Jesse Ventura opens up about his recent return to WWE.
For many years, Jesse Ventura provided commentary alongside WWE owner Vince McMahon. Behind the scenes, though, the relationship between McMahon and Ventura grew strained, with McMahon extinguishing Ventura’s efforts to unionize wrestling and later attempting to stop his involvement in a Sega video game. Ventura also won a lawsuit over McMahon in which he cited owed royalties from several WWE Home Video tapes.
Ventura, now a former Governor of Minnesota, returned to WWE for the July 29 episode of Raw, which emanated from St. Paul. Coming out this appearance, Ventura noted that he and WWE were in talks of inking him a Legends Deal with the company. During a recent interview with Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Ventura provided an update on the potential contract, as well as his present-day relationship with WWE.
“My relationship with them now has much improved,” Ventura said. “We are on the verge right now. I can say this, contracts have been written, contracts have been agreed upon. And all it requires is two signatures, one from them, and one from me. And I will be back with the legends [deal].”
When asked when the deal may finally become official, Ventura responded, “Fairly quickly, because time is money.”
McMahon’s Exit Paving The Way For Ventura’s WWE Return
In further assessing his recent return to WWE, Ventura confirmed that the recent departure of Vince McMahon was a prominent factor behind it. Ventura also noted that WWE’s merger with UFC helped paved the way for easier contract negotiations.
“Yeah, very much so [Vince not being in the company was a main factor for the return]. Since [WWE] merged with the Ultimate Fighting [UFC] 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,” Ventura said. “It isn’t having to tie into the old days of wrestling, for lack of better term, slavery. Because in the old days of wrestling, you truly were slaves.”
“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.”
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