Jimmy Jacobs Reveals What It’s Like Working With Vince McMahon in WWE Creative, If Vince Rules by Fear, How Vince Responds to Criticism of WWE’s Product

In an interview with Hannibal TV, Jimmy Jacobs talked about his biggest regret from his time as a member of WWE creative, and how Vince McMahon rules by fear, including nearly firing someone for not knocking on his door before he came in. Highlights are below.

Jimmy Jacobs on his biggest regret from his time as a member of WWE Creative: “I think one of my regrets is walking around there being scared of Vince, because everybody is, more or less. When I first got there, I wasn’t scared of Vince. I was like, ‘He’s a dude! He’s a dude! We’re all dudes, yeah he’s a billionaire dude, but he’s a dude.’ After about a month of being there, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I see why everybody is scared of him,’ because your job can just be, [snaps fingers], like that. I was there, a month after I was there, he wanted to fire one of the writers for not knocking on his door, his office door, before he came in. Vince is like, ‘Yeah, come back with this promo,’ and he came back with the promo without knocking on the door and Vince was like, ‘What the hell!’ and he wanted to fire him. It was a whole thing. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s all it takes.’ You’re always reminded, you’re one weird interaction away with Vince from being fired, and so that becomes like your mentality there, is like, how am I not going to get fired today, you know? How can I go on today and not make the crazy man angry, how am I not going to get yelled at today, and it’s no fun living like that, so yeah, I think I have a certain regret with that now, maybe I would have gotten fired earlier if that was the case.”

On if he has any other regrets: “I also, I got a little bit of regret for just like how I left, I mean it worked out really well, it did, it worked out well getting fired for taking a picture with the hottest act outside of WWE, it helped like fifteen minutes on the indies, I was pretty popular for that time in late 2017, that was fun, but I probably wish I just would have said, ‘Hey guys, I’m good, I’m done,’ as oppose to acting like a kid and getting in trouble which is what happened, right? I acted out, I got in trouble, and I got fired, which is like, ‘Hell yeah, good, great,’ but I probably should have just sat my boss down and gone, ‘You know what, I think we’re done here.'”

On if the fear of Vince backstage in WWE is by design: “He rules by fear, yeah, that’s by design.”

On if Vince McMahon is aware of a lot of the criticisms of WWE’s product: “One of Vince’s favorite catchphrases is, ‘Fuck ’em!'”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Hannibal TV with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.