMahons when Stephanie offered the writers cash to go get lunch, and when Linda offered Heyman water from their dispensary:
“We were downstairs deciding where to go and they had suggested this really nice restaurant down the road and Paul is like, ‘I guess we’re not good enough to eat in the family domicile! We’re just the help. Send the help out to get lunch. Send a few dollars their way and send them away to get their own lunch while we dine on fine cuisine prepared by the chef and have the staff wait on us!’” Prichard recalled, “so everybody except Paul and Dave Lagana went to this nice restaurant, little Italian place down the street, great food, a little pricey, but we weren’t paying for it! Paul and David go to Burger King and just pocket the rest of the money! Just classic Paul.”
“Linda just makes the comment, ‘so guys, there’s this water dispensary here – the water is ice cold. It’s all filtered and good, so you don’t have to keep going in to get a bunch of bottles of water. There [are] cups here, big cups, and everything, or just refill your water bottle, whatever you need, whatever is faster, easier, better, whatever, and you’re not having 50 water bottles all over the place.’ Well, Heyman took exception to that! [Imitating Heyman] ‘I guess we’re not good enough to drink their water. I will just bring my own water from now on, so for the rest of the trip, Paul brought like a big bottle of water, which normally he never would have drank, but because he was told, and he wasn’t told, ‘don’t drink our water’, it was just, ‘hey, there’s this other water over here.’ ‘I will bring my own water. Thank you, ma’am.’”
You can listen to the full “Paul Heyman in WWE” episode of Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard here:
Braun Strowman recently spoke with TV Insider to talk about various topics including his relationship with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and wrestling Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, and Samoa Joe in the Fatal 4-Way match at this Sunday’s SummerSlam pay-per-view event. Here are the highlights:
Competing in the Fatal 4-Way match at SummerSlam:
“Just to share the ring with guys like Brock [Lesnar], [Samoa] Joe and [Roman] Reigns. They have all been doing this a lot longer than I have. They have been around the world and done it all. To be able to be in the main event of SummerSlam, about two years to the day when I debuted on Monday Night Raw. If that doesn’t speak for itself. I don’t know what does. …Everyone can look forward to me holding the Universal Championship over my head at the end of it.”
His relationship with Vince McMahon:
“Vince has been adamant that everything I do be spot-on, and when it’s not, I know. That’s part of the reason I take pride in what I do and give 100 percent of what I am capable of giving. That’s because I know that not only are there millions of fans watching to make sure I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, but the boss himself is watching, too. He is so hands-on and wants me to be a peak performance at all times.”
Strowman also talked about working with The Big Show and more. You can read the entire interview here.
As we have previously mentioned, Sports Illustrated reported that Vince McMahon was ‘furious’ with Shinsuke Nakamura for his botched reverse exploder suplex on John Cena in the main event of last week’s episode of SmackDown Live. With his win, Nakamura will take on WWE Champion Jinder Mahal at SummerSlam for the title. WWE Hall Of Famer “Superstar” Billy Graham took to Facebook to blast McMahon over the reports that he was furious with Nakamura, calling him a cry baby and telling him to grow up:
“Vince McMahon
“Hey fans, I just read a few hours ago that a story came out today in Sports Illustrated concerning the FURY of one Vince McMahon. Seem that he is furious with the Japanese star Nakamura, for dropping Cena on his head in their match last week. Vince said he “is not so much that mad at at Shinsuke, but that Cena has been the ” FACE ” of the company for a full decade now.” Not for long Vince madman McMahon. Cena is on his way to La La land.
“I saw Stan Hansen give Bruno the elbow in MSG when he broke Bruno’s neck. Vince Sr. didn’t cry like a baby, he just let Bruno get his neck fixed and keep on wrestling. Vince is living in Disney Land if he thinks Cena is still the ” Face ” of the WWE. Grow up Vince.
“Hey fans, I am still working on my painting, will get it up for you in a few days. Catch you folks later.
“Superstar Billy Graham… PS.. God, Vince is such a cry baby !!!”
A new report has surfaced online that suggest that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was upset with Shinsuke Nakamura for his botched spot in the #1 contender match with John Cena on last week’s episode of SmackDown Live in Cleveland, OH.
