Former WWE Employee Explains How Vince McMahon “Failed Wrestling”
A former WWE employee has opened up about their experiences with Vince McMahon and says that the former Chairman “failed wrestling.”
Vince McMahon has stolen the headlines yet again at the beginning of 2023 as he made an audacious comeback to WWE’s Board of Directors. McMahon stepped down from his role as Chairman and CEO of the company in July 2022 amid an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and ‘hush money’ payments made to female former WWE employees.
Speaking on the Chosen Life Podcast, former WWE media relations manager Dawn Pappas discussed her own dealings with Vince McMahon:
“Vince is likely exactly what you think Vince is like. That’s not fair, he’s not (the Vince McMahon character). He’s very calculating, he’s very smart, he’s very direct. I didn’t have a lot of direct interaction with Vince, but there was one interview that he was doing for Sportsnet or TSN, and there had been a lot of steroid controversy at the time.”
“I was in the green room with him before the interview and I said, ‘I have the list of questions.’ He said, ‘Put it away.’ ‘You sure? Bret. Steroids.’ ‘Put it away.’ I had a lot of respect for somebody who was willing to go into a live interview, he knows his sh*t, he knows his positions because he truly embodies that company.”
Pappas, who previously worked in the music industry for EMI Music Canada and BMG Music Canada, then explained how she felt Vince McMahon failed the pro wrestling business by failing to see the threat from the burgeoning MMA industry:
“I think, and this is just me talking, he failed wrestling by not taking the threat of MMA seriously, and I say this as someone who came from an industry that got hammered by Napster. I came from music and they weren’t taking streaming seriously, and that did a lot of damage to the music industry.”
“When I went to WWE and I started seeing the numbers dropping, ‘oh, we’re losing our viewership.’ Okay, what are we doing about it? My first thought was, we should all be going to Vegas and an MMA event and see what they’re doing and comparing it to what we’re doing. WWE and Vince’s world, nobody wants to hear that. Vince is going to do what Vince is going to do and he doesn’t want to know, think, or see anything else going on outside. That was the impression I got.”
“To hear Hunter [Triple H] has been doing a great job with the company, I love that because I love him, he’s a super smart guy. I liked him and have a lot of respect for him. I’m not surprised that Vince can’t take a seat. It’s his life and blood.”