J.J. Dillon Recalls Vince McMahon Expecting To Go To Prison In The '90s

WWE Hall of Famer and former manager of the Four Horsemen JJ Dillon was a recent guest on JBL's and Gerald Brisco's interview series Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw.

During the interview Dillon recalled the time he spent with Pat Patterson and discussed his knowledge and passion for the business. He would go on to discuss the respect he has for Pat Patterson, and how Patterson always knew what Vince would like or dislike. Dillon would then reveal how he and Patterson would deal with Vince creatively.

"We would go over to [Vince's] house [to meet]," recalled Dillon. "It was a great learning experience. I've got so much respect for Pat Patterson, because Pat had done it all. . . Pat had the innate ability to understand what Vince liked and didn't like. There are certain things that Vince didn't like, so you learned what he didn't like. And the things he did like, you would feed to him by the shovelfuls. And the things you might [have] thought was good and had potential, it was never brought up because Vince didn't like it and he'd shut the conversation down. I don't want to say we manipulated Vince, we just knew what he liked and gave it to him in as many different ways [as possible].

"We were smart enough to know, 'Well, maybe this is something we like personally', but know [Vince] doesn't. So, don't fight the battle, because you're not going to win, and you know he's [not going] to like it no matter how good you think it is."

In the past, Dillon has said that he believes that a lot of the WWE's success was due to Pat Patterson. During the interview he would share that Pat Patterson was the greatest wrestling mind he had ever worked with. Patterson recently passed away in December of last year.

"I learned so much from being around Pat," shared Dillon. "Pat, to me, was the one. I worked with a lot of great minds in the business. But to me, Pat was the best of them all."

Dillon also discussed his time with the WWE. While reminiscing, Dillon discussed when the United States federal government went after Vince McMahon during the infamous steroid trial in the early 19990's. Dillon described what Vince's thoughts were at the time.

"Vince was convinced that when the government invests that much in going after somebody, that they're going to get their pound of flesh," revealed Dillon. "He was convinced they were going to get him on something, and that he was going to do some time. He really was."

JBL then asked Dillon about bringing in Jerry Jarrett to the company. JBL asked if there was any truth in the rumor that Dillon and Jerry Jarrett were going to be the ones to take over the WWF if Vince was convicted.

"Yeah [it is true]," said Dillon. "It was seven days a week thing. I'd be in the office all week. . . and Friday afternoon [Pat] would say to Vince, 'Well what are you doing tomorrow?' And Vince would say, 'If you don't have anything to do then give me a call.' Well, Saturday morning Pat would call Vince, and [Vince] would say, 'Why don't you come over to the house?' [Patterson and Vince would meet] and brainstorm, because they were booking three towns a night and doing three TVs. So, Pat said to Vince that he wanted to include me, and that's how that started."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.