Brian Solomon worked in WWE for seven years (2000-2007) as the senior editor of WWE Magazine.
During his time in the company, Solomon worked with Shane McMahon, but would rub elbows with Vince McMahon, sitting in on various meetings.
Speaking on the Cheap Heat Productions podcast, Solomon recalled a pitch to Vince that ended with Vince telling him to pull his head out of Dave Meltzer's ass.
"There was certainly times when I was around Vince and had access to him, more than you would think, more than the typical 'nobody' like myself would have experienced working there. I was in these crazy circles sometimes. I rode in a limo with him, I'd be in a boardroom with him. I'd have to pitch ideas. Even just conversations, when the meetings were over, just me and him and my boss, just sitting there and talking about stuff. I've had those experiences," he said.
Solomon continued by saying "We were in board meetings and we used to have the opportunity, I don't know if you'd call it an opportunity, I'd call it the plight of having to pitch magazine ideas to him. Why? I don't know, he's the chairman of the company. I think Shane took sadistic glee in brining us up there to pitch to him. There was an issue where I'm pitching various ideas and at one point, he starts to pretend like he's falling asleep in front of the board members. 'We're going to be doing an interview with Booker T.' [Imitates Vince sleeping]. Not a big fan of that idea, sorry Booker T. What really set him off, it's not really what I expected, we wanted to do an article on the Greatest Steel Cage matches. Vince doesn't typically like that...he sees that as Meltzer-thinking, ranking matches. For him, he's said this to me directly, it's not the match that is so important, obviously, you want people to have good matches, he will chew you out if your match sucks. He cares about match quality, but for him, the storyline is paramount. He doesn't like the way that Meltzer will take a match and surgically remove it from the angle and just study it by itself, this match, without context. For him, context is everything. He hates this idea of studying matches like that. We wanted to do the Greatest Steel Cage Matches Ever and he goes, 'you guys really need to take your heads out of Dave Meltzer's ass.' I'm terrified, of course. I'm 30 years old and just trying to feed my kids and this crazy billionaire, and his whims."
Solomon noted how Vince found Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant from WrestleMania III to be the better match than Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat because of the story told before and during the Hogan vs. Andre bout compared to Savage vs. Steamboat.
Solomon did say that he shared lighter moments and chats with Vince, including Vince telling stories about visiting Comiskey Park and spending time with his family.
Solomon has released multiple wrestling books with his newest book "Blood & Fire: The Unbelievable Real-Life Story of Wrestling's Original Sheik" taking a look at the life of the Original Sheik. You can learn more by clicking here.
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