Jesse Ventura recently appeared on Insight With Chris Van Vliet for a new interview, during which he noted that he’s about to sign a legends deal with WWE, something that has been in the works for the last few months.
“The Body” has been on good and bad terms with the company, mainly Vince McMahon, for years. Ventura famously tried to get WWE wrestlers to unionize in 1986, before WrestleMania 2 and had a legal battle with the former chairman.
The iconic wrestler made a name for himself as a wrestler before becoming an announcer for WWE. Earlier this year, the WWE Hall of Famer revealed he was talking with WWE again now that McMahon is gone. Here are the highlights:
On his deal with WWE: “My relationship with them now has much improved. We are on the verge right now. I can say this: contracts have been written, [and] contracts have been agreed upon. All it requires is two signatures, one from them and one from me, and I will be back with the legends (contract).”
On a timeframe for the deal: “Fairely quickly…because time is money.”
On whether Vince McMahon being there changed things. “Yeah, very much. I think that they’re very much more since they merged with the Ultimate Fighting (Championship), and they’re under that one roof now. They’re very much more mainstream corporate that you can deal with better because they’re more open. It isn’t having the tie into the old days of wrestling, for lack of better term slavery. Because in the old days of wrestling, you truly were slaves. And I don’t know, I got a great compliment I heard the other day: Barry Bloom, my former agent, the one I introduced to Vince. I was the first wrestler that made Vince deal with an agent, and I heard Barry was on a podcast and said that all these contracts these guys are getting today, they owe Jesse Ventura [a] thank you, because if it weren’t for him, they wouldn’t be getting them.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Chris Van Vliet with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
