There was a plan to kill WWE owner Vince McMahon, says former employee

Vince McMahon has been a pioneer in professional wrestling. His willingness to turn a nice sport like professional wrestling into a global phenomenon has led to his company WWE becoming a one of the most successful business empires in the world. It was during the 1980s that Vince bought WWE (WWF) from his father and turned it into a big success. He had competition from several companies during that time as there was a territorial business system in place.

However, the rise of Hulkamania, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin overwhelmed the competition as WWE became the worldwide leader in professional wrestling. Such has been the success that in the last two decades, only WWE hasn’t faced competition from any other organization.

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So with the success comes the danger. It has been revealed by WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross that he heard National Wrestling Alliance promoters discussing a plan to kill Vince McMahon. They had heard that Vince wanted to push his company to a national level while absorbing all the regional organizations, so they wanted to take some action against him.

“So anyway, we’re getting ready to have lunch, that suspicious mystery lunch. And we had our break, and I make my way to the men’s room. I go into the first available stall. Might have been the only stall in there. And I get down to do my business, and here comes a bunch of guys walking in off of that meeting. Famous wrestling promoters. Hall of Fame men. Some of the most famous men in pro wrestling history, are in my little bathroom. And I’m sitting there trying to be discreet. You ever try to be discreet when you really need to go? It’s hard, it’s very sad. It’s really said,” Ross said on his podcast.

“Anyway, they start talking about Vince. So one voice, very distinctive voice, says, ‘I could have the motherfucker killed for $700. Why don’t we just do that?’ Then like I was surrounded by a bunch of little David Copperfields, my feet started elevating off the floor of the bathroom. Because I didn’t want anybody to see there’s anybody in there. They hadn’t noticed, they hadn’t said anything. And so that was kind of where that ended. They washed their hands, and I can’t wait to lower my feet back to the floor because my abdomen was hurting, ’cause I was in bad shape. And they leave.”

“So I come out of the — I finished my thing and washed my hands, believe it or not. I said, ‘Cowboy, well that was interesting.’ He says, ‘What?’ And so I told him. He says, ‘Aw, shit. They’re just flapping their gums, kid. They ain’t gonna do shit. They couldn’t agree who’s gonna put the $700 in, if that was what they’re gonna do.’ He said, ‘We’re leaving. And we’ll go someplace else and have a good lunch, besides this shit. Cowboy was more interested in the lunch we had, we got a few names of talents that were [interested] and things were going on. We had some big shows coming up, so if you get a date on Harley, or a date on this guy or that guy, all helped. ’cause he’s not gonna join the Alliance.

“So he said, ‘We’re going home because they’re done. They’re gonna repeat the same stories this afternoon they did this morning, except they’re gonna be longer and slower. And we’re out of here. Before we get through out last meeting, we’ll be back in Bixby.’ So that’s what we did. So the thought of killing Vince McMahon. The thought was not really expounded upon, like ‘Yeah, how do we go about doing that? Where would it be,’ whatever. It it was basically a matter of fact, ‘Hey, I got a guy who’ll kill him for $700.’ So okay, I need to doo-doo and move on down the road.”

Thankfully, the one voice that came up with the plan did not go ahead with the action. Now Vince for the first time in several years is facing competition in the form of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which is backed by billionaire Tony Khan (son of Shahid Khan).

First Published: Aug 19, 2019 11:11 IST