On the latest episode of What’s Your Story? with Steph McMahon, Stephanie told a story from many years ago about how her father Vince yelled at her in front of Paul Heyman while they were driving together. When Paul and Stephanie later discussed what happened, it turned into a lesson about Vince’s intimidation tactics.
Steph: “We were talking about that moment, and I wasn’t gonna bring it up, because it was embarrassing, and everything else. And [Paul] said, ‘Steph, don’t you understand that he’s
preparing you?’ And I said, what do you mean? And I don’t know that this was an intentional thing by my dad or not, but what Paul said was so true. He said, ‘If you’re not intimidated by Vince McMahon, you’re not gonna be intimidated by anybody!’ And I thought a lot about that, and it’s really true.”
Stephanie was telling this story to WWE star Roman Reigns, who she was in the middle of interviewing for this podcast episode. Reigns brought up his own relationship with Vince, and agreed that Vince is about as intimidating of a person as he’ll ever meet:
Roman: “Sharing a room with someone of that stature, of that fabric, I feel the same way. That’s who I cut my teeth negotiating with, doing business with was your dad. And that’s how I feel. I’m not intimidated by anybody anymore.
And there were times where I had to get used to him, and we had to learn each other’s ways. But I’m the youngest of all his top guys, so I didn’t have that relationship like a lot of the other guys were afforded in the time. Compared to anybody else, Hogan, or Steve [Austin], or [The Rock], those guys, I don’t think I got as much of his time, but I was picking up as much knowledge as I could. He may not even realize it, but there’s a lot of things that he said to me that I continue to use, I just tore it completely out of his playbook and put it in mine.”
When Stephanie pressed Reigns to cite some examples, one thing he mentioned was Vince’s advice to always stay ahead of the curve, but never too far ahead. With that in mind, Reigns said he hopes to be one of the first guys who doesn’t have to stop being a WWE superstar in order to achieve greatness outside of the business as well.
Roman: “I don’t want to stop being a WWE superstar in order to wear other hats. I’m always gonna be a WWE superstar. I’m always gonna be Roman Reigns. And I don’t want to ever have to [choose].”
While Steph and Roman were discussing McMahon’s extreme level of intimidation, some of the obvious things that immediately come to mind, for me at least, are Vince’s horrifying text messages to Janel Grant that are presented in her sex trafficking lawsuit against WWE and Vince. Another obvious thing that comes to mind is Rita Chatterton’s rape accusation against McMahon. I can’t be the only person who is thinking about these awful things while Stephanie and Roman are chatting away about not being intimidated by anybody anymore due to their personal experience with Vince.
Roman’s quote at the end about wearing other hats is also noteworthy, because it’s easy to read into those words that maybe he isn’t going to call it quits in WWE so soon after all.
What’s your reaction to the conversation Roman Reigns and Stephanie McMahon had about Vince? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
