Longtime wrestling fans have likely heard the story of Nailz (Kevin Wacholz) allegedly attacking Vince McMahon in December 1992.
According to the stories told by others, Wacholz was reportedly upset over pay and confronted McMahon in the locker room, allegedly attacking him. The incident led to a series of lawsuits between Wacholz and the company as he was fired after it happened. Wacholz filed a wrongful termination lawsuit claiming McMahon sexually assaulted him. The WWF filed a counterclaim against Wacholz. Both suits were later dropped.
Speaking to Mike Johnson of PWInsider in a Highspots TV exclusive, Wacholz gave his side of what happened.
Wacholz was first asked if the incident had anything to do with payment.
"Usually, a guy wouldn't quit or have problem with the ownership of a business if he was happy with what he was getting paid. On that aspect, that kind of sums it up there," he said.
Bruce Prichard claims that Wacholz called Vince at his home, and Bruce picked up. Vince said that he would talk to Wacholz at television, according to Prichard.
"Never happened. I don't even know his number," said Wacholz.
Jimmy Hart has claimed that he was in the room when the incident happened and that Wacholz "throttled" McMahon before he was pulled off of him.
"Nope. No one was in the locker room except me and the assailant," said Wacholz.
Bret Hart has said in his book Wacholz "cornered Vince in his office and screamed at him for fifteen minutes". Hart claims he was just down the hall from the office when he heard a loud crash, which was Wacholz "knocking Vince over in his chair, choking him violently"
Asked about Bret's account of the story, Wacholz said, "I don't know who was outside in the hall because we were in the locker room and the door was shut."
Bret also wrote that Wacholz yelled that someone grabbed a "sensitive area" and that Wacholz went to the phone to call the police.
"I did go to the phone and call the police and said I had been assaulted," he confirmed.
John Nord claims that Wacholz knew what was going to happen and that he asked Nord to watch the door and then pretend to pull Wacholz off someone.
"Nope, didn't happen," said Wacholz.
Charlie Norris claims he was in the car with Wacholz and Nord when Wacholz allegedly asked Nord to watch the door.
"I don't think so. I don't think Charlie was with us," he said.
Wacholz said he wasn't concerned about being arrested in the aftermath and said that no one in WWF/WWE had made good with money.
Asked about the reaction from the talent after the incident, Wacholz said, "I'm not really around wrestling anymore for probably a good 20 years. From what I heard from a few people, a lot of people didn't like what I did to the guy in the east coast. They have to understand, we're independent contractors, and everyone makes their own deal. What deal worked for them, may not work for me. The deal that I made, that I was told, didn't come through. A lot of guys think that it was 'stupid for what he did,' 'he should have never did it,' or whatever. They all make their own deals, I made my deal, my deal didn't come through. That's why what happened, happened. It had nothing to do with anybody else