Indie darling….Vince McMahon?

It sounds surreal, but for one night in 2007, that’s exactly what the Chairman of the Board was. In fact, it wasn’t just McMahon that made an appearance for Chaotic Wrestling that fateful night, but so did the then-WWE Champion, John Cena. The Leader of the Cenation was a special guest referee for the evening’s main event,, and shockingly, McMahon not only appeared inside the ring, but raised the hand of one Brian Milonas that evening.

Of course, when we recently chatted for Love Wrestling, you know I had to ask the Kingpin about the experience .

“You Didn’t Know?!”

“What was it like having your hand raised by Vincent Kennedy McMahon?” I asked to close our interview.

“Surreal. Weird. Bizarre. [It] felt like a fever dream,” Milonas laughed. “Even to this day, sometimes people will see the picture for the first time and they think it’s photoshopped. I didn’t know what’s happening. I turn around the ring, and there’s Vince McMahon!”

“Oh, man, I would have thought that would have been a fully coordinated, ‘this, this, and this is happening,’ with an individual like that!” I laughed.

“Well, it was by them. It was by them. I think the only people in the building that knew were John Cena, John Cena’s dad, [and] the owner of Chaotic, Jamie, I think we’re probably the only people that knew what was going on. So John had actually laid out the entire finish of the match meticulously with us, but I didn’t think it was unusual at the time. I mean, this guy’s a WWE champ.

He may just want things a certain way to protect himself from injury or whatever. I didn’t think twice about it when he laid out the finish so, so meticulously. It just never crossed my mind. Then, that happens. I’m like, ‘Oh, well, that makes sense. That’s why he laid that out so meticulously!”

“Yeah, I had no clue until I turned around and Vince was in the ring,” he said, circling back. “Absolutely no clue. That’s why my mouth is like agape. I’m not even selling it like I’m a cool heel. I’m just like, What the hell was going on!”

“I was gonna say you’re a hell of an actor if that was fake, then!”

“I legitimately had no clue what the hell was going on,” Milonas laughed. “Like, he goes ‘are you the heel or the babyface?’ I go ‘I’m the heel,’ and he just grabs my arm and raises it! I’m like, ‘well, this is a thing!’ I go, ‘what’s next,’ and he says, ‘I’m gonna slap Cena, I’m taking an FU, and I’m getting the hell out of here.’ That’s what he did, and he was gone as fast as he appeared.”

A Second Encounter

Of course, every great story deserves a follow-up, and I was hoping that Milonas had the opportunity to reflect on the experience with the man himself.

“Have you ever had the opportunity to chat with Vince since, or reminisce on that with him or anything of that sort?” I asked.

“So two weeks after that – I think it was, it was either the next week or two weeks – I was booked as an extra for TV in Boston, Mass,” the Kingpin began. “I’m like ‘I’m going to talk to him. I have an in to talk with Vince!”

“There’s kind of one hallway at the TD Garden that sort of leads out to the back of the building,” he explained. “Everybody coming in or going out has to go through this hallway to go out to get to where the cars and the parking is. I just kind of parked myself in that hallway. Then, here comes Vince! I just kind of go ‘Mr. McMahon?’ You can kind of see him look at me like ‘who the hell is [this]?’ So I go ‘I don’t know if you remember me, but we were in the ring together at the independent show a couple weeks ago, and I just want to say thank you. That was really awesome. It really meant a lot to me.’ He kind of cocks his head and he looks at me and goes ‘well, you’re welcome!'”

Now, he walked away normally,” Milonas laughed. “But in my mind, it was the whole eggagerated strut!”

“As ‘No Chance in Hell’ echoes in the back of your head!” I roared.

Milonas continued to laugh. “As my dreams of him saying, ‘Yes, I remember you! Of course, I want to sign you to a contract on the spot! We’re gonna put you on SmackDown this week!

“

“Of course, I didn’t necessarily think something was gonna come of it. It was just like, I have an in to talk with Vince McMahon, and stranger friggin’ things have happened.

Maybe he remembers it and is like, ‘hey, maybe there’s something here.’ I don’t know, I didn’t necessarily think it would happen other than I had an in to talk with Vince McMahon, so I took it!”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotes. Tune in to our full interview with “Kingpin” Brian Milonas on Love Wrestling’s YouTube channel.