WWE Hall of Famer Jesse Ventura provides an update on his status with the company
WWE Hall of Famer Jesse Ventura did an interview with Chris Van Vliet and here are the highlights courtesy of ChrisVanVliet.com…
His relationship with WWE in the present day: “My relationship with them now has much improved. We are on the verge right now. I can say this, contracts have been written, contracts have been agreed upon. And all it requires is two signatures, one from them, and one from me. And I will be back with the legends [deal].”
Vince McMahon not being there anymore being the main factor for his return: “Yeah, very much so. I think that they’re very much more since they merged with the ultimate fighting [UFC] and they’re under that one roof now, they’re very much more mainstream corporate that you can deal with better because they’re more open. It isn’t having to tie into the old days of wrestling, for lack of better term, slavery. Because, you know, in the old days of wrestling, you truly were slaves. I don’t know, I got a great compliment I heard the other day. Barry Bloom, my former agent, the one I introduced to Vince, I was the first wrestler that made Vince deal with an agent. And I heard Barry was on a podcast and said that all these contracts these guys are getting today, they owe Jesse Ventura a thank you. Because if it weren’t for him, they wouldn’t be getting them.”
His relationship with Vince before Vince left: “I’ve always admired Vince, I was at the point in wrestling I was going to quit. We’re talking about 1983. I had saved up enough money. I had opened up a weightlifting gym here, Ventura’s gym. It was supporting me and it gave me what you need in wrestling at that time. And I’ll be very blunt, this is a podcast, it’s ‘F You’ money. To where you can say F you and walk away. Well, the gym did that for me. It gave me a leverage. At the time, if they were mistreating me, fine, I’ll go run my gym. And we were getting by, my wife and children, the gym was supporting us. So I was at the end of my straw. So when I made the final jump from the AWA to the WWF at the time, I did it fully knowledgeable, this would be it. I simply said, Vince, I want you to guarantee me six years, and he did because I ended up 84 to 90 right on the button almost. Six years before he fired me.”
Why he didn’t come back more: “Vince and I were not totally adversarial. It’s just that he couldn’t have me around. Because I’m the proverbial stallion that’s outside of the corral. You know, he has to have everyone in the corral. That’s why I was fired. I owned the rights to Jesse “The Body” Ventura. I have them registered with the United States government and Vince wanted them. I said, No, Jesse Ventura belongs to me. You want them you deal with me. And he couldn’t do that because he owned everybody. That’s why I called it slavery. Felt like Prince a little bit.”