Jesse Ventura Thrilled About WWE Return
Jesse Ventura is happy to be part of WWE again and he has gone into detail about how the return came about.
At the return of WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 14th, one of the big attractions for the show was Jesse Ventura making his triumphant return to WWE as a performer.
A lot of lifelong wrestling fans remember Jesse as one of the greatest heel announcers ever in the 1980s and into the 1990s. Ventura wrestled as well, but his commentary style helped create a legacy in pro wrestling as a WWE Hall of Famer.
When news of Ventura’s return to WWE came out, Ventura made it clear that a big reason why he stayed away from the company for decades was because he didn’t like Vince McMahon. Since Vince has been away from WWE for over a year, Ventura felt comfortable making a return since the company is led by WWE President Nick Khan and WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
Jesse Ventura’s new podcast The Body Shop debuted on Substack this week and he talked about how happy he is to be part of WWE again.
“You guys have been so terrific to me, all the talent. I couldn’t ask for more respect. I can’t tell you how wonderful the talent is toward me. You know? It’s been heartwarming. It’s something that I’m so glad I did now. So glad that I’ve done it.
And it’s something that I look forward to doing maybe for another year, and I’ll turn 75 next year, maybe then they’ll frickin’ retire me, I don’t know [laughs].”
There Is Interest From Jesse Ventura To Continue WWE Deal
During the WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event specials, Ventura has been interviewed by Joe Tessitore to talk about current storylines. He has also done commentary on matches like the controversial Cody Rhodes-Kevin Owens match that featured a ref bump, so Ventura supported the heel Owens by saying he was screwed out of the WWE Title.
As he continued to talk about his WWE return, Ventura talked about WWE’s initial offer and how they came to a different agreement.
“They made an initial offer, which wasn’t quite good enough. And I countered them and they came back real solid — you know, no ifs, ands, buts. It was a good negotiation.
We agreed at first only to do one. They’re doing four. But they wanted me for a whole day’s publicity. So I said, ‘All right, if I come out a day ahead of time and I do a whole day’s publicity, it’s got to be for more than one show.’
I said, ‘I want a guarantee for all four then — that I get all four shows.’ They came back and said, ‘No problem.’ You know? ‘No problem whatsoever.’ And I’ll state this: they come back for another four next year, and I hope I can sign and do four more Saturday Night’s Main Events next year.”
There are two more WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event shows that Ventura is contracted for on May 24 and July 12. It’s not known if WWE will bring in Ventura or other events.