Vince McMahon Disliked WWE Name, Paid Him $120,000 To Travel & Party

Vince McMahon could famously turn on someone for no apparent reason, and one WWE talent suffered that fate, despite being paid very well.

Perhaps no other WWE star is representative of Vince McMahon’s fickle nature than WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross. Ross was brought into WWE at WrestleMania 9 in 1993 as a commentator, but by SummerSlam, Vince McMahon had taken his place back at the announce booth.

Ross was let go in early 1994 before a short return in the middle of the year. Ross was signed for a third time in December 1994, but it wasn’t until 1996 that he made his return to the main WWE announce team, where he helped usher in the Attitude Era alongside Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler.

But Jim Ross is not the only one to suffer from Vince McMahon’s whims over the years. And one broadcaster only made it to TV a single time during their stint in the company, despite being paid very well to do anything but work.

Vince McMahon Pulled Talent Off WWE TV

Speaking on The Last Word, former WWE star Jonathan Coachman gave an insight into how fickle Vince McMahon could be. Coachman recalled one broadcaster only making it onto TV once in WWE, as McMahon simply did not like them, despite paying them six figures for a whole year:

There was once a guy named Max Bretos. He was my partner at ESPN on SportsCenter for three years. He got hired by WWE in 2001, 2002, something like that. He worked 52 weeks, a full year, and he was on TV week number two. Vince just happened to be watching it. How many more times do you think he was on TV for the rest of his one-year contract? Zero.

He got paid to travel, party, travel, and party. And he loved it for a year, but when that year was up, he lost the job and lost the income. But that’s how diabolical Vince could be if he simply didn’t like somebody. “I don’t care, I’ll pay him $120,000 to sit there”, and he did it.

Vince McMahon has revealed how angry he was at Hulk Hogan’s final WWE appearance in January 2025 when Hogan was booed out of the building by fans.

Vince McMahon is currently the subject of a sexual abuse and sex trafficking lawsuit filed by a former WWE employee.

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