Former superstar thought he worked for WWE for free until Shane McMahon paid him

Pete Gas recently recalled how he thought he worked for WWE without pay until Shane McMahon told him otherwise.

In 1999, Gas debuted on WWE television as a member of The Mean Street Posse. Shane McMahon’s childhood friend appeared in vignettes in the build-up to WrestleMania 15, where he watched McMahon’s victory over X-Pac from ringside.

The former WWE Superstar discussed his two-year WWE run on the latest episode of Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw. He said he genuinely expected to work for free until he was called into Shane McMahon’s office one day:

“After that first WrestleMania, he [Shane McMahon] called us [The Mean Street Posse] back in the office and he gave us those envelopes. We’re like, ‘What’s this?’ He goes, ‘It’s your pay, a**holes.’ That’s what he said. We didn’t think we were gonna get paid. We thought we were doing it for free, so for all the vignettes and all the other things we did, we got money for it. We were gonna do it for free there, we were doing them a favor. But obviously we needed the money, so it was good,” Gas said.

Pete Gas worked alongside Joey Abs and Rodney as part of The Mean Street Posse from early 1999 until June 2001. While Gas and Rodney were legitimately friends with Shane McMahon as children, Joey Abs was already a wrestler before joining the group.

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Pete Gas wanted to help Shane McMahon

According to wrestling stats database Cagematch.net, Pete Gas’ only televised WWE win came when The Mean Street Posse defeated The Headbangers in October 1999. He competed in another 27 televised matches for Vince McMahon’s company, losing every time.

Gas added that he wanted to do a good job in WWE to prove that Shane McMahon was right to believe in him.

“We grew up in his house, for the most part, and then to be able to help him out and pay him back… Listen, I know a lot of people used to give us s*** because of the way we got into the business. If we didn’t do our jobs and try hard and put people over and do everything, we wouldn’t have been there two weeks,” Gas said.

Gerald Brisco was a member of WWE’s management team during Gas’ time with the company. He responded to Gas’ comment by confirming that nobody ever said anything bad about The Mean Street Posse backstage in WWE meetings.

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Please credit Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.