Kevin Kay Recalls Arguments With Vince McMahon When WWE Was Leaving Spike TV

Kevin Kay says that WWE’s departure of Spike TV was a difficult time, particularly as Vince McMahon did things to undercut the network. Kay was the President at Spike TV at that time when WWE left the network and moved to USA. Kay has spoken in the past about how the relationship turned ugly when McMahon tried to promote the move to USA on Spike.

Kay went into a little more detail in an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. He spoke about his dealings with McMahon when ratings started to drop and then discussed how, when McMahon tried to promote USA Network on the show, he threatened to (and eventually did) cut the audio. Kay said that in retaliation, McMahon had a number of Divas come to the ring and slide under the bottom rope without underwear on. You can see the highlights below:

On Working With Vince McMahon:

“I didn’t get to work with him a lot. I mostly worked with Kevin [Dunn], who was the head of production. I went to see Vince a couple of times up in Hartford. I — you know, when The Rock left, we had eight million viewers a week on TNN on Raw. It was huge. And then The Rock left, and it dropped to 5 million.

“So Albie [Hecht], my boss, looked at me and he goes, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know. I guess I have to go talk to Vince.’ So, I went up to Stanford where their offices are. I went to see Vince. And he kind of looked at me and he goes, ‘What do you want?’ [laughs] And I said, ‘Well, the ratings are down.’ He goes, ‘Why do you think the ratings are down?’ You know, Vince is tough. And I said, ‘Well I mean, I’m guessing because The Rock left.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, you’re smart.’ He goes, ‘And what do you think we’re supposed to do about that?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m guessing like who’s the next star?’ And he goes, ‘Do you know how long it takes to build a star in the WWF?’ And I was like, ‘Vince, I don’t. How long?’ And he goes, ’10 years.’ And I said, ‘Well, I have about 10 weeks.’ And he said, ‘Get out.'”

On If It Was Said Contentiously Or Playfully:

“Kind of playful, but a little bit of like, ‘Don’t waste my time, son.’ And you know, and it took a couple of years, by the way [to build the next star in John Cena]. That took a minute. And by that time they ended up going back to USA {Network].”

On WWE Going Back to USA Network:

“So, their trip back to USA ended badly for us. Because we were trying to re-sign them, but they had made the decision. He had a really good relationship with Bonnie Hammer at USA. Bonnie wanted it back, he decided to go back, and they told us they were going back and they weren’t going to stay with us. And I we were like, ‘Okay, there’s nothing much we can do, because that’s a decision you’ve made and we’re sorry to see you go.’

And Vince had the audience — they gave out USA signs to the audience. And in the weeks leading up to them leaving us and going back to the USA, they would get the audience to hold up USA signs, chant, ‘USA! USA! USA!’ And I was like, ‘You can’t promote your move. We’ve had a good relationship, like what are you doing?

On Talking To McMahon About It:

“‘And so I called Kevin Dunn and we had an argument. He goes, ‘You’re just going to have to talk to Vince about it.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ And you know, I called Vince and he said, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ And I said, ‘Well, if you keep doing that, I think I’m just going to — first thing I’m going to have to do is cut the audio, and you don’t want that. And then the second thing is, if that doesn’t stop then I’m going to have to go dark.’

“And he’s like, ‘You’re not going to do that.’ And I did, and it didn’t go well. [laughs] We cut the audio, but we never got to the point that we had to go dark because after that — but what he did was, he was really angry about it, which I understand. But he sent the Divas into the ring the next week after that happened. And this is way too much, but he sent the divas into the ring. They crawled under the first rope and the shot was from behind and they weren’t wearing any panties.”

On His Reaction:

“So, I was at home. I wasn’t there, but I was at home and — you know, it was a shot of four Divas going to the ring… Oh, it was absolutely on purpose. And my phone rang, and it was the head of Standards and Practices. And she said, ‘Kevin, are you seeing what I’m seeing?’ And I was like, ‘I am.’ And she’s like,
‘That can never happen again.’

“And so I called Kevin Dunn on the Monday after that. And I said, ‘Kevin, that can never happen again.’ And he goes, ‘Well, Vince wants to talk to you then.’ And so I got on the phone with Vince, and he started screaming at me and telling me like, what an idiot I was and all this stuff. And I said, ‘Look Vince, I just can’t — I can’t do that. That can’t happen again. Like I don’t understand, you know what our standards are. [Vince said] ‘I don’t know what your f**king standards are. They change every day. Every time this happens, there’s a different standard.’ And he goes, ‘So tell me what your standards are.’ I go, ‘How about we start with no vaginas?’ And he hung up.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Ariel Helwani Show with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.