Former WWE producer Pat Buck has spoken about hearing that Vince McMahon thought his suits were “too flashy” and believes they got ruined on TV as a result.
Buck, who now works for AEW, recounted the story of his fashion choices and their consequences when speaking to Sam Roberts.
Buck signed with WWE as a producer in August 2019. Early in his tenure, he heard that McMahon was not happy with his choice of suits. Buck said:
Go to WWE, I had a lot of suits already and, you know, I’m wearing them through the rotation and there was one time in particular, I wore a suit and during the meeting, apparently Vince [McMahon] told one of the writers, “Pat dresses too flashy.”
Word got back to me, not through that person but like, “Hey, letting you know, Vince thinks you dress too flashy” and at that time, I was wearing kind of a dialed back, navy blue pinstripe suit. So now I have two choices. I can either show up with boring, boring, boring suits or I gotta amp it up so I went that direction.
Buck is certain that his choice led to him taking a table bump from Sheamus and Drew McIntyre on the December 8th 2020 episode of Monday Night Raw:
I’m gonna find the most unique looks or kind of go out there and add some color to it and I chose that path so, which did lead to me going through a table on Raw for really no reason and I knew Sheamus and Drew [McIntyre] were gonna do that. It kind of made sense but what I did notice, they were trying to rip the suit before they did that and I went, “I think there’s a bounty on this suit.”
That was not the first time Buck’s clothing was destroyed. In a segment on the July 27th 2020 edition of Raw, Buck got involved in a brawl between Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax when he tried to separate them but was attacked by Jax.
Again, this is during the COVID — not even the ThunderDome era yet — It was P.C. era and Vince [McMahon] had an idea of kind of like, “Let’s have a suit out there that she [Jax]can throw around” and I believe the first person pitched was Chris Park. He’s a big boy. Maybe it doesn’t mix very well and then, “Well I don’t know if that really —” “Well there’s Pat.” “Okay, sign me up. I’ll do it…”
The first time it happened with I think Nia and Shayna [Baszler]. Yeah, Shayna was involved too and she ripped my suit and then we had to do a second take, and I went, “I don’t have a suit.” I didn’t pack two suits with me so then I just had my dress shirt on. That got ripped off, whatever and then she came back and then did it again but, yep, there’s been I think a love-hate my — which is ironic because if anyone dresses loud, it’s the Chairman of the Board…But I didn’t back down. I kept amping ‘em up and you know, trying the best I can.
Buck gave some credit to McMahon, though:
I will give him full credit. Every time a suit was destroyed, he fully bought me a new one so that was very nice of him.
Transcription by Andrew Thompson.