As seen in the match, Nakamura hit a Back Suplex on Cena in which the former WWE Champion seemed to land pretty harshly on his neck. Fortunately for Cena, he was able to continue the match, which saw Nakamura pick up the victory.
Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated is reporting that McMahon was furious with the former NXT Champion for the botched spot. With WWE being dependent on the drawing power of the former WWE Champion, it was noted that McMahon’s anger was more in defense of Cena than it was an indictment of Nakamura. According to the report, McMahon has not lost faith in Nakamura, but if Nakamura makes another mistake on a grand stage, then McMahon will have an entirely different opinion of him.
Nakamura is scheduled to challenge Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship at the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view event on August 20th at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
A few weeks ago it was reported that former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio could possibly be returning to the company, as the free agent was negotiating with both WWE and Global Force Wrestling (a.k.a TNA and Impact Wrestling). Per a new report from Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso, however, that is no longer the case.
The report suggests that Mysterio will, in fact, not be returning to WWE due to the fact that “The Chairman Of The Board” Vince McMahon has no interest in doing any business with “The Master Of The 619’s” representation – Konnan. Konnan and McMahon reportedly have some issues stemming back a couple of decades ago, as McMahon invested a lot of time and money into Konnan’s ‘Max Moon’ character which ultimately didn’t pan out.
Konnan was at a recent SmackDown Live taping to visit Chris Jericho and it apparently didn’t do much to help his relationship with McMahon.
WWE United States Champion AJ Styles was recent a guest on former WWE Tag Team Champions Edge and Christian’s podcast, E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness, to talk about his journey in WWE. During their conversation “The Phenomenal One” talked about Vince McMahon doubting his popularity with fans prior to his WWE debut at last year’s Royal Rumble, and how having a relationship with “The Chairman Of The Board” has made all the difference in his WWE career. Here’s what he had to say:
Vince McMahon initially doubting his popularity with fans prior to last year’s Royal Rumble:
“I didn’t know if anybody was going to know who I was. I was gone for almost two years and now I was debuting in Orlando [Florida], which benefited me in WWE.”
“The way that they did it, with coming out number three, it couldn’t have been any better. It really couldn’t’ve. The reaction was unbelievable. I did not expect that. It’s one of those things in WWE history that will be forever there because it was that kind of reaction that I didn’t expect. I don’t think anybody expected that. I definitely don’t think Vince expected that because I’ve heard stories that he’s like, ‘nobody’s going to know who this guy is and you want him out number three!’ So it definitely worked out to my benefit.”
Having a relationship with McMahon and it making all the difference in his WWE career:
“It made the biggest difference and I learned that he wants to talk to you. He wants to have a relationship with you and it’s up to you to do that. I mean, the guy’s super busy, so I try not to bother him unless I have something that I think is important, but it’s nice to know that there’s one guy I can talk to and he’ll tell me ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and that’s it.”
Check out Styles’ interview with Edge and Christian by clicking here.
In July it was reported that Enzo Amore had been kicked off the WWE tour bus due to his behavior, and now it sounds like he might be getting kicked off RAW.
According to a report by Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE management is looking at ways to get Enzo off of WWE’s Monday night show. SmackDown may not be an option for Enzo either, as company officials reportedly do not want Enzo in proximity of Vince McMahon.
There are several options being considered, including moving him to 205 Live or back to NXT. Enzo could help sell tickets on the road for those shows, and it would keep him away from the WWE CEO.
The Great Khali posted a photo of Vince McMahon and himself at this past Sunday’s WWE Battleground PPV. The Great Khali made his WWE return at Battleground during the Punjabi Prison match. Randy Orton had the match won and was about to escape the prison, but Khali came down to the ring and grabbed Orton by the throat. WWE Champion Jinder Mahal was then able to escape the Punjabi Prison and retain his WWE Championship while Randy Orton was stuck in Khali’s grasp.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXDMqgMl5TG/
The Great Khali’s return at WWE Battleground was uploaded to YouTube and is closing in on 4 million views.
Jason Jordan on Miz TV preview
It was announced oh Monday’s episode of RAW that Jason Jordan will be on Miz TV next week. Jordan defeated Curt Hawkins in his RAW debut on Monday. WWE posted the following preview for Jordan’s appearance on Miz TV next week:
Jason Jordan has done his fair share of interviews since Raw General Manager Kurt Angle revealed that the former SmackDown Tag Team Champion is his son, but now the “gold-blooded” Superstar is set to be grilled by The Miz on “Miz TV,” live in Angle’s home city of Pittsburgh.
