Val Venis Recalls Vince McMahon Pitching Him On His WWE Character

Val Venis’ adult film star gimmick is one of the more infamous from the Attitude Era, and Venis recently recalled being pitched on the character. Venis was a guest on Stories With Brisco and Bradshaw and talked about Vince McMahon pitching the character that made him famous; you can check out the highlights below, per Wrestling Inc:

On McMahon pitching the character to him: “I had just returned from a two-week camp [WWE tryout] back to Mexico. It was 7 am in the morning in Mexico City, my phone rings and it was Vince McMahon. He says, ‘I got Vince Russo on speakerphone with me, we have this character for you, and we want to run it by you and see if you’re comfortable with it.’ Vince McMahon says, ‘This character’s name is Val Venis.’ When he spelled the last name, I was like, ‘That’s kinda odd.’ He says, ‘Val Venis was a former film star-turned-pro wrestler.’ In my head, I’m thinking Hulk Hogan and Jesse Ventura had already done [movie star gimmicks], and how the hell was I to play a Hollywood actor better than those guys?.. Actually, Val Venis was a former adult film star-turned-pro wrestler. Now he’s got my attention! I’m like, ‘This s**t ain’t ever been done before.’ He laid out the basics of the character, but he didn’t have to twist my arm — working with hot chicks on a massive WWE stage … are you kidding me?”

On McMahon giving him time to think about it: “[He said] ‘Take at least 24 hours [to] contemplate this character. I need you to feel comfortable with it. Because if you don’t feel comfortable with it, it’s not going to work.'”

On shooting the vignettes with Jenna Jameson: “The Jenna Jameson vignettes were shot in Bruce Prichard’s house. I don’t think his wife was too pleased about having Jenna Jameson in her house, but it is what it is. I didn’t know about any of this until after the fact.”

On McMahon pushing him to use innuendo in his promos: “Vince would constantly push the idea to me that, ‘When you create these jokes, they have to be constructed in a way where the adults will understand it, but the kids will be like, ‘Why is everyone laughing?’ What’s so funny about it?’ To me, that’s a little bit [an example] of Vince exhibiting morality in his product, which I didn’t think about until several years after the fact. That was something that constantly stuck in my head.”