The duo of Mansoor and Mace speak about their time in WWE.
Following the merger of WWE and UFC to form TKO Group Holdings being completed, an abundance of employees from WWE were let go from the company. On the day that WWE announced a new five-year agreement to bring Friday Night SmackDown back to USA Network, the company released a handful of talents from their main roster, NXT brand and those on N.I.L. deals.
Two talents who were a part of the releases were Mansoor and Mace, most recently known as ‘mån.sôör’ and ‘ma.çé’ of Maximum Male Models. The two went live on Twitch for a lengthy stream to discuss their releases, pitches they made and stories from their time in the company. Along the way, Mansoor commented on the WWE writer lawsuit which alleged that another writer suggested the idea that a ‘secret’ Mansoor had been keeping was that he was behind the 9/11 attacks.
Former WWE writer Britney Abrahams has since voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit against named defendants without prejudice, but WWE as a whole was not a part of the dismissal. Abrahams mentioned in the suit that there was an idea for Mansoor and Angel Garza to feud over Aliyah and part of the story was the aforementioned ‘secret’ that Mansoor had.
Abrahams claimed that fellow writer Ryan Callahan threw out the 9/11 remark. Reacting to that, Mansoor said he’s surprised he got released seeing as how that story came out. He first heard about it while on an overseas tour. He assumes it was a cruel joke and he hopes that’s the case. Mansoor added that he never directly heard the pitch/idea.
Mansoor: The 9/11 thing (storyline pitch from WWE writer)… I’m actually surprised that I got fired because of this 9/11 thing. I thought I was gonna get another year out of that story. There’s no way they’re gonna fire me after this sh*t came out.
It’s funny because that happened when we were in Europe, that story dropped. I remember we were doing the tour in Europe and somebody texts me — I don’t even wanna say it because obviously they weren’t considering this. It was not a real pitch. It was an inappropriate joke, I think, I hope. Nobody told it to me.
Further looking back on his time with the company coming to an end, Mace expressed that even if his deal was renewed or he could’ve been pinning Roman Reigns, he still would not have been happy because he was always on eggshells at WWE.
Mace: When I said it (I feel like I can be happy again following WWE release)… When I said it, I was like, man, that was poignant because I was like, if I got the rest of my contract, if they renewed my contract, if I was here for three more years, I don’t see a situation where even if I’m pinning Roman Reigns on SmackDown, I’m not happy. You’re still on edge, you’re still worried about everything all the time, you’re always looking over your shoulder. I think this is a great opportunity, we’ve gotten the platform, we’ve gotten a chance where a bunch of people will come and watch a stream unannounced like this, and we can take that and we can make something of it and we can make something our own and I think we’re two of the most creative guys in this industry. I think wherever we go, we’re going to be a boom for it, if it’s together, if it’s separate and I just think the sky is the limit now because it’s like the cuffs are off, you know?
They spoke at length about Maximum Male Models on various occasions. Mansoor said it was easy getting heat from the audience. He added that people talked about the characters like it was a ‘death sentence’.
Mansoor: People like to talk about the (Maximum Male) Models like a death sentence as a gimmick but if it did anything, it got heat. We would do these house shows and nobody would know who the f*ck we are. But God damn, they hated us and they hated the sh*t out of us and it was so easy, so easy. We didn’t have to do a damn thing. When it was time to turn it on and start working, we could do it but God, getting heat was so easy.
Chiming in on the end of Maximum Male Models, Mace said they felt the group was done for when Vince McMahon resigned from his role as CEO and Chairman of WWE in 2022, following sexual misconduct and assault allegations arising. He said M.M.M. was Vince’s ‘baby’.
Speaking about the future, Mace feels what him and Mansoor have going for them is they’re willing to embarrass themselves to make something work.
Mace: It’s a weird thing because we got the model gimmick. It was Vince’s baby so we were like, ‘Okay, we’re set for at least as long as he cares.’ When Vince (McMahon) stepped away, we were like, ‘Oh, it’s so over, it’s so over. Hunter does not care about this.’ That’s when we went and did our own thing (with shooting our own vignettes).
The one thing we have on anybody is that we’re willing to embarrass ourselves to completely commit to something and to take anything and make it work. I’ve gotten a bunch of people that have come up to me, ‘I thought Mace the gimp was the dumbest thing.’ But a lot of people vibe with it because I was fully committed to being a weird gimp. So, we’re not worried about the future, it’s all gonna work out.
POST Wrestling’s John Pollock and Wai Ting spoke about the releases and to hear their thoughts about some of the talents and their respective futures, head over to the POST Wrestling YouTube channel.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the original source with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
