Infamous WWE Star Lifts Lid On Vince McMahon Confrontation
An ex-WWE star has revealed what really happened in an infamous backstage encounter with Vince McMahon.
Kevin Wacholz competed in a couple of matches under the name Kevin Kelly for WWE in 1991 but he burst onto the scene in the company as the convict Nailz in 1992 where he feuded with Cobb County’s finest in The Big Boss Man. However, Nailz’s run in the company only lasted five months and he is best known for his staggering exit.
During a live event in Green Bay, Wisconsin in December 1992, Nailz is alleged to have attacked Vince McMahon in his office following a dispute about money. That led to his immediate termination and several lawsuits being filed between the parties. At one point, Wacholz sued McMahon and WWE for wrongful termination claiming that McMahon had sexually assaulted him. These suits were all later dropped.
What did Nailz say about Vince McMahon incident?
In conversation with Mike Johnson of PWInsider in a Highspots TV exclusive, Nailz addressed the long-standing rumours of the confrontation between him and Vince McMahon and alluded to the fact that it was all down to money:
“Usually, a guy wouldn’t quit or have problem with the ownership of a business if he was happy with what he was getting paid. On that aspect, that kind of sums it up there.”
Nailz then refuted claims made over the years by the likes of Bruce Prichard and Bret Hart among others over what happened but interestingly still referred to Vince McMahon as the “assailant” when rejecting Jimmy Hart’s claims that he’d been in the room when the incident happened:
“Nope. No one was in the locker room except me and the assailant.”
Nailz was then asked about the reaction from his fellow talents following the incident and says that although many thought he was stupid for what he did, he was prepared to walk away from wrestling anyway:
“I’m not really around wrestling anymore for probably a good 20 years. From what I heard from a few people, a lot of people didn’t like what I did to the guy in the east coast. They have to understand, we’re independent contractors, and everyone makes their own deal. What deal worked for them, may not work for me. The deal that I made, that I was told, didn’t come through.
“A lot of guys think that it was ‘stupid for what he did,’ ‘he should have never did it,’ or whatever. They all make their own deals, I made my deal, my deal didn’t come through. That’s why what happened, happened. It had nothing to do with anybody else except the person that told me that ‘this is how much money you’re going to make,’ and didn’t come through with it. They can say what they want or think what they want, ‘that was stupid,’ but after that, I didn’t plan on being in wrestling again anyway.
“I had basically had enough of it. If something else comes through again, another territory or promoter calls up and has a deal for me, I’ll listen and if I think I want to do it, I would. Later, I did. WCW came through with an offer and signed me to a two-year contract and I didn’t have to hardly work at all.”
Nailz finished up by noting that he has no regrets about what happened and says many other stars that worked for Vince McMahon were quick to thank him for what happened:
“I’m fine with what happened. I don’t have any regrets. Never got too many thank you calls and thank you letters in my life. People that I hadn’t heard from in years were sending me cards. A lot of people that ended up working for him later were the same guys that came and thanked me for what happened. People would say, ‘must have taken a lot of guts to do that. I wish I was in your position that I could have done that years later.’
“He did step on a lot of toes and he made it tough for a lot of people. He made a lot of promises that he didn’t fulfill and a lot of guys were in a bad predicament because he lied to them. That’s their deal, that’s not mine. I’m only speaking on what happened to me. What happened to me didn’t come through.”