UFC President Dana White and former WWE CEO Vince McMahon have long had a healthy respect for each other and have worked together several times in the past, and stars like Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey have enjoyed success in both companies along the way. McMahon recently retired from WWE, stepping down as CEO and Chairman as Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan step in as Co-CEOs. Triple H has also been made head of creative, so there’s been a lot of change in a relatively short amount of time. Speaking at a press conference for White’s Contender series, White was asked about McMahon’s retirement, where he said that he’s got Vince stories for days and that he has nothing but respect for him.
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“Oh, I got stories about Vince for days, but yeah, what that guy built and what he’s done is incredible,” White said. “He’s been doing it for 50-plus years. I watched that stuff as a kid, and then to still be here and doing it now, is phenomenal. He’s a killer, he’s buried the hatchet in my back a few times, but that’s what you’re dealing with. You don’t deal with a killer and not expect them to try to kill you. Yeah, I have nothing but respect for Vince.”
Vince, Stephanie, Triple H, and Khan all recently attended UFC 276, and White revealed he gave them much better seats than the ones WWE gave him when he attended their event to see Ronda Rousey.
“They reached out to me and said that he wanted to come to the fight,” White said. “I gave him much better seats than he gave me when I went to see Ronda. That dude had me in the f******, I’m not even s****** you, Ronda says,’ You have to be at this event. I want you to be there.’ I said, ‘Ronda, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.’ She’s like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna let them know you’re coming.’ Cool, cool. I show up, it’s in New Orleans. I fly down to f****** New Orleans. No going in the back and any of that shit. They’re at the will call window for you. I go to the fucking will call window, and, ‘Yeah, we don’t have tickets for you.’”
“I call some people, ‘Oh yeah, we found them, okay, we got your tickets.’ When I tell you, we were in the f****** rafters, people were coming up to me and going, ‘Why are you sitting in these seats?’ I said, ‘Well, this is where they sat me. So f*** ’em, I’m gonna sit right here.’ Then I think it was Pat McAfee today says, ‘Well, no, you had to be in decent seats. You were on camera.’ The cameraman had to fucking crawl over about 75 people, kick somebody out of his fucking seat three rows ahead of me, just so he could get that shot. Yeah, they let me know what they thought of me at that event,” White said.
When a reporter brought up that things might be different now that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon are running things, White said “Triple H and Stephanie were there too. It’s not like it was just Vince. This wasn’t 25 years ago, this was like f****** two years ago.”
H/T Fightful
