5 Superstars Vince McMahon was not originally interested in signing

There have been numerous anecdotes of how WWE Chairman Vince McMahon is picky about the kind of wrestlers he wants in his promotion. McMahon has been known to be steadfast in the type of Superstar he wants and is also reportedly not known to know much about the Superstars present in other pro wrestling promotions.

But, there have been some Superstars that McMahon was not initially interested in signing to the WWE, but then did sign, who have gone on to become legends.

Here are five Superstars Vince McMahon was not originally interested in signing

#5 Samoa Joe

Samoa Joe is the most recent one who was rejected by Vince McMahon but was eventually signed by WWE. Joe, who played an important part in the rise and rise of TNA, joined WWE in 2015 and was drafted to NXT. After two years on NXT where he became the NXT World Champion, he was moved to the main roster in 2017.

Joe revealed in an interview in 2019 that Vince McMahon was not keen on signing him to the WWE. In an interview with Fightful, he said that McMahon never wanted him in WWE despite there being several in WWE who wanted him in the company.

"Oh, there were tons here for years. Years. Vince vehemently opposed me being in WWE. He didn’t know me, wasn’t familiar with me."

Joe, though, said that his relationship with the WWE Chairman is great now that McMahon knows him.

"And now we have a great relationship, everything’s working fine. I think he just realized he already bought it, so he might as well use it. No, like I said, with every partner I’ve ever worked with it’s about time and understanding. And we’ve had some time and we’ve had some understanding. It’s working out pretty well."

#4 Mick Foley

Mick Foley was an important part of the Attitude Era, thanks to his incredible spots and ability to tell a story well. But, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon almost did not sign him to the company, when Foley was a part of ECW.

Jim Ross, who was head of talent relations, told McMahon that he wanted to hire Foley, but the WWE Chairman vehemently opposed that move. Ross revealed the story when he was on Talk Is Jericho earlier this year.

“I go to Vince and say, ‘I want to hire Mick Foley.’ ‘Oh no, JR, we’re not doing that. I’m gonna go along with you on most of these things, but not that one. He says, ‘Okay, here’s the deal. You hire him because I want you to know what it feels like to have your heart broken by a talent that you have great belief in. Just prepare for that. It’ll be a great lesson for you to learn, so hire him.'"

JR, in the end, was right, as Foley put on great feuds to become an integral part of that glorious era in WWE.

#3 Chris Jericho

Another Superstar who was a vital part of the Attitude Era was Chris Jericho, who moved from WCW to WWE as the opportunities in WCW had dried up for him. Jericho quickly became a hated heel in WWE and had great feuds with the likes of The Rock and Chris Benoit.

But, Vince McMahon was not "sold" on Jericho, according to Jim Ross. The legendary commentator revealed that Vince McMahon had an issue with Jericho's height, which wasn't good enough for him to be on WWE.

"Vince always thought, he was not as sold on Chris as I was. There’s a big part of my book, Under The Black Hat, that we talk about signing Jericho and write about it and the recruiting of it and negotiating with Vince. I had to negotiate with Vince, basically, to get Chris on the radar, because of his f****** height. That was it.”

Ross then also added that McMahon felt that Jericho could not be a WrestleMania main-eventer just because of his height and that Jericho had to wear lifts on his shoes in the early part of his WWE career.

#2 John Cena

It's hard to believe now that Vince McMahon once was not a fan of John Cena. But there was a time when the WWE Chairman didn't see a future 16-time World Champion in Cena.

SmackDown Executive Director Bruce Prichard was an important part of Vince McMahon's team when Cena was a young Superstar. Prichard revealed the very honest and brutal assessment of Cena given by the WWE Chairman:

"I'll give you Vince's exact quote the first time he saw John Cena, which was backstage, I believe at Staples Center... and Vince came up to me and said 'Get the walking billboard for steroids out of my backstage area' and pointed at John."

Prichard informed McMahon that Cena was signed by WWE and that his drug test showed that he was clean.

Jim Ross too said that McMahon wasn't initially sold on Cena but that opinion changed dramatically over the years.

"I thought I met somebody very special, told Vince that much and he wasn't as sold on it as I was but he didn't know John Cena. He couldn't have picked him out of a lineup, but he got to know him pretty well over the next three years."

#1 The Undertaker

The most surprising one on this list is The Undertaker. The Deadman played a key part in helping WWE's growth into a global phenomenon and also has stayed loyal to the company for three decades.

The Phenom was signed by WWE. Vince McMahon, though, was in two minds to sign The Undertaker in 1990, who was then a part of WCW. McMahon had watched Undertaker - who was then known as 'Mean' Mark Callous - in a match against Lex Lugar but was not impressed.

He felt that the future Undertaker resembled a basketball player. Bruce Prichard revealed that Vince McMahon did not want to meet The Undertaker:

"Mark had a dislocated hip, but worked the match anyway because he knew that he was going to be meeting with Vince the next day. It wasn't the best match in the world and Vince didn't want to meet with him. We finally got the two together, and, as you know Mark, man, he's magnetic in and of himself and he convinced Vince that, 'hey, I'm your guy' and he took off from there."

Edited by Zaid Khan