In 2007, Brian Milonas defended the Chaotic Wrestling Championship against Rick Fuller at Chaotic Wrestling Homecoming.
The match was noteworthy as John Cena serve as the special guest referee. Much to the surprise of Milonas, Cena wasn't the only legendary WWE star to show up at the building that night.
Speaking on Conversations in Pop Culture, Milonas recalled a rare Independent wrestling appearance by Vince McMahon at Chaotic Wrestling.
"John Cena Sr co-promoted a show with Chaotic Wrestling and it was a benefit show in Newbury, Mass [Massachusetts]. John [John Cena] did the show as a favor and he was the referee for my match in the main event. I was defending the Chaotic Heavyweight Title against Rick Fuller. John is super cool, we already had familiarity with John because he used to stop by the Chaotic training center on his off days and train with us. He was familiar with us. In the afternoon, he lays out the finish of the match, very meticulously. I didn't think anything of it, 'he's the WWE Champion, he probably wants things a certain way.' As far as I know, the only people who knew what was about to happen were John, the owner of Chaotic at the time Jamie Jamitkowski, and John Cena Sr. They were the only ones who knew Vince would be in the house. We did the match, get to the finishing sequence, we double down, I'm getting up, and I see somebody get in the ring. I turn around, and it's Vince McMahon. It feels like a fever dream. You can see it in my face, the actual footage, I don't know what the hell is going on. Vince is yelling at Cena's dad, I had knocked Cena out with the belt. Vince comes over to me, 'Are you the heel or the babyface?' 'I'm the heel.' He grabs my arm and raises it. My mouth is on the mat. I'm not even playing it cool, I'm just in awe of the situation. You see us talking and the conversation was, 'What's next?' He said, 'I'm gonna slap Cena, take an FU, and get out of here.' That's what he did. Cena waves me on, 'FU!' He gives it to me, I roll out of the ring, grab my manager, hugged her, and said, 'That was the greatest moment of my life,' which it was at that point," Milonas recalled.
A few weeks later, Milonas had another interaction with Vince and hoped their Independent spot together would lead to something bigger.
"For me, at the time, I'm thinking maybe this is the ticket to getting a job," he said. "I was booked as an extra for TV, maybe the next week or so. Raw was in Boston. At the Boston arena, there was one hallway and it was the only way in and out. At the end of the night, I positioned myself in this hallway because I knew Vince had to come this way and I had an in to talk with Vince McMahon. I had a reason to conceivably speak with him. It wasn't the first time I've spoken to Vince, I had been at TV before as an extra where he's thanked us, so there was minimal interaction, nothing of substance. He comes walking down the hallways after Raw is off the air and I go, 'Mr. McMahon,' and he looks at me like, 'Who the hell is this guy?' 'I don't know if you remember me, but I was in the ring with you on the independent show a couple of weeks ago. It meant a lot to me, thank you. I really appreciated it.' He kind of cocks his head and goes, 'Oh, well you're welcome,' and he walks off down the hallway. I don't know if he actually did this or if this is how I concocted the story in my mind all these years later, but in my mind, he did the strut away from me. I thought it was going to be my ticket, he walked away, and my dreams crumbled."
The footage has been rarely seen, but Milonas said he tried getting it aired on ROH television when he was part of the company.
"WWE shot it and they have footage of this. I have friends there and I have tried to get them to find it, unarchive it, and play it. I also tried to broker a deal between Chaotic and Ring of Honor when I was in Ring of Honor for them to use the footage. To me, I could have been the hottest thing in pro wrestling because I would have been on Ring of Honor television and in the ring with Vince McMahon. It wasn't able to be worked out because Chaotic can't really sell the footage or anything. They can't monetize it at all, there were some deals signed," he said.
Vince McMahon is officially back in the WWE, returning to the Board of Directors on Friday, January 6. You can learn more about his return by clicking here.
Milonas is active on the independent scene, regularly competing at Wrestling Open events. You can find results from around the world of wrestling at Fightful's results section.
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