Michael Cole made an appearance on the latest episode of Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast to discuss what it was like working with Vince McMahon.
Cole stated, “I think one of the things about the old regime, and listen, I will never, ever disparage Vince McMahon. Yeah, he’s got his personal issues and whatnot, but from a professional standpoint, I’ll never disparage man. I would not be here today without Vince…he gave me everything. Stuck with me when I was learning to be a wrestling guy. Wasn’t a wrestling guy when I came here.”
Cole continued when asked why he thinks McMahon believed in him so much. “I think a lot of it really had…I think there were two things. You know, Jim Ross, obviously, was the man, I still think, the greatest ever. I think Vince was ready to understood that Jr was getting older, and he needed to bring in somebody younger. And so I just think because of my background, and I was a good announcer at the time, I just think he….Jr had, who came to the WWE already a wrestling guy, and I think me being new and fresh and not a wrestling guy, Vince was able to mold me how he wanted me to be an announcer, interesting, and he stuck with it. And even when I sucked in the beginning and everything else, the fans freaking hated me. Vince stuck with me.”
Cole also addressed the narrative that McMahon would always yell at him on commentary. “I talked to Michael Hayes about this all the time. It’s amazing that I’ve lasted in this company this long because of Vince, there are certain things that would set that man off, right? And he would just go, he would just like, ‘Okay, you’re done. Fired. See ya.’ Like, for sometimes, for no reason. But he stuck with me 100% of the time. And so I’ll never disparage the man, but Vince was very, you know, very heavy handed, controlled. It was his company, his sandbox. Did whatever you want, so I never was really able to break out and be myself, with the exception of a little bit of a heel run I had, you know, over a decade ago. But when Vince left and Paul came and was in charge Triple H, he really changed things. And then we brought in Lee Fitting, who came from ESPN.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Logan Paul’s Impaulsive with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