What questions might The A-Lister have in store for Jordan? Will we learn of his true aspirations now that he has joined Team Red? One thing’s for sure, even though Jordan’s the son of the Raw GM, The Miz won’t be pulling any punches.
WWE Superstar Curtis Axel recently joined the Miztourage along with Bo Dallas and The Miz. The Miztourage lost in a Handicap match against Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins on Monday’s episode of RAW. Despite the loss, Axel boasted on Twitter about being in the main-event of the show. Axel hasn’t been featured on RAW at all until recently joining the Miztourage.
Former WWE Superstar Alex Riley was recently a guest on Sean “X-Pac” Waltman’s podcast, X-Pac 12360, to talk about his time with the company. During the interview, Riley revealed how he was treated backstage by the likes of “The Chairman Of The Board” Vince McMahon and former WWE Champion Triple H, as well as if he would have stayed with WWE had he not been released.
Riley was signed to WWE back in 2007 when he was sent to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). He made his main roster debut and was paired with The Miz in 2010 for some time before embarking on a singles career. During his time with the company he also served as a color commentator on shows such as WWE Superstars, NXT, and Main Event before his release in May of last year. Check out here what he had to say:
How he was treated by Triple H and Vince McMahon:
“Vince McMahon [and] Triple H, they were straight [with me]. They were straight shooters and I always loved when somebody would say, ‘We’re just not gonna do it right now, sorry’ rather than bulls—ting me, and they never did. I heard – and I kind of got the feeling – that Vince was always a pretty big supporter of mine, so, hey, what a compliment to have. And I hope I’m making them very proud right now.”
If he would’ve stayed with WWE had he not been released:
“I don’t know, because I would’ve been torn. I really really love that job, but WWE is very in this way. They own you. They would’ve owned me, I don’t think I would have been allowed opportunities to do anything else.”
Last week it was reported that Talking Smack would no longer be airing after SmackDown Live on a weekly basis, coming as a bit of a shock to WWE fans given that it was the ninth most watched program on the WWE Network. Sports Illustrated reported that the program was cancelled due to Vince McMahon not being pleased with the program because it didn’t serve the company’s best interests, however, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter strongly denies those reports.
WON suggests that if that were the case then McMahon would cancel the program altogether rather than continue to air it following pay-per-views (PPVs). The report also claims that McMahon doesn’t even watch Talking Smack, but instead receives a report on the show every Wednesday. McMahon was angered by one segment in particular, however, involving The New Day appearing on the May 23, 2017 episode after Kofi Kingston was cleared to return from injury.
The appearance served as The New Day’s return to Tuesday nights, something Vince felt should have been done first on SmackDown Live.
Its been almost a year since Ryback departed from WWE, as “The Big Guy” cited creative differences and a dispute with the company over equal pay for talents as his key reasons for deciding to leave. Since his departure, Ryback has been working the independent circuit in addition to launching his new podcast, Conversation With The Big Guy, in which he discusses his time with WWE.
On the latest edition of the show, Ryback discusses his relationship with CM Punk and why “The Cult Of Personality” grew to dislike him so much. He also revealed that one thing he always did that got “The Chairman Of The Board” Vince McMahon hot, was go off-script:
“I got in trouble multiple times for doing things much less… just like, off-the-cuff that got great reactions that Vince would get mad at because that wasn’t verbatim off the page. When people always say, ‘these guys need to go off the script,’ they don’t understand it depends who you are at times. That hurt me more than anything on promo stuff. And he would get furious with me at that. It was disappointing because it was never a lot.”
You can listen to the full episode by clicking this link here.
Former WWE United States Champion Mr. Kennedy (a.k.a. Mr. Anderson) had all the makings to be a top star in the company, but unfortunately it just didn’t quite work out. The former Mr. Money In The Bank was let go by the WWE in 2009 after a falling out with former WWE Champions Randy Orton and John Cena.
