It was relayed to McMahon that Mansoor was not ‘really’ needed for the show(s).
For four consecutive WWE events in Saudi Arabia, Mansoor was featured on those shows. He was released from the company in September 2023 and prior to that, there had been three Premium Live Events in Saudi that he was not booked for.
He guest appeared on a Café De René livestream and shared that he thought he was going to be fired when he found out he was not booked for Elimination Chamber 2022. Mansoor figured he was not the ‘Saudi guy’ anymore so he thought that spelled the end for him in WWE. He went to speak to Vince McMahon to find out what could he do to ensure he does not miss the next P.L.E. in Saudi Arabia.
McMahon asked Mansoor the rhetorical question of, ‘You don’t have to be on every Saudi show, right?’ Mansoor reiterated that he thought he’d be gone from WWE following the exchange. He later found out about the male model character so he brought a promo video to McMahon to preview the gimmick. Referring to the video, McMahon told Mansoor to ‘put that sh*t away’. When Mansoor asked if the new persona would get in the way of him being on Saudi shows, he said McMahon stressed that him and Mace were heterosexual male models.
So he (Claudio Castagnoli) was gone, I wasn’t doing anything and then the next Saudi show coming was Elimination Chamber and I wasn’t doing anything. Every week, wasn’t doing (anything). I was like, ‘God, what’s gonna happen? I gotta talk to Vince.’ The week before Saudi, I go up to John Cone. René (Duprée), I’m sure you remember John Cone. He works in Talent Relations now and I said, ‘Hey John! You know, curious. Am I on the flight list to go to Saudi Arabia?’ And John looked at me and he’s such a nice guy with these dough eyes and he said, ‘Ah, sorry Mansoor but currently no’ and I put my hand on his shoulder and I said, ‘Well John, it was nice knowing you.’ I was convinced that was it for me. I was getting fired. If I wasn’t the Saudi guy anymore, what the hell was I? So, Vince was busy all day. So, everybody’s telling me, ‘Look, just go to him during commercial. He’s in Gorilla, he’s watching the show. What’s he doing during commercial? He’s free. Go talk to him.’ So I work up the nerve and I go into Gorilla. It’s Bruce Prichard and Vince McMahon and I finally go up to Vince and I say, ‘Sir, do you have a moment?’ And he looks at me like this (straight-faced), and he twists all the knobs of every monitor and mutes the show until it’s dead silent and you could hear a mouse piss on cotton, and everybody is looking right at me and Vince looks at me and he says, ‘What?’ And I say, ‘Sir, I just found out that I wasn’t booked for the next Saudi show. I just wanted to know is there anything I could have done or anything I should work on so that I can be on the next one?’ And he says, ‘You don’t have to be on every Saudi show, right?’ And I go, ‘Yes sir’ and he goes, ‘Okay, good’ and he puts the volume back on and turns and looks back at the monitor and I’m just like, my heart sunk into my asshole. I was done. I was ready for my career to be over and I walked out of that hallway and I was like, ‘Oh my God’ and out of nowhere, suddenly I hear that I’m gonna be a male model so, I go into Vince’s office a couple of weeks after that and I say, I gotta pretend like I don’t know. So I go in with a pitch, I had a pitch ready. I come in with my iPad, with a video, I cut a promo with this new character and just when I come in, I say, ‘Sir! I’ve got it.’ He says, ‘Put that sh*t away.’ So I put away the iPad (Mansoor laughed)… Him and Johnny Ace are in the room and he says, ‘Listen, you’re gonna be a male model with Mace. Makes sense, right? You’re a couple of good-looking young men.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, Vince! You’re making me blush,’ and I’m like, ‘Well sir, I mean is this gonna affect the Saudi thing at all?’ And he was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no. Listen, you’re two straight male models…’ Hetero, completely, we love tits, we love women, great. But we just also happen to love fashion and taking care of our skin. Makes total sense.
Later on in the stream, Mansoor recounted McMahon explaining why he was not being utilized on the Saudi shows. It was communicated to McMahon that Mansoor was not needed and those involved from the Saudi’s side wanted to see the big names.
When Vince (McMahon) was telling me about the male model stuff, he was like, ‘Listen, I wanna address why you’re not on the Saudi shows anymore’ and I was like, ‘Yes, please. Did I do something wrong?’ And he’s like, ‘No. They just communicated to me that they don’t really need you on the show. They want stars.’ I was like, ‘Oh!’ F*ck. Like, damn! I see how it is. I think for them, they just wanted the big names…
Both Mansoor and Mace are currently free agents. The duo shared that they are booked every weekend for the next few months.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Café De René with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
