In an interview with BackSportsPage.com, former WWE commentator and current ESPN anchor Jonathan Coachman discussed his time in the WWE, Vince McMahon pranking him and much more.

Highlights of the interview are below:

On personal stories about working for Vince McMahon: “Vince is a very unique guy and he doesn’t trust a lot of people. He had trust in me and because of that, he wanted me around him a lot, whether I was hosting something or not. If he wanted to yell and couldn’t find someone that he couldn’t yell at, he would yell at me just to get it out of his system. Because of Vince having the ability to trust me and the fact I did anything he needed me to do, the first time we went over to the Middle East to Afghanistan, I was one of the 18 people who got to go to represent the WWE because I was able to talk an get in the ring if I needed to. I did get in the ring as I had a match with Ric Flair over there and I lost to him via the figure four leg lock and it is a highlight in my career, some people call it the figure two, but it is what it is. While there, I got to see firsthand what life was like out in the desert, it was scary, as we were in the line of fire and we went in places that nobody really got to see up close, those are some of the greatest experiences I will look back on because of that relationship I had with him, I will be indebted to him. We get along great to this day and it there was an opportunity to be on Monday Night RAW and do SportsCenter at the same time, I would do that in a heartbeat.”

On Vince McMahon pranking him: “What you read and heard was 100% true, the thing about WWE is that you have to be accepted on many different levels. From 2003 on, I was one of the boys, if you were willing to put your neck on the line and get in the ring, that seperates you from everybody else. Up until that point, I had to be accepted into the crew, so to speak. Basically, Jerry Brisco came up to me in 2001 in Fayeteville, North Carolina and he said that he wanted me to run a football pool, $10 to pick all the games and everybody did it and I started on a Tuesday, it was a SmackDown taping, I’ll never forget it. I had my own room I did interviews in and all of a sudden two cops show up, they were very serious and said I understand you’re running a gambling pool, you sold one to one of our undercover cops here and it’s a felony in North Carolina and we’re going to have to take you in. So, we’re walking down the hallway and we stop in front of Vince’s office and they said that we should probably let him know, because you’re not going to be here for a while. We walk in and it’s Vince, Triple H, Stephanie, The Rock, Kevin Dunn and Jerry Brisco, I should have known that with Jerry in the room, something was going on, but I was so terrified because I was 26 years old. The cops proceeded to tell Vince that he caught me in a gambling pool and needed to take me downtown. Vince got in my face and he was an inch away from my nose, he was cursing, telling me my priorities were bad and how I was spending company time running a gambling pool. This entire riff lasted 45 minutes and at the end of the office bit, the officer said that it was $1,500 to get me out and Vince said, f*** no, he’s on his own. They handcuffed me and I asked if there was anything I could put over my face. Vince threw me a pair of sweaty gym shorts that got stuck on my face and I walked out of the office and the first person I see is The Undertaker. He looks at me with shock and it was so real because no one else was in on it, except those in the office. They walked me out and all the fans could see me and they drove me about a mile down the road and got a call on the radio that they had to come back to pick up something, so they turn around, come back and everyone’s there with Vince laughing their a**** off, geatest rib in the history of the business and for about 10 minutes, I literally walked to a place in the building and started crying. I thought my career was over, I thought to myself, how can I tell my Dad that I got fired over a $10 football pool.”

The interview is available in full at this link.