Since his departure, Kennedy has done work for promotions such as Impact Wrestling, Ring Of Honor (ROH), as well as various other companies on the independent circuit. He recently joined the Wrestling Inc. podcast to talk about his time in the company and told the story of an awful gimmick he turned down to Vince McMahon:
“That actually reminds me of when I had my meeting with Vince and Stephanie and Kevin Dunn and Johnny Ace. To figure out what my new name was going to be and how we were going to move forward. You know, I started out as Mr. Anderson in the WWE and then like three weeks later Vince talked me into changing my name.
“So we’re all sitting around, discussing this and he goes, ‘Do you have any catchphrases?’ And I said yeah, ‘Nice guys finish last and thank God I’m an a**hole.’ And Johnny Ace goes, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. Uh well let’s say your name was like Adam Hole. Nice guys finish last, thank God I’m an A-Hole.’
“And Vince looked over me and he goes, ‘What do you think?’ And I said you know, it’s interesting, but I feel like that’s sort of a flash in the pan type gimmick that’s only going to stick around for a few months at most. It’ll be really gimmicky and I want to be around for a really long time. And he goes, ‘Yeah. It’s a f****ing terrible idea.”
Former WWE announcer and current Impact Wrestling announcer Josh Mathews recently did an interview with Wrestle:List to talk about the future of Impact Wrestling and who helped him the most along the way in his career. You can check out the highlights from the interview here below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZwtFbivNt8
Future of Impact Wrestling:
“I think you can expect to see a lot more from Impact. This is nothing against the people who were in charge before this new regime took over, but we sort of laid dormant and didn’t really attempt to get out there and do different things. For someone like myself, who is always trying to find different angles and marketing angles.”
Who helped him the most throughout his career in professional wrestling:
“There are quite a few people who helped me on the way. When I first started I was in the car with Michael Cole and Taz and learned a tremendous amount from them. I also learnt from Jim Ross and Paul Heyman had a tremendous influence on my career. When Paul Heyman was the lead writer for Smack Down, and Smack Down was produced on Tuesday, postproduction was done on a Wednesday, and the show was put out on Thursday, Paul would be there for the edit of the show. We would be there; Michael Cole, Paul [Heyman], Taz and myself would be in the studio until 5 o’clock in the morning and changing the call of the show. Those guys would be in the booth, and learning from Paul [Heyman] how to do this from a commentary standpoint.
“When you sit down and do the main shows you’re working directly for the man who owns the company [Vince McMahon] and he’s listening to every word you say. He also had a tremendous effect on my career and still continues to to this day. I can hear him in my head when I call things, “Don’t scream at me” and “Don’t over sell this” I can hear it. That has molded me in to the play-by-play announcer I am today.”
You can read the full interview by visiting this link here.
Linda McMahon, the former WWE CEO and current administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, has been doing a ton of media work as of late because of her SBA Ignite Tour, where she has been meeting with plenty of small business owners throughout the country.
McMahon recently spoke to The Las Vegas Sun to talk about her time with the WWE and a variety of professional wrestling topics. Linda first discussed she and Vince’s decision to buy what is now known as WWE from his father, and not providing health insurance to its talents:
“Vince and I have always said that we had a great opportunity, but great opportunities can come and go if you don’t take advantage of them and seize them,” McMahon recalled. “Being in this particular industry is something that he always wanted to do from the time he was a little boy. It was in his blood.”
In his youth, Vince was an on-air personality for his father’s Capital Wrestling promotion and increased the company’s revenue with a variety of new ideas. He would eventually purchase the company from his father, however, the deal came with a twist. If Vince missed one of the four payments for the buyout, control would instantly be reverted back to Vince’s father:
“We were able to do it. By taking over the business ongoing and paying as you go with it, we did increase revenues through that time,” McMahon said. “So then we went from the Northeast and moved it across the country, and made it into first a national business and then a global business.”
Today, the WWE is the powerhouse of the professional wrestling industry but has been under heavy criticism for how they accommodate their talents. Due to the fact that the company treats its wrestlers as independent contractors, they do not provide their Superstars health insurance or retirement benefits:
“It’s such a complicated issue to try to give a succinct answer,” Linda said. “WWE went from having no insurance when Vince and I first got started — I remember when I walked into his office when we had 13 or maybe 14 employees, and I said, ‘Guess what? You now have health insurance.’ And he said, ‘Wow.’ I don’t think he realized he didn’t have it before.”
