Vince McMahon had a problem with Jonathan Coachman being a WWE backstage interviewer, and it had nothing to do with his microphone skills. Coachman says he was simply too damn big for the job, and one awkward camera shot was enough to convince McMahon to pull him from interviews and put him in a completely different role.
While speaking on Boots To Boots with Deonna Purrazzo and Steve Maclin, Coachman revealed that he originally intended to spend his entire WWE career conducting backstage interviews. That plan went out the window because McMahon didn’t want someone standing 6-foot-3½ and weighing as much as 270 pounds making WWE Superstars look smaller on television. Coachman explained that his size became such an issue that he would physically lower himself during interviews to make the wrestlers look bigger.
“Well, it’s funny, when I started in in WWE, that was the whole plan. I had never planned on doing anything else, but Vince was so angry cuz I I’m 6’3 and 1/2. You know, I walk around 240 to 270, and Vince didn’t like bigger people. And if you notice now, who do they have? They have the the females or somebody that a little bit smaller. So, that’s how I got out of of interviewing is because of my size.”
Things finally blew up during a backstage segment involving two tag teams. Coachman said he was doing the splits to stay low enough for the camera, but the segment was supposed to turn into a fight. When the cameraman suddenly zoomed out, Coachman’s awkward positioning was exposed on television. McMahon saw it, and he wasn’t happy.
“It’s so funny you say that. That’s the entire reason why it ended because we were doing a tag team I can’t even remember who the two tag teams were. And so, the cameraman, I was doing the splits, and it was going to be a fight scene. And so, the cameraman snap zoomed out, and you could still see me, and Vince, I got up to gorilla, he looked at me he’s like, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what am what am I doing?’ I said, ‘I did nothing. I couldn’t move until the fight started.’ And it was the very next week that he walked up to me in the gym and said, ‘We need to talk, pal.’ And that’s how it happened. That’s how that happened.”
That conversation changed Coachman’s WWE career. He explained that McMahon was obsessed with the smallest production details, and seeing a backstage interviewer doing the splits on camera made the entire segment look amateurish. Coachman said McMahon approached him at WWE headquarters the following week. Despite the incident, he believes the two had developed a close relationship because they frequently worked out together and McMahon trusted him with several responsibilities outside his interviewing duties.
“And that just made us look like amateur hour. It made us look stupid. And so, the following week, I’m in the gym at the headquarters, and Vince walked up to me, and he was always in there. And it was usually me and him. And I think that’s why him and I were so close, and I got to do a lot of things because he really trusted me. I was around him a lot.”
Instead of keeping Coachman behind a microphone, McMahon saw an opportunity to turn him into an actual WWE character. Coachman had the size and the ability to talk, but Vince made it clear there was one condition if he wanted to make that jump. He had to be ready to take a beating.
“And I think that he wanted he knew I could talk. And I always say that if you can’t talk, you can’t get over. I don’t care how good you can wrestle in the ring. And I’m a really good talker. And so, I think they had a discussion. He’s like, ‘Listen, you’re big enough. You can talk.’ But what he said was, ‘If you do this, you’ve got to be willing, and I quote, to get your ass kicked.'”
That decision eventually led to Coachman’s heel turn at SummerSlam 2003, where he attacked Shane McMahon with a steel chair during Shane’s match against Eric Bischoff. Coachman admitted he was terrified of the spot, especially because he was about to hit Vince McMahon’s own son with a chair multiple times. Shane wasn’t interested in Coachman taking it easy on him, either.
“But I remember all day literally sweating bullets cuz I knew what I would have to do was attack Shane McMahon with a chair four times.”
“And when you throw in the fact that it’s the boss’s son, you throw in the fact that it’s a steel chair, I’m like, you know what? Shane, before we went out, he goes, ‘Lay it in.’ He goes, ‘If you don’t lay it in, I’m going to be pissed.'”
The heel turn worked, and Coachman went from being the guy asking questions backstage to becoming someone WWE fans genuinely wanted to see get his ass kicked. He’s previously credited McMahon’s trust in his speaking ability with giving him opportunities that went far beyond interviewing wrestlers.
Looking back, it’s pretty wild that Coachman’s entire WWE career took a different direction because Vince McMahon thought he was too big to stand next to the talent. One bad camera shot got him pulled from backstage interviews, but it also opened the door to the heel character that became a major part of his WWE run. McMahon didn’t want Coachman making the wrestlers look small, so he found another way to use him.
Do you think Vince McMahon was right to remove Jonathan Coachman from backstage interviews because of his size, or was that an unnecessary obsession with how wrestlers looked on camera? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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