Coachman tells stories about Vince McMahon.
From 1999-2008 and the majority of 2018, Jonathan Coachman was employed by WWE. He previously stated that he’d never go back to the company and explained why in a 2021 interview.
Coachman hosted pre-game shows for the XFL in 2020 and when the COVID-19 began, he went to cash a check and it bounced. The XFL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Coach was later told his check would not clear because the XFL and WWE are two different companies. He said he’d never had an issue with pay from Vince McMahon before.
In a new conversation with Chris Van Vliet, McMahon became a topic of conversation for a lengthy portion of the chat. Coach told the story of when WWE headed to the Middle East. His wife was pregnant at the time and did not feel comfortable with him going so he did not go. He stated that Vince was upset with him for that.
A week after the tour, it was relayed to Coach that McMahon wanted him to go hit The Undertaker from behind as the show ended. He did just that and Undertaker apologized to him before taking him to the ring and hitting him with his moves. Dave Bautista then came down to the ring and did his finisher on Coach multiple times. Coach stated that he was irate.
Real trouble (with Vince McMahon)? Yeah, there’s one story that still kind of rubs me the wrong way to this day. And back between, you know, after 9/11, unfortunately, there obviously was a war. And we started going to Afghanistan in the Middle East or Iraq and it was supposed to be a volunteer trip. I actually wrestled Ric Flair in Afghanistan one particular trip. And again, I was right next to Vince. It was three groups of six and man, I never said no, I took pride. I never say no, I’m the ultimate team player. So I get married and my wife is pregnant with our first child. And yeah, they said, ‘Hey, if you don’t feel comfortable going, there’s no pressure whatsoever.’ Like do you believe that? So they didn’t believe it. I told them from the jump. I never said I was going. I said, ‘No.’ I show up the day (of) and they take your bags, and because it has to go through screening at the Pentagon or whatever, and they’re like, ‘Where’s your bag?’ And I was like, ‘I told you.’ ‘We thought you were kidding.’ I said, ‘At what point did you ever think I was kidding? Did I ever laugh? Did I ever not look you in the eye I say I’m not going?’ (They’re) like, ‘You’ve never told us no before.’, (Because my wife’s pregnant). Thank you. And she didn’t feel comfortable. Yeah. So they had to scramble at the last minute. You got to get passports. It’s a whole big thing. I think it was actually Chris Masters that took my spot on that particular trip, if I remember correctly, but I should have known. I should have known that it wasn’t just going to end there. So fast forward a week, and at that time, I was out doing commentary, and the show ends and The Undertaker ends the show, and he’s getting ready to walk up the ramp, and the referee comes over and the music’s playing. He’s like, Go hit Taker from the back.’ I’m like, ‘Why would I do that? That makes no sense.’ They’re like, ‘Vince’s is telling you.’ There it is. So he was angry that I told him no, and that I went against, you know, God forbid you say no to anybody, especially Vince. And so like the team player that I am, I go over and attack The Undertaker, he turns around, apologizes to me and says, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t want to do it…’ and as he gets done — but Batista’s music hits, down comes Batista. He does the same thing. Does his three finishes. I was so irate. You know that few times in life where you get so angry, you start to cry, like it’s just your emotions are just overwhelming. That was one of those moments. And I didn’t sell. I mean, I just took like five finishes from two of the biggest stars of all-time. I got up and walked to the back… and like completely disrespecting them. But I wasn’t thinking about that. At the time, I was thinking, how could I get beat up? When for all these years, I was completely loyal. But yeah, that was was one of the times where I was so angry because I didn’t deserve it. I didn’t deserve it.
He also shared that Vince did not want him doing backstage interviews anymore because he was taller than half the roster. McMahon then asked Coachman if he wanted to transition to an in-ring performer role and that led to Coach beginning to have more matches in WWE.
And then I was also big, meaning I’m 6’3 and a half, I walk around between 240 and 280 pounds depending on the year, right? And so I was doing an interview. And it was a tag team interview that was going to end in a fight. Well, whoever I was interviewing, we have a little secret, and you spread your legs out… and put them in front of you and it makes the person look taller. Well, the problem was that the cameraman widened out too quickly. And all of a sudden, I’m standing there with my legs completely (spread). And all (of) sudden, the other tag team came in late. And it was just a bad segment altogether. And Vince (McMahon) was furious because it kind of gave away a couple of our secrets. Yeah, so he’s like, ‘You can’t do interviews anymore. You’re bigger than half the roster,’ you know what I mean? So we’ve got to figure this out. And so he came up to me in the gym at the WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. He goes, ‘Hey, we have an idea. Would you want to be an in-ring performer? But before you say yes, you will have to get into the ring. And you will have to train before shows every single day.’ And that’s how I started doing house shows. I would go on the road Friday through Sunday. And I would either have a match because it wasn’t on TV, or I would be the ring announcer. And at the end of the show, it would allow a heel to win, because you never want the heel to win because the fans go home unhappy. So with me, the heel could win. And then the babyface would put me through a table or they would beat me up. And that’s how the show would end. And so I agreed to do that. And so I get trained quietly, so to speak. And that’s kind of the scenario that happened. So it wasn’t one moment… Chris Benoit trained me.
Coach previously described his 2018 Raw commentary stint as a mistake and felt Corey Graves did not want an extra person on commentary.
