Jonathan Coachman had been a staple with WWE for several years. While he has been pursuing other career ventures, he seemingly will never return to WWE. The Coach explained why in the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet.
“They came to me and they said XFL 2020. And Vince needs somebody there that he trusts that can do it the right way. So I was flying from California to New York every week to do the pre-show. And because they hired a lot of people who never worked for him before. So I trust Vince, implicitly, like I’ve done so much for him with him. Everybody knows that. And so you turn in invoices, right? Well, I didn’t turn mine in right away. Because I’d worked for him for 20 years. He had always paid me. Right.
“So COVID happens. And I have a fairly large check. And I hold on to it for a couple of days. I go put in the bank. It bounces. It bounces. And so I called or texted a high executive there. And I got a response. Oh, that’s a lot of money. I said, I agree, I agree. I said can you just call Vince let’s take care of this quietly no big deal. Yeah. And ghosted me, absolutely ghosted me. And, you know, Vince has the amount of money in his back pocket. You know what I mean? And it really hit me hard,” Jonathan Coachman said.
Jonathan Coachman was shocked with the reason for why his check bounced
The Coach mentioned that he was unhappy with the way he was treated after being loyal to Vince McMahon and the company for two decades.
“And it wasn’t the money. It was the process. You know what I mean? That and I sit there I’ll never forget Chris. I sat there one day and I said man, they really bounced a check to me. Oh, I did get a second text. It was like, oh, that’s another company. I don’t think there’s anything we can do. So basically telling me, people I’ve worked with for 20 years. Oh, that’s the XFL. It’s not the WWE. There’s no. But the same guy owns the two. Yeah, right. And he, I mean, everything was a crossover. So that to me was a complete slap in the face. And but some people there just don’t care. And I’m not gonna name names. It’s not my style.
“But even to this day, and anybody who watches this interview will agree with me because it’s true. There are certain people, and they’re usually the ones that get the biggest bonuses that do not care what happens below them. And I had literally done everything I had ever been asked to do, and this is how you’re going to treat me? And literally, they didn’t care. They did not care. And I even gave it months because they were going through remember there was no there were no shows. The company’s losing money I felt for all of that.”
Jonathan Coachman claims he would never work for a company that doesn’t care about human beings
Coachman was upset not because he was not paid, but rather he was furious with the fact that WWE advertised the same year that it was financially the biggest success it ever had.
“But then eight months later when you start advertising biggest year we’ve ever had financially making all this money, and then you can’t make things right. So again, that’s why I’ve never really talked about it. I’ve mentioned it in a couple of interviews, but I can’t at this point in my life. I can’t work for people like that. I cannot work for people who do not care about human beings to the point that in a spot where you really need it.
“Because we all are lost our jobs during COVID. And that’s when you’re going to decide to now let’s just turn our back on a guy who’s been loyal for 20 years, like to a point, the things that I’ve done for that company really bad, you know, would blow your mind would blow your mind. I was 100% loyal, but they were not loyal to me. And that’s it.”
Jonathan Coachman on how it is working with WWE
During the same podcast, Coachman talked about the time he returned to the company back in 2016 – 2017. He also mentioned that working 52 weeks a year is not fair and that many within the Stamford-based promotion would also agree with him.
“So I went back in 2017. And I kind of instantly knew. This is not really where I need to be where I want to be… But the people I worked with on the shows a) I don’t know what it was, but didn’t really want me to be there. So when I got switched to the pre-show, that was fun, because that was just once a month, I had to show up. And that was cool.
“But then I missed and part of the reason this is so Vince, when they called me and they said, hey, we’d love for you to come back. I said, I’m already doing golf. So I had five events already booked. And I said I’m missing the shows that week. They went Oh, no problem, no problem until it was a problem. And so I missed one show in 10 years. In my first run. I missed five shows in the first seven months of my second run.
“But I think everybody would agree and the schedule has changed now they were running people into the ground. Nobody should be working 52 weeks a year, nobody. They shouldn’t be having new shows 52 weeks a year, let’s be honest. And everybody inside WWE says it. They just don’t want to admit it. But no company should work that way.”
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