WWE: JBL Recalls Incident Where Vince McMahon Threatened to Attack and Fire Michael Cole

It's well-documented that Vince McMahon is consistently in the ear of all of his commentators during episodes of Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown and that he's not afraid to berate them if they make a mistake while on the air. JBL, who spent years working at WWE's commentary desk in the mid-2000s and most of the 2010s, recalled once such incident involving Michael Cole. While at a Q&A at Steel City Con, Layfield recalled a match involving Deuce (aka Sim Snuka) where Cole stated he was the son of WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy Snuka. 

"We were sitting in the back one time with Vince and Jimmy Snuka's son was debuting and Vince said, 'Be sure you say when he comes in that's Jimmy Snuka's son.' Now later we tried to say that but Vince goes on to say, 'The last thing you want to say is he's Jimmy Snuka's son because he can't live up to the fact that Jimmy Snuka was his dad,'" Layfield said (h/t Fightful).

"Later they tried that because he didn't really work out. They tried. But Michael Cole took copious notes. So he's writing down, 'Jimmy Snuka's son.' I don't even notice it," he added. "As soon as the kid tags in Michael Cole says, 'in comes Jimmy Snuka's son.' Vince had just told him don't say Jimmy Snuka's son. We'll when he says that, they've got the little God cam where they can look at us. I start laughing because I realized Cole doesn't know not to say that. Vince sees me laughing and thinks Cole is making fun of him in front of the entire company. Vince's response was, 'Michael, I'm gonna come down there and I'm gonna fire you. No, I'm gonna come down there and I'm gonna kick your ass -- No, I'm not.' He's debating with himself at this point and he goes, 'No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna kick your ass and then I'm going to fire you. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm coming down right now.' ... Michael's just looking at the camera like, and I'm dying laughing and there's no commentary. Then by the time the commercial comes around, there's no commentary to match. Vince realizes what happened that Michael did it by mistake. He goes, 'Haha, I lost it a little bit there didn't I? Ha!'"

Obviously, McMahon never fired Cole as the voice of Friday Night SmackDown has been with the WWE since 1997.