Vince McMahon doesn't often give interviews, so when Pat McAfee announced he’d have the WWE owner on his show, many were excited. Some went in expecting big reveals and off-the-wall stories, and McMahon didn’t disappoint. In fact, he shared a story of when he learned about rivals plotting to kill him, and in a surprisingly casual manner.
The topic came about during The Pat McAfee Show when McAfee (who is also an employee of WWE) asked Vince McMahon about how intense rivalries were when he first started to grow the WWE into other wrestling territories. McMahon talked about how promoters often saw that as disrespect worthy of a fight or even more extreme measures, and told a story about the time he learned rivals tried to kill him.
There’s a story that Jim Ross was telling me one day, and he was with Bill Watts and some of the other old NWA guys, and they’re having this conference because they’re thinking, ‘What are we gonna do about this kid who’s invading everything. We gotta do something about him.' They couldn’t order lunch together, I knew that they couldn’t do that even. . .just egos and so forth. They’re meeting in terms of what they can possibly do. Jim is not a part of the meeting, but Jim is now in the men’s room... taking care of business. In walks four of these promoters talking about how they’re going to off me. ‘This guy knows this guy. I know I can do this. This guy did this. I know that was really impressive.’ They all know people, so they’re all talking about who’s going to off me.
What’s entertaining rather than grim about this story so far is just how casually Vince McMahon told it. For him, you’d think he just described a boring work lunch. It’s certainly not told with the intensity of someone who feared for their life, though this was something that occurred decades ago, and obviously never came to anything.
Vince McMahon continued on with the story and revealed some surprising details. For example, he mentioned that Jim Ross wasn’t all that concerned about whether McMahon lived or died, and worried about something else in that moment.
So now, imagine Jim Ross. He doesn’t give a shit about Vince McMahon, he’s thinking about himself... He’s like, 'Oh no, I’m gonna be an accessory to murder.’ So, he takes one foot and puts it on the seat, and takes the other one and puts it on the seat so you can’t see his feet below the stall. And, of course, mother nature is calling at the same time. So now, he waited for them to finish who was going to kill me off... but that’s just one of those things. He told me about it five years after he came to work for me. He wasn’t working for me then, naturally.
Jim Ross (who was battling cancer last year) and Vince McMahon haven’t always seen eye to eye, so I can see why Ross would wait until he was working for the CEO to tell the story. It's wild to hear folks had actual discussions about killing McMahon while he worked to widen the WWE’s grasp and how the wrestling world would’ve changed had that happened. Luckily, it didn’t, and now the WWE is the largest wrestling organization in the world.
Vince McMahon is prepping for WrestleMania 38, which streams for anyone with a Peacock Premium subscription on Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3. Pat McAfee was offered a chance to compete in the event against a mystery opponent (possibly even McMahon), but we’ll have to wait and see who challenges him.