“The cost of health care has grown. We had a very young company, so there were a lot of babies being born, so we had some high expenses,” McMahon said while comparing today to her beginning years with WWE. “Eventually, we went to self-insuring except for catastrophic. We had health savings plans. We tried different ways to make sure that our employees had really great coverage that they weren’t paying too much out of pocket to try to keep those co-pays reasonable within guidelines.”
Linda then chimed in on her displeasure for the country’s current healthcare plan, Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obama Care:
“There are some aspects of it that are good. I absolutely believe children should be able to stay on their parents’ policy, that there should be no pre-conditions that would prevent you from getting health care. So there are many parts of it that I think are really good.”
McMahon then commented on the current replacement plan in place for Obama care which just passed the House:
“I think it has some good points,” she said. “It will now get tweaked by the Senate, and I really do hope it can get pulled together because I think the tax savings that will be realized through the proposal that had been put in the House and the Senate, that does help to push our tax reform down the road.”
Former WWE Creative Writer Kevin Eck recently spoke to Sporting News to talk about his time with the company. Since the WWE’s Money In The Bank (MITB) pay-per-view (PPV) was right around the corner, Eck shed some light on some past winners of the MITB Ladder Match. You can see what he had to say here:
How Daniel Bryan’s MITB Ladder Match win in 2011 led to his storyline with AJ Lee:
“I started working for WWE at the end of August 2011, six weeks after Bryan won the SmackDown MITB ladder match. Bryan’s victory was surprising at the time because he wasn’t getting much of a push beforehand. He wasn’t getting much of one after winning the blue briefcase, either. In fact, I was informed by some of my colleagues that Vince McMahon was having buyer’s remorse about making Bryan SmackDown’s Mr. Money in the Bank. The question was no longer when Bryan would cash in and win the title, it was whether he should be the first MITB winner to cash in and fail. …I didn’t know whether Bryan would ever be world champion, but I figured it could only help his cause if he had a story line, even a minor one.
“I pitched putting Bryan and another nerdy, undersized underdog — AJ Lee — together as a couple. Head writer Brian Gewirtz liked the idea, and we started writing some backstage segments with Bryan and AJ into the show. By the way, when I pulled Bryan and AJ aside at TV and told them they were about to become an on-screen couple, AJ was thrilled to be getting any opportunity, but Bryan was something less than thrilled. He said the last time he was involved in a romantic story line (with Gail Kim and The Bella Twins), it did him more harm than good. Despite his misgivings, however, Bryan was a total pro.”
Dolph Ziggler’s World Heavyweight Title win after cashing in his MITB briefcase:
“When Ziggler won the 2012 MITB ladder match for a guaranteed shot at the World Heavyweight Title, there was no specific plan in place as to when he would cash in and win the title. Ziggler actually attempted to cash in the contract several times only to be thwarted before the cash-in match could become official. It started to become a running joke. Much like Bryan, the longer Ziggler carried around the briefcase, the more likely it seemed that his eventual cash-in was going to be unsuccessful. To say McMahon had lost faith in Ziggler during this time would be a major understatement.
“Even though Ziggler was getting a good reaction from the fans, McMahon was highly critical of Ziggler’s instincts in the ring and his promos. Triple H wasn’t a big Ziggler fan, either. He thought Ziggler didn’t take direction well and was overly obsessed with trying to be the next Shawn Michaels. However, Ziggler did have one important supporter: WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson, who had been a member of McMahon’s inner circle on the creative side for decades and now had emeritus status. Even before Ziggler won the MITB ladder match, Patterson constantly prodded McMahon to give Ziggler a strong push.”
If you’d like to read Eck’s full interview with Sporting News, it can be found by clicking here.
Former Impact Wrestling star and former WWE Superstar recently did an interview with Kevin Eck for PressBoxOnline to discuss her time with the WWE. During the interview it was brought up that Vince McMahon doesn’t like for women to wrestle the same way the guys do inside the ring. Kim talked about her own experience with that, as well as what Triple H told her before she left the company:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOVBjLeOnNA&t=26s
KE: When I worked on the WWE creative team — I started in 2011 right after you left the company — Vince McMahon said several times that “no one wants to see the girls fight like the guys.” Was that something that was ever said or implied to you while you were there?
