We are here to celebrate your 25 years with WWE, to kick it off we have to ask,
there are a ton of stories over the years of people's initial,
in-person, meeting with Mr McMahon.
So, what are your memories of the first time chatting with the chairman?
>> Well, it's funny for me, one of the very first time I
met Vince was when I was still at WCW, my contract was coming to an end.
And I was trying to gauge interest, I guess you could say so,
they took a meeting with me, J.J. Dillon at the time was running
talent relations and was kind of in charge of that and I spoke to JJ.
He brought me in for a meeting with Vince and I remember coming in and
meeting with Vince and thinking like one obviously it's Vince McMahon.
So, he has a larger than life presence and of course, it is
I guess the ultimate probably meeting that you could take in the business,
especially at that time, and maybe even more so today, I guess.
But you know what?
Going into the meeting obviously very nervous and hopefully expecting a great
outcome, and then getting in there and realizing, this guy has no idea who I am.
>> [LAUGH] >> Knowing the situation now he was asked
to take a meeting with a talent, here's a kid that's new up and
coming in, they believe in he's contracts coming up, we'll take a meeting with them.
And then see if he's somebody that you wanna bring in, and
I don't believe he was aware, necessarily of me as a performer or
my work, nor should he had been, I guess, probably at that time.
>> But so, we had a very cordial meeting and he just asked me what my plans were,
and what I was thinking about doing, and why I wanted to go there as opposed to
kind of staying where I was, and all that kind of stuff.
But I guess the biggest takeaway for me was just a larger than life,
impression of Vince McMahon that you get, he has a presence.
And when you're in a room with him, that presence carries over and
I've seen it in meetings with the biggest so to speak heavy hitters
in the industry and in business that he's in a room and he carries the room.
So it was quite a meeting, it would be a little bit later than
that maybe like a month later that he would then call me.
I think now he was aware of what I was doing, had seen me work,
it was after I had performed at starrcade against Alex Wright.
Was one of my kind of at the very end of my contract and he called me right after
that to say, look, if you're still interested in coming here,
I saw what you did at Starrcade, and I'd like for you to come here.
>> Wow, what an amazing story, hearing Vince watch Starrcade,
to me, is kind of mind-blowing,
that's pretty cool to hear that- >> I'm sure he did not watch all of
Starrcade I'm sure- >> [LAUGH]
>> Somebody showed him a clip,
here's that kid that you met with the other day, and what do you think?
And it was great, it was great at that time, 25 years is a long time,
and you think, it's a funny thing, when I think about that story.
When Vince called me after Starrcade, I got to Chicago, I was still on
the road for WCW, and I got to Chicago, and when I walked into the hotel.
I saw one of the agents that was there and
he came read over to me and he said the office called and
your mum has been trying to call you all day.
And I was like my God, I thought something happened, right?
So I run over to a bank of payphones to call home, thinking something happened,
and at that time that's the only way you had to get a hold of people, right?
And so- >> Sure.
>> I reached out to my mom who said JJ Dillon has been calling the house all day
cuz that's the only number they had for me.
So JJ Dillon has been calling the house all day trying to get ahold of you,
so I called JJ and then JJ said, Hey, Vince is in Boca Florida,
this was like right around the holidays.
He's in Boca but would like to talk to you,
do you have a moment he connected me through to Vince and, there you go.
So my job was created on a bank of payphones.