WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was interviewed for Jim Miller’s new book “Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers,” which included McMahon commenting on his well-known confrontation with American Sportscaster Bob Costas during a segment on HBO back in 2001. In Miller’s book McMahon stated that had he not outweighed Costas by a significant amount he would have taken pleasure in “beating the sh*t” out of him.
Now Costas has responded to McMahon in a new interview with ST Weekly, calling the threat “idiotic.”
Here’s my answer to this. Let’s test Vince’s premise. He probably outweighed my two to one. I weighed around 150. He might’ve weighed, especially then, certainly 275 minimum, maybe 300 pounds. Who knows what might have enhanced that physical standing. In any case, his premise is, ‘if Bob and I were closer in size, his line of questioning was ticking me off and we would’ve come to blows and I would have beat the crap out of him. Let’s test this premise. Let’s suppose somebody is on Meet The Press and they don’t like Chuck Todd’s line of questioning. They are a congressman or senator, and like Chuck, they are roughly 5’10” to six feet tall and weigh between 175 and 185. They are in the same weight class. It would be entirely appropriate for the senator from whatever state to just go to blows. Think about that. Think about this premise. ‘I don’t like your line of questioning, but as long as it’s a fair fight, I should be allowed to kick the shit out of you.’ Brilliant. Do you really have to respond to something that stupid? On its base, it’s idiotic.
Costas later refers to the segment as “great TV,” adding that if McMahon’s anger outburst was supposed to throw him off…it failed.
What really ticked him off was this…it’s obvious he was getting angry. It was great TV and people are still talking about it. I didn’t expect it to go this way, but when it did and he went off, it didn’t throw me off. He’s not dumb. If you look at a transcript of this, it might’ve been a draw. On tone, he’s losing his shit and I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s proceed.’ If this was supposed to throw me off, it didn’t work.
Full interview with Costas is below.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)