While WWE has been home to some of the greatest tag teams in the history of pro wrestling, the divisions on both SmackDown and Raw are often sparse when it comes to headlining tag teams and legitimate tag title contenders. This was made all the more apparent by the arrival of All Elite Wrestling, which puts a concentrated effort on tag teams and doesn’t flinch on putting tag bouts in the main event of shows. WWE’s disinterest in tag teams has often been chalked up to Vince McMahon’s personal tastes, but in a recent episode of Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Wrestling with Freddie podcast, the former WWE writer recalled a moment where McMahon personally told him why.
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“I connected with Harry (David Hart Smith) a lot and I really want to get him and TJ (Wilson) over,” Prinze said (h/t Fightful), recalling trying to build up the tag team division in the late 2000s with teams like The Hart Dynasty and The Usos. “I worked hard to do it. I failed those boys. I never got over that. I failed The Usos too. Tag team wrestling is tough. I remember Vince, I was working so hard on building up a tag team division and Vince said, ‘Freddie, I gotta pay four guys for one fucking match.’ I kind of went, ‘Oh.’ I had never looked at it like that. It’s show business. I was in charge of the Colon Brothers, I named Primo, that was my name. It kind of changed my perspective on things and the way I approached storylines. I couldn’t pitch for as much anymore.
McMahon has been back on WWE TV lately as part of a storyline with Austin Theory where the WWE Chairman seems to be mentoring the former NXT star. He was also recently quoted for the book “Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers,” where he openly admitted to wanting to fight Bob Costas during their infamous On The Record interview in 2001.
“Once we were doing the interview, he kept interrupting me and interrupting me, and bringing up topics that had nothing to do with what we were supposed to be talking about,” McMahon said. “He kept trying to do the ‘I gotcha’ kind of thing. It was clear he didn’t want to hear any of my answers.
“The other problem was that Bob is so freaking pompous,” he added. “The entire time he acted like he was above me and was just using me to show how great he was. I was sitting there really pissed off and started thinking, I wish he wasn’t 5-feet high and 140 pounds. If he was 6-5 and 295, he would deserve to get the s–t beat out of him. I could have really given them some great television.”
