Vince McMahon Hysterical After Making Last Second WWE Change
One ex-WWE star has recalled Vince McMahon changing the winner of a match seconds before it was meant to end and finding the whole thing hilarious.
Plans can always change in the wrestling business, but Vince McMahon left it very late to decide to alter the winner of a match while the bout was in progress.
Speaking on his Marking Out podcast, AEW star MVP has recalled getting in the ring with Cody Rhodes during their time in WWE and Vince McMahon changing direction on a winner just seconds before the match was due to end:
Working a match with Cody, he’s a great guy and a great worker. That day, they kept changing our time all afternoon, how much time we had for our match. We have 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 12 minutes. They kept changing the time. We were the main event for the NXT show, and it’s live. Cody went out first. I think it was Lilian Garcia who was the announcer. I just remember hearing, ‘CODY RHODES!’ (John) Laurinaitis goes, ‘Hey kid, come here.’ ‘What’s up?’ ‘I need two break spots.’
Originally, I was supposed to beat Cody. Whatever reason, they decided…at this point, I was still up [going to win], but instead of the 12 or whatever minutes we had, now we had three segments because they scrapped whatever else they were going to do. We went from having 12-15 minutes to having three segments. [Cody] has no idea, he’s out there mentally preparing for whatever we had.
I go out there, I do my entrance, the referee comes over, (I say) ‘Tell Cody this is the first break spot and this is the second break spot.’ The referee goes over and is talking to Cody. From across the ring, I hear Cody go, ‘What the f*ck.’
We’re going through the match, Cody and I have great chemistry, there was no panic. We’re fine, we’re just going to work. We get through everything and we’re going through the comeback. MVP is supposed to beat Cody. He’s bumping and feeding for me, I’m going through the comeback, I grab Cody to hit the playmaker and the referee says, ‘Vince says Cody is up! Vince says Cody is up!’
We’re seconds to going off the air, live. I’m about to hit my finishing move. This match is over. I hear from under my leg, ‘What the f*ck.’ I just say, ‘Cody, reverse this, Cross Rhodes.’ He came through, hit the reversal, hit the Cross Rhodes, 1, 2, 3, Cody wins.
MVP Got Slick With Vince McMahon
MVP continued, noting that he let Vince McMahon know that he wasn’t thrilled about what had happened, but McMahon couldn’t stop laughing about it:
We come back through the curtain. Vince takes off the headset and he’s laughing. [Imitates Vince laughing]. That sh*t was funny as hell to him. He thought it was hysterical. If we had f*cked that up, he would not have been laughing. It wouldn’t have been funny at all. That’s why I tell these young guys, ‘You have to learn how to work.’ I remember being p*ssed off. Vince thought that sh*t (was funny), I was not laughing.
I remember, I even said some slick sh*t to Vince. I don’t remember what I said, but I said something like, ‘Tell the other f*ck boys to do that,’ something like that. I was hot. I didn’t lose it, but I said it enough like, ‘F*ck that sh*t.’ He was laughing and thought it was funny. I always cite that story for having the ability to go out there and work live.
The only singles match Cody Rhodes and MVP had on NXT was back in August 2010. This was when NXT was still a talent-finding show rather than the brand it has grown into.
Vince McMahon was forced to resign from the TKO board in early 2024, ending his association with WWE, the company he had owned for four decades.