Michael Cole Recalls How He Initially Joined WWE

On a recent episode of “What’s Your Story? With Stephanie McMahon,”  Michael Cole detailed the chain of events that took him from CBS Radio to WWE. Cole has been with WWE for almost 30 years, and he said on the podcast that he only expected to be there 12 months. You can check out his comments below:

On Leaving CBS:

“At the time, my contract was coming up at CBS. I was working over at — it’s shuttered now, but Newsradio 88, WCBS. That’s where I worked, over on 52nd Street. My contract was coming up and when they moved me from Houston to New York in 1995, they promised me that I wouldn’t travel. They said, ‘You will work out of New York City. You will cover local stories in New York.’ Well, as soon as ’96 rolls around, I end up eight months on the road with the presidential campaign. So my wife’s at home and she’s like, ‘No more of this.’ We had just gotten married a year earlier. ‘No more of this. It is time to settle at home.'”

On His Connection To WWE:

“Todd Pettengill was a DJ here in New York at WPLJ. He also worked at WWE. I worked with Todd actually before I started in news — well, I did news. My first job was in Albany at a station called Fly 92, where I did news for Todd’s morning show and that’s how Todd and I got to know each other. So when Todd was working here, he said, ‘Hey, I’m thinking of leaving, and I really would like to bring somebody in that I know.’ So he got me an audition with Kevin Dunn and Michael Hayes at the time, and I didn’t hear from anybody — typical WWE — I didn’t hear from anybody for three or four months. As the contract was expiring, I’m like, am I going to re-sign? What am I going to do? Out of the blue, Kevin Dunn calls me and says, ‘We’d like to offer you a job.’ And then the rest was history.”

On His Initial Goal With WWE:

“For me, I legitimately thought I was coming to WWE for about a year, because I wanted to get television experience — I had no television experience. Obviously at the time, CNN and places like that were taking off. So I figured, let me get some TV experience, and then I’ll get back in the news and I’ll do what I want to do. And lo and behold, nearly 30 years later, I’m still here, and I’ve had this love affair with this company ever since.”

On the Schedule:

“The beauty of that, and this is true — she was okay with it, because the thing about WWE is we have a schedule. I know when I’m going to travel. I know, ‘Hey, I’ve got to go to New York on Friday, I’m going to be there till Monday, I’m going to be home Tuesday through Friday, so we can plan this.’ At CBS, I didn’t have that luxury, because I would get a phone call sometimes in the middle of the night and say, “Hey, there was a plane crash in Florida, head down to that,’ and I had to be there till the story was over. Sometimes that was five days, sometimes it was a month. There was never any consistency.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the What’s Your Story? With Stephanie McMahon podcast with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.