GK: “It wasn’t politically correct to say out loud, nor would they say that straight up, but — I’m not going to say which agent said it — but they would tell us that Vince doesn’t like that. I remember specifically a match I had on “Superstars” with Jillian [Hall]. We got seven minutes, which was rare back then — we usually got three minutes. There’s no way to tell a story in the ring in that time, so when we had a match on “Superstars” it was like a pay-per-view match [laughs].
“Jillian and I had awesome chemistry, so we’d want to wrestle. We wanted to do a superplex off the top rope, and the agent — again, I’m not going to name names — said, “Go ahead. I’ll take the heat for it,” because he knew Vince wouldn’t really be happy with that. Now I heard WWE has announced a Money in the Bank match for the girls. I honestly feel like [Triple H] has done so much for the girls, because he started that whole thing in NXT with the Four Horsewomen. When I left WWE, he was one of the people who was so positive. He told me, “You’re talented and don’t let anyone else tell you any different.” I was very flattered and glad that he respected women’s wrestling.”
Former WWE United States Champion Chris Jericho recently joined Rock 100.5 ATL’s Bailey and Southside to talk about his recent run with the WWE, the rise of “The List” and the “Stupid Idiot” catchphrase, and much more. Here are the highlights:
Who came up with “The List”:
“Working with this guys who’s a writer in the WWE named Jimmy Jacobs. He used to be a [pro] wrestler. He came up to me one day and said, ‘what if we do something where you put somebody on this list?’ I’m like, ‘I knew this guy once who had a list of people he didn’t like.’ I’m like, ‘oh, that sounds funny.’ So I said it and it kind of got a reaction.” Jericho said, “the whole concept of The List went through the roof. The List is more popular than 85% of the guys on the show. The List is more popular than I am! And you just never know what’s going to make an impression with fans.”
Vince McMahon’s reaction to the “Stupid Idiot” catchphrase:
“They’re chanting it now, ‘stupid idiot’ and I remember when I started saying that, Vince was like, ‘nobody could say this, nobody can get away with this, but you can. You’re the only guy in the world who could do this’ because when I started using ‘stupid idiot,’ it got heat. I would call the fans, ‘you’re a stupid idiots’ and they’d be like, ‘boo!’ and then, like everything else, suddenly people loved it.”
There has been a bit of drama between former WWE writer Vince Russo and Jim Cornette lately. On a recent edition of WWE Network’s Table For 3, which featured Cornette, Michael Hayes, and Erich Bischoff, Cornette claimed that Russo had been writing Vince McMahon every week about wanting a job back with WWE. Russo recently joined the Wrestling Inc. podcast to respond to Cornette’s claims, and stated that they’re clearly not true:
“That’s absolutely untrue, Raj,” Vince said. “You know what the funny thing is and bro anybody with half a brain would understand this. Cornette obviously doesn’t have half a brain. Raj, I go on my podcast, OK, and I publicly read my personal emails with Vince McMahon.”
“Ok bro, I did that on my show. I read his response to me when I did reach out one time and I also, on Konnan’s show on Podcast One this week, I read Vince’s response to me when I called him out for the Table for 3 Show. I wrote him an email; I called him out. And he wrote me back and I read that response.”
“Raj, I’ve got to ask you question,” Russo stated. “If I’m dying and begging the WWE for a freaking job, am I really going to go on my freaking show and read Vince McMahon’s personal email,” Vince asked. “I mean, let’s just be logical bro. Like, is that the way I would get a job if I was dying and begging for a job? It’s so freaking ridiculous.”
Russo then went on to say that he found himself bashing RAW on a regular basis, and instead of having nothing but negative things to say, Vince wanted to be a part of the solution. Therefore, Russo emailed McMahon saying that he’d love to help out on RAW in any way McMahon saw fit, to which “The Chairman Of The Board” responded with “Vince, there is nothing available at this time.”
He then claimed that the exchange of emails with McMahon only occurred that one time, before providing some more backstory:
“Raj, can I tell you this,” Vince said. “I didn’t just write to Vince. I wrote to Vince because I spoke to somebody at a very high level at the WWE and basically the person relied to me, like, ‘Vince, you know they need you here’ and the person also suggested that I need to kiss Vince’s ass in order to work there. And I’m like you don’t understand; I don’t want to work there. If I can help and contribute, I will.”
WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley recently did an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard to discuss his time with the company. You can check out some of the highlights here:
Vince McMahon not being a fan of his at first:
“Mr. McMahon, you see, was not a Cactus Jack fan,” Foley recalled. “But, following a notable first year in a leather mask as Mankind, Mr. McMahon had a change of heart, and not only gave Cactus Jack the occasional opportunity in WWE, but built up the Cactus character to be my toughest and wildest incarnation of all. It was if he was admitting to me, and whoever out there was watching, that he just might have missed the boat on that Cactus Jack guy after all!”
Cactus Jack making his WWE debut on a September 1997 episode of RAW in a Street Fight with Triple H:
“In so doing–in allowing a guy who (in his opinion) didn’t look like a star, Mr. McMahon just may have opened up the possibility that other unlikely prospects might find a home, and stardom inside the WWE,” Foley told Sports Illustrated. “Maybe, just maybe, the lesson learned from the Cactus Jack experiment helped open the door for future WWE Superstars such as Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, and Kevin Owens–all of whom flourished in what would have been seen as a very unlikely environment a generation earlier.”
How WWE portrayed his character and his connection with the fans:
“So, yes, WWE deserves much of the credit for how they chose to portray a colorful journeyman like Cactus Jack. But there was something real there too–something fans could truly believe in.”
“Even as the world learned new truths about me–I was from New York not New Mexico, the only thing truly deranged about me was my fashion sense–the legitimacy of Cactus Jack was only heightened, never questioned,” Foley elaborated. “I think it’s because there was an understanding that even given the entertainment aspect of pro wrestling, the struggle to the top had been hard-earned and well deserved, and that the legendary tales of suffering had all turned out to be very true.”
It’s no secret that over the years “The Chairman Of The Board” Vince McMahon has been obsessed with staying in tremendous shape as he continues to rule the biggest professional wrestling powerhouse of all time. Even today at 71-years-old, however, McMahon is still going hard inside the weight room.
This past Tuesday (May 30, 2017) SmackDown Live was in Atlanta, Georgia and McMahon decided to get a workout in at an Anytime Fitness gym. You can check out a picture of him, still looking insanely ripped for a 71-year-old, here below:
WWE Network’s Table For 3 has been one of the most successful exclusive programs that the WWE has produced.
The concept of the show has three legends of the professional wrestling business sit down at a table for a nice meal, while discussing their journey’s through the industry and telling some great stories along the way. We’ve seen legendary names such as Kurt Angle, Edge and Christian, Eric Bischoff, Michael Hayes, Jim Cornette, Shawn Michaels, and so many more.
Now, “The Chairman Of The Board” Vince McMahon could be joining the club per a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The report suggests that WWE officials are discussing the possibility of having McMahon join the program as whatever he’s a part of on the WWE Network always draws numbers. Vince doesn’t regularly do appearances on the Network, however, he has done some such as the Steve Austin Show podcast which performed very well.
If Vince does join Table For 3 there are multiple sets of partners they could pair him up with. One group could be made of the ‘Big 3’ promotion owners from the attitude era; Vince who owned WWE, Eric Bischoff who owned WCW, and Paul Heyman who owned ECW. Group two could consist of The McMahon Family, Vince, Shane and Stephanie McMahon. The third group could pair McMahon with his former ‘stooges’ Pat Patterson and Jerry Brisco.
Discussion: Would you like to see Vince on Table For 3? If so, who would you like him to sit down with?
Former WWE, WCW and TNA writer Vince Russo claims to have reached out to Vince McMahon last week about a potential return to the company. Russo actually heard back from the WWE Chairman, but it doesn’t sound like Russo will be writing WWE television or doing consulting work for WWE any time soon.
Russo hasn’t worked for WWE full time since 1999 but has been very outspoken about the product in recent years. To this day, Russo remains a big fan of professional wrestling. He doesn’t like a lot of what WWE puts out and took it upon himself to reach out to Vince McMahon once again to offer his services.
During an interview with Fightful.com, Russo revealed, “I’ve reached out to Vince McMahon in the past week. He got back to me. I am still a wrestling fan at heart, going back to when I was 10, 11 years old. I hate today’s product. To me, it’s not professional wrestling.”
He continued, “I don’t want to be the guy critiquing the problem without saying ‘Here’s my olive branch, I think I can help you as the numbers go down every week.’ I didn’t use the word help. You don’t tell Vince McMahon he needs help. I said ‘if you want me to contribute, I’d love to once again contribute.’”
Russo said Vince McMahon didn’t seem receptive to his offer. “Vince never seems receptive. His response is always a couple of words. He’s not that guy. He’s the same guy that told me I could get a nanny (to raise) your kids.”
You can see Russo’s comments about his recent discussion with Vince McMahon below:
WWE SmackDown Live Commissioner Shane McMahon was recently a guest on WWE Hall Of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin’s podcast, The Steve Austin Show, to talk about a variety of topics. You can check out the highlights here:
Vince’s reaction to Steve walking out on the WWE back in 2002 after refusing to job for Brock Lesnar:
“[Austin was] the guy that was drawing the houses and everything was built around [Austin]. So when you have that much equity at stake and you have your number one player in there and that’s the one who draws money all of a sudden say, ‘I’m out,’ well, it’s very devastating, obviously, to everyone else underneath and everyone felt it, just like, ‘wow’, so [Austin] specifically, you let a lot of people down.”
“Vince was hurt professionally and personally because you guys had been building a good relationship. If you guys did have a disagreement, you’d settle it quickly and talk about it. But at the end of the day when it got down to ‘alright, this is the vision we’re going with when I said we’d paint the room blue, well, you didn’t want to paint the room blue at that time, so you took your paint and went somewhere else.’ So that was a big blow personally as well because, again, it’s the machine and we all put effort into building ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, and the company, and everything else around it. And when that cog leaves, it’s like, ‘oh wow! Jeez, that didn’t feel good!’ It didn’t make any of us feel good. [Austin] let us down, man.”
Shane’s brutal match with Kurt Angle at King Of The Ring 2001:
“It’s safety glass, yeah.” McMahon added, “by the third time, I said, ‘you Olympic wuss’ or something along those lines. ‘I can’t believe you can’t even throw me through it.'”
“I wasn’t concussed or anything, so I was straight up. I mean, I was hurting.” McMahon added, “Kurt was calling for a suplex and I called it off. It was in the middle aisle. It was just cement. He says, ‘no suplex, suplex.’ I was like, ‘no, Kurt.’ He says, ‘go, go.’ And he did something to me and I didn’t have much of a choice. I’m like, ‘alright, suplex.’ So as we did it, he hit and he went, ‘oh my God!’ He cracked his tailbone.”
“Vince almost came out about three times during that match. He was going to call it off. I had no idea. Chioda was the ref. Chioda was usually always my ref because we go back in the day, like I said. And it takes three, not just two. It takes three. In the IFB, I guess Vince is talking, saying something. Chioda’s talking to me, but I think he’s just saying gibberish because, again, I got whacked in the head a couple of times. So anyways, Vince thinks that I’m shooing him off, that I’m disobeying an order, that I’m ignoring the order from Chioda, but I never got the order because I would never disobey him. So [the] gorilla [position] was silent. Vince was going ballistic. I mean, throwing stuff.”
Vince being outraged cause he thought Shane was disobeying his orders during the match:
“[Vince] was fuming and he said something very nice to me. He put the match over and that’ll stay private. And he said, ‘but don’t you ever blanking do that ever again.’ He was so hot. We were supposed to ride together, but he got his own car. I was like, ‘wow, I had heat’ because he was nervous, so it was two things: being a father and seeing your son go through a train wreck and waiving him off, which really made him hot, in front of everybody, because he was giving the order in front of everybody, so he thought I was disobeying on top of all that and everyone around knows I was disobeying.”
Being backstage after the match:
“Kurt and I come back through [the curtain] and it was one of the first-ever standing ovations because that wasn’t given back in the day. And I’m not saying that to brag. I’m saying it because of how appreciative I was and how appreciate the fans were that we put ourselves through that. And it was like, ‘oh my God, that was awesome.’ We get through gorilla, [and] it’s like a morgue. I was like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on here.’ So Kurt and I keep going. I mean, it was silent. My dad was nowhere to be seen. He was so fuming. As we get through the back, there was a whole line of guys, all the boys were applauding.” McMahon remembered, “as I turn around the corner on my way to the trainer’s room before we go to the hospital, and then, here comes Marissa, just eyes bawling. She has no idea because I didn’t tell her anything. That’s the one I got huge heat for.”
