You probably don't need us to tell you that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon is something of a unique character, but actor Freddie Prinze Jr. has shared another wacky story on a recent edition of his podcast, Wrestling With Freddie. Recalling a production meeting, he told the story of Vince wanting his Superstars to "give me a little razzle-dazzle."
"Vince in the meeting said, ‘Now you’re going to show me what you got. Let me get some volunteers.’ A few people put their hands up. Sheamus gets up and walks to the front. He takes initiative. He doesn’t wait for someone to say yes. He takes initiative and Vince likes that. That’s an Alpha move. Wade Barrett gets up next. Vince said, 'I’m going to give you a premise. You’re a dog and you’re a dog. Now make me want to watch you fight.'"
Prinze went on to say that both Superstars stood there dumbstruck for a good minute or more before Barrett took the initiative. "He growls, and as soon as he growls, and Vince gets up and yells, ‘Not an actual f*cking dog. Son of a b*tch.’ and he storms out of the room. He came back and said, ‘Let’s try again.’ Sheamus is going to be the babyface dog and he starts talking. He said, ‘I’m a good old dog. I’m loyal’, and Vince said, ‘Just forget the whole damn thing’ and storms off."
With that, he cancelled promo class, and after Prinze tracked Vince down to his office, he managed to convince the billionaire to let him lead an acting class with talent. However, while the Chairman was positive about the idea on the surface, he found out the next week that he'd been given "a utility closet" to hold that in, and it sounds like that was the beginning of the end for him in WWE.
This says a lot about Vince's approach to professional wrestling; to him, it's all sports entertainment, but he clearly wasn't particularly entertained that day. We'd love to know what he actually wanted Barrett and Sheamus to do (we're pretty sure not even Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock could have pulled this promo off), but only Vince knows the answer to that...