5 best real-life Vince McMahon stories

Eccentric is the word often used to describe the man we all have grown to know as the evil WWE villain Mr McMahon.

Love him or hate him, you can’t deny that Vince McMahon is an out-and-out entertainer or in his words, the man ‘knows how to put a**es in seats’.

Nevertheless, as is the case with most geniuses, there are several crazy stories about Vince McMahon and his myriad of eccentricities.

Most of these tales have indeed been corroborated by top professional wrestling personalities including current or former WWE staff, performers, acquaintances as well as Vince’s close friends.

Regardless, we hereby request the reader to take the following narration with a pinch of salt, what with the fact that most of the stories haven’t really been confirmed or denied by the man himself. With that being said, let's look back at some of the craziest Vince McMahon stories:

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#5 Vince McMahon, Jonathan Coachman and the 'arrest'

Vince McMahon pulled off the mother of all pranks on Jonathan Coachman

Vince McMahon is no stranger to betting and this hilarious gambling tale goes back to the time Jonathan Coachman was one of the most well-connected personalities backstage in the WWE.

The story goes that McMahon once had Coachman arrested for running an illegal gambling ring in the WWE. Now, although Coachman was indeed instrumental in making several rather generous bets backstage, the grounds for his long-term imprisonment after arrest simply weren't there.

Nevertheless, that didn't stop Vince from playing a rather cruel prank on the Coach, having the latter arrested by a few cops who were in on the prank.

Apparently, they drove Coachman all the way to jail in the police cruiser, only to eventually make a U-Turn and take him back to WWE Headquarters. The incident is said to have caused Jonathan to lose his mind, go into a wild rage and weep uncontrollably in public!

#4 Vince vs Sneezing

Vince McMahon loses his temper upon sneezing

“Ya ever lost your mind sneezing, laddie?” Asked the elderly man sitting next to me on the cab ride back home…“What an absurd question,” I muttered to myself at the time. Well, I don’t find this line of thought as obsolete anymore!

Don’t comprehend? No worries, just bear with me. Let’s revisit a few statements Paul Heyman famously made on Chris Jericho’s podcast in reference to the WWE Chairman’s plethora of quirky tendencies. ‘The Advocate’ revealed, speaking from experience, that Vince almost always lost his composure on the odd occasion when someone happened to sneeze in front of him.

According to Heyman, McMahon angrily orders the person in question to control himself. Besides, God forbid if Vince himself sneezes, he loses the ability to focus for the next few minutes and simply mumbles inaudibly while seething in anger, since he failed to ‘control’ the sneeze.

Brock Lesnar’s famous manager continued that if you find yourself in the midst of a business discussion with the WWE boss, and the latter sneezes, you’d better ease up on the talk since most of it isn’t gonna get through to an angry Vince.

#3 When Vince McMahon was involved in a car accident

Vince loves fast cars

Old school WWE fans would probably remember this incident which involved a car race between former WWE writer Court Bauer and Mr McMahon.

The story goes that Vince raced Bauer on an open highway, with both cars zooming forward at breathtakingly high speeds — we’re talking Fast & Furious movie levels fast! As per Bauer’s account in an appearance on The Wrestling Observer Radio, with both vehicles travelling neck-to-neck, McMahon cut off the former by gradually boxing him in toward the corner of the road, with an on-road under-construction strip to that very side.

Bauer continued that McMahon just wouldn’t let up and almost drove him into the aforementioned construction site, which would have led to the former crashing his vehicle in a head-on-collision — one that he probably wouldn’t have survived. Thankfully, Bauer slowed down and let Vince go ahead and win the race.

#2 McMahon vs McMahon

Let’s face it, most of us who grew up in the Attitude Era loved the Wrestlemania XVI matchup that had ‘A McMahon In Every Corner’. For those unaware, the Fatal 4-Way elimination match for the WWF Championship saw Triple H (with Stephanie McMahon) vs The Rock (w/Vince McMahon) vs Mankind (w/Linda McMahon) vs Big Show (w/Shane McMahon).

Well, that was a WWE storyline but the following narration is as real as it gets — Vince was relaxing with his family at their holiday home when he teamed up with his wife Linda to take on Triple H and Stephanie at the pool table. It started off as nothing more than a jovial game of pool until his team began losing to Steph and HHH.

Apparently, Mr McMahon was mad at Linda — who was causing him to lose — following which he flipped out and stormed away from the room. To make matters worse, Stephanie called him from her bedroom via intercom. Triple H who was beside her, before going on to sing the Whipping Post song, said something along the lines of ‘You’re tied to a whipping post, Daddy’ to Vince over the phone.

Legend has it that it infuriated him so much that he literally began screaming in anger on the other side of the call, his screams audible to both Stephanie and HHH.

#1 Vince McMahon vs Frank Shamrock

Vince McMahon doesn't step back from death-defying confrontations

Vince McMahon is known to go all-out in putting on a show for the fans, which includes roping in mainstream celebrities as well from time to time. Circa Wrestlemania 25 the WWE brought Hollywood star and former amateur and professional boxer Mickey Rourke for a cameo appearance alongside Chris Jericho.

As per Jericho's account of the entire saga, in the leadup to the event, he had Rourke so angry and agitated that the latter felt he was walking into a real-life fight aka shoot situation against Y2J. Therefore, the actor chose to bring former UFC Light-heavyweight Champion Frank Shamrock with him, just in case matters got out of hand and he had to take on a few WWE wrestlers.

On that note, Jericho speaking to veteran professional wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, revealed that he clarified the entire situation with Rourke before their face-off at Wrestlemania 25, and when Y2J let Vince in on the entire fiasco, the WWE boss bragged that he, Jericho and Dean Malenko could easily beat Rourke and Shamrock in a real fight.

In fact, McMahon referred to the widely-feared MMA legend, Frank Shamrock, as a "midget". For those unaware of the MMA icon's fighting skills, please watch the video below:

Vince was 64 years of age at the time! Thankfully, common sense prevailed and Frank refrained from engaging McMahon in a real fight.

Wacky, aren’t they? The tales we just skimmed through are simply few of many hundreds that further accentuate how Vince, in real life, is eerily similar to the villainous Mr McMahon character we booed during the Attitude Era. Never change, Boss!

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