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2022 was quite the year for pro wrestling, with many crazy wrestling stories taking the world by storm. No story would be bigger than the CEO of WWE, Vince McMahon stepping down from power and entering retirement following a string of scandals that exposed him for paying off female employees he shared intimate relations with, while also having numerous sexual misconduct accusations levied against him. Over his long tenure as the head of WWE, Vince was never one to not be featured in crazy storylines on-screen or the subject of wild stories out of the ring. In 2001, McMahon would take part in one of his wildest media appearances in history, appearing on shock-jock Howard Stern's radio show for an intimate interview ahead of WrestleMania 17 that went totally off the rails.
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During The Interview, Vince McMahon Shared Family Details And Openly Admitted To Having Affairs
Opening the interview, Howard Stern shared the fact that he originally didn't realize that Vince was the owner of WWE, assuming that he was just an on-screen announcer when he first learned of the man. The radio host seemed thrilled that he was having an actual billionaire on his show at the beginning, congratulating Vince on all his success before they would dive into personal details about Vince's life. When asked about who he saw running WWE after he stepped down, Vince replied, "Shane, Stephanie, and Marissa" as the answers for his successors, something that would not come to fruition as Shane and his wife do not hold positions of power in WWE.
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The two men transitioned from talk about the business side of WWE, to Howard prodding Vince about his sex life, asking if he had ever cheated on his wife. McMahon shared that he was loyal to Linda for "the past six years", and noted that he promised that he would always love her. Continuing to poke the bear, Vince eventually shared that he would be take "any woman with a skirt" to bed. Though some of this seemed to be in character, in hindsight, with the accusations and findings from WWE's own investigation, it does indeed seem like Vince was regularly sleeping around, notably with his own employees.
Vince McMahon Went On A Rant Towards Bob Costas
A constant throughout the Howard Stern interview was Vince McMahon repeatedly targeting Bob Costas. He initially put him over, saying that Bob used to be a "fun-loving guy", but noted that he had grown into a pansy. Later in the interview, Vince would return to his issues with Costas, saying that if he got into a fight with Costas, it wouldn't be much of a fight. This was all caused by an interview that happened earlier between Vince and Costas, in regard to the XFL with the football league's declining ratings. The interview itself got heated thanks to Costas pressuring Vince on certain topics and asking him about WWE as well, something Vince wasn't aware was going to be asked about according to him.
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A Number Of Other Crazy Moments Occurred During The Howard Stern Interview
While some of the interview would be dedicated to promoting the upcoming WrestleMania 17 PPV, a lot of it boiled down to utter nonsense or genuinely strange topics. During the show, Howard Stern questioned if Vince found Chyna to be hot, noting that he himself found her to be "non-sexual". The two talked about Sable's lawsuit against the company, before transitioning into a discussion about Lionel Tate, a 12-year-old who killed a 6-year-old he was babysitting as the two were pretending to wrestle. The mother of the deceased had sued WWE and Vince played it off during the interview, openly blaming her for her daughter's death.
Elsewhere on the show, Howard would bring in sporadic guests, including former XFL cheerleaders who were disgruntled with Vince, an independent wrestler who stated they would "kiss Vince's ass" for a chance to wrestle for him, and a number of WWE fans, who Stern would make fun of while on-air. Vince was asked by a caller if he would ever buy WCW, to which McMahon casually said yes to, just days before it was announced that he had purchased WCW in 2001. Simply put, it was one of the strangest interviews to ever feature a WWE performer, let alone Vince McMahon.
