5 Times Vince McMahon threatened to fire WWE Superstars but didn't

#2 Vince McMahon threatened to fire Jesse Ventura

Speaking on his Something to Wrestle With podcast, WWE director Bruce Prichard once summed up Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura’s relationship by simply saying, “They got along and they didn’t get along.”

On-screen, Vince McMahon had fantastic chemistry with Ventura – a respected WWE commentator in the 1980s and 1990s – but they had a difference of opinion on numerous topics behind the scenes.

Ventura, who served as the Governor of Minnesota from 1999-2003, tried to set up a union for wrestlers in 1986, just two weeks before WWE’s WrestleMania 2 event.

As he explained on The Steve Austin Show podcast, Ventura gave a speech to the WWE locker room and encouraged everybody to join forces, not only with their colleagues but with their rivals in Jim Crockett Promotions, to form a union.

“I gave this big speech, I left it there, I went home. The next night, I got a phone call from Vince who basically threatened to fire me if I ever brought it up again and read me the riot act.” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]

Ventura briefly departed WWE after WrestleMania 2 and he became a member of the Screen Actors Guild following his appearance in the movie Predator.

Upon returning to WWE, he informed Vince McMahon that he was part of an actors’ union and he would never bring up the idea of a union for wrestlers again.