Death Clutch - Brock Lesnar [42]
I don’t think my wife has ever regretted saying yes. I can tell you, I’ve never regretted it for a single moment. We were meant to be together.
MY NOT-SO-SECRET MEETING WITH VINCE
I was the last man cut from the Vikings squad. My mission was never to pursue a career in the NFL, but to escape WWE. Once I got cut by the Vikings and left Phoenix, I spent about thirty days doing nothing but hunting and thinking about my future.
I had no interest in some of the weird offers that were coming in. Tabloid news shows want to pay me for my story? No thanks.
Stupid meathead movie roles? I think I’ll pass on those, too.
Autograph-signing appearances in shopping malls? I’m sorry, that’s just not my style. I have never been one to prostitute myself out for the quick buck.
I needed to find something I could be proud of doing, and enjoy the ride while it lasted. I wanted to do something my parents would approve of, something that would allow me to provide the things for my family that I always envisioned them having.
I couldn’t figure out which way to turn, and then my lawyer, David Olsen, called me with some interesting news. David had been contacted by New Japan Pro Wrestling, the big group based out of Tokyo and run by Antonio and Simon Inoki. They were thinking about all the hype they could build around a shooter who’d become the youngest WWE champion in history, and were looking to cut a deal right away.
I had never thought about wrestling in Japan, or anywhere else for that matter, because WWE had me sign that noncompete agreement which said I could only wrestle for Vince, and I thought I was on the shelf until 2010. So, instead of having David get back to the Inokis right away, I told him to contact WWE.
If I went back to the company, though, I didn’t want it to be like the first time. I wanted to have some control over when and where I worked. I was going to make sure up front that I had time off written into my deal, and I wanted to get paid what I thought I was worth.
Over the next several months, David went back and forth with the WWE lawyers trying to work out the details. Finally, a one-on-one, supposedly secret, meeting between Vince and me was arranged.
This part still makes me laugh to this day.
As soon as I walked into the WWE offices, they had cameras all over me. Before Vince and I even said hello to each other, the front page of their Web site had the headline “Brock Lesnar Meets with WWE!”
So on one side of the world, I’m walking into Vince McMahon’s office to see if we can patch things up, put everything behind us, and do some business together again. On the other side of the planet, the Inokis were probably reading about my “secret meeting” with Vince, and could have been starting to think they are in a bidding war with WWE.
By putting our “secret” meeting on the Internet, Vince gave me all the leverage I needed to negotiate with the Inokis. He might as well have put a big red bow on this early Christmas present. The Inokis had put so much thought into bringing me in, it was now a matter of pride for them. They were willing to pay whatever it took to keep me from going back to WWE.
I didn’t want to have to go all the way to Japan to make a living. If I could have had my way, I would have ended up back in WWE, but on my own terms. I walked into that meeting with Vince to give him first dibs on my services. All he had to do was be reasonable with me. If he wanted me back, he had that opportunity. If he didn’t want me back, then I was just wasting my time so that Vince could look me in the eye and tell me how disappointed he was that I left. It was his decision, and it wasn’t going to take long for me to find out which way the meeting was headed.
Vince invited John Laurinaitis to join us in the meeting. Laurinaitis had replaced Jim Ross as head of the talent relations department, and Vince wanted him to sit in with us while we talked things out. I’m not one to beat around the bush, so I told Vince . . . right in front of John . . . that we were getting