Gerald Brisco Talks The Type Of Employees That Stay With Vince McMahon The Longest
Wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Famer Gerald Brisco sat down with Drew Rice of Wrestling Inc. for an interview on The Wrestling Inc. Daily and discussed a variety of topics.
During the interview Brisco praised the WWE, despite his release late last year, for being an innovative company with the best of the best in its production and TV departments. Brisco says that all of that can be credited to Vince McMahon's vision for the company.
"I really think that the WWE has the most innovative people," praised Brisco. "And I don't work for the company anymore, so I'm not kissing anybody's ass. But that production crew and that TV department that the WWE has, it's the envy of the industry, it really is. Because they're so far ahead on innovation, there's so many creative minds there on the TV side.
"You know, I got an education at Oklahoma State, but I got a damn PhD working for thirty-six years at the WWE and WWF. It's amazing. I learned TV, I learned international promotion, I learned international booking, I learned so much from that organization. It was an education working there because of the people Vince McMahon surrounded [himself] with. . . [Vince] surrounded himself with the top people of every form of entertainment and put them all under one roof and said, 'Okay, I want you guys to come together. This is the vision, let's do it.'
"And those damn guys went out and did it, and if they couldn't do the job he got rid of them and got somebody else. He got a lot of heat for that, but that's a businessman. You get the best people in there and if you think you got the best, and he's not the best, then you get rid of him and you get that guy that is the best. That's how Vince does business and that's how he got so damn successful."
Brisco went on to discuss his time with the company and how it was being a long-time employee for Vince McMahon. Brisco, who has talked about his relationship with Vince in the past, said that despite popular belief, Vince keeps people around who will disagree with him, not just individuals who are yes-men.
"People who have been around [Vince] know this, Vince don't surround himself with yes people," said an adamant Brisco. "And I disagreed with him. I had verbal arguments with him because I didn't agree with a lot of stuff, and he didn't agree with me. And the guys that stuck around with Vince the longest are guys that disagreed with Vince the most, probably."
Rice noted Paul Heyman's relationship with McMahon over the years. While Brisco praised Heyman for always saying what he was thinking, he also noted that you cannot disagree with the boss of the company 24/7.
"Well Paul ain't a kiss ass, but Paul will also argue his point," said Brisco. "If he has a really strong point he wants to make, Paul's not going to just take an ass-chewing and walk out without saying his piece. Paul has been around a long time. And like I said, Paul's not an ass-kisser, but he's a smart enough man to know what hill to die on...
"They're two different characters. One acts differently [than the other]. You can't disagree with the boss, in any profession, constantly, 24/7. He's the boss for a reason."
You can follow Gerald on Twitter @FGBrisco. The full audio from part one of Brisco's interview can be found via the embedded players below.