For years, the wrestling world and its inhabitants lived behind the walls of Kayfabe, despite several promoters like Verne Gagne and of course Vince McMahon outed all of the boys and clued us all in that it was all an elaborate show. From that point forward, most of the interviews conducted with wrestlers were looking for the dirt to be revealed.
Most recently, Vince McMahon was on Pat McAfee’s show and had an in-depth discussion about his life and business his business philosophies. He has given several of these rare interviews, but so have other top wrestlers, and it’s always fun to get an insight into the minds of major stars.
9 Vince McMahon On Pat McAfee
One of the reasons that Pat McAfee has endeared himself to the WWE Universe is his infectious enthusiasm for the product. Therefore, a lot of the interview is McAfee gushing like any of us would being under the learning tree of Vince McMahon. McMahon elaborated on plenty of the gushing McAfee did. On how not thinking about the criticism he receives helps to actually fuel the directions he takes the company in, otherwise there wouldn’t be something like a streaming service for example.
While several of McMahon’s interviews are on this list (let’s be honest, when the grand creator speaks we all should listen), this most recent interview is a great snapshot at McMahon in the twilight of his career.
8 John Cena On After The Bell
Even when Corey Graves has amazing guests on After The Bell, a lot of the times it does just seem like a corporate shill. But not when Graves sat down with John Cena. The current WWE legend hasn’t exactly called it quits just yet, but he is enjoying his Hollywood career at the moment. In 2020, he came onto Graves' show to give a 'state of the WWE' address in a way.
He was hoping the up and comers wouldn’t be so formulaic and feed off the crowds more and not be afraid to fail and be willing to learn from those failures. He even spoke about being a top guy and the company no longer having that tippy top guy not necessarily being a bad thing either.
7 CM Punk On The Art Of Wrestling
If fans thought that CM Punk’s Pipe Bomb was a huge blast, then Punk appearing on The Art Of Wrestling podcast out of nowhere during Thanksgiving 2014 was more like a neutron bomb! The iconoclast explained in great detail about the reasons that he quit the company the night after the 2014 Royal Rumble.
Punk detailed working hurt for months with WWE doctors seemingly uninterested in helping him. He also discussed how it felt getting fired on his wedding day.
6 The Last Ride
While Undertaker - The Last Ride is more of a documentary than an interview, it’s also most likely going to be the most in-depth interview The Deadman will ever give. For years, The Phenom was firmly entrenched in staying in character. But even as he mentioned during the interview, if he didn’t start talking about all of his stories and experience, they would leave this world with him.
The Last Ride immediately became must-see television for any and all fans and superstars to sit under the learning tree of the Undertaker and get to know the real man, Mark Calaway too.
5 Mox On Talk Is Jericho
Chris Jericho has a habit of speaking freely with all of his podcast guests. None more fascinating than his interview with Jon Moxley, which happened shortly after Mox arrived in AEW. Ever the realist, Mox spoke highly of his time with the WWE. He spoke on how me met his wife and got to do Make-A-Wish meetings, before quipping “let’s just bury WWE for the next two hours.”
Besides the “good sh**” line that has now been attributed to Vince McMahon, Mox delved right into the WWE’s Creative process - how he had no intention of saying a promo that was written for him and a writer took it out before Vince put it back in... that’s when he knew it was time to go.
4 Vince McMahon On Bob Costas
To borrow a tag line from the 80s, was it real or Memorex when Vince McMahon didn’t just have an interview with Bob Costas, but at some point Mr. McMahon took over and tried to do battle with the sportscaster.
Instead, McMahon came off looking every bit as vile as his character on TV was during the Attitude Era when Costas tried to question him about the failure of The XFL. Even Vince's closest confidantes like Patterson and Pritchard knew full well how bad The Chairman came off after this interview.
3 Rowdy Roddy Piper On Real Sports
Despite being one of the most despised heels in the sport, Rowdy Roddy Piper also had a deep love for the fraternity of professional wrestlers that he was a part of. The Hot Rod appeared on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and declared how messed up he though the business was for promoters taking in stars and chewing up them, using them until they’re washed up.
Needless to say, a few days later, he was released from the WWE for a few years.
2 Hulk Hogan On Arsenio
With the government breathing down WWE’s neck looking for any proof that we’re complicit in issuing steroids to their wrestlers, the company was on high alert disavowing any and all knowledge and protocols they may or may not have had.
Meanwhile, the industry’s biggest star, Hulk Hogan had been invited to talk on The Arsenio Hall Show. According to several other legends, they asked Hogan to just tell the truth, mea culpa style. But instead, Hulk kayfabed and lied on national TV about his steroid usage.
1 Bret Screwed Bret
The events of The Montreal Screwjob did indeed change the face of the business forever. One of the major events that took place that helped shape the business afterwards was Vince McMahon showing up on Raw for an interview with Jim Ross. Nowadays, it’s easy to think that this interview was in character. But in reality, it wasn't.
Vince McMahon was speaking from the heart when he said “Bret Screwed Bret,” and thought that he was doing the right thing for his company, the employees, and the fans. But it also sent the WWE in an entirely different direction and inadvertently established the Mr. McMahon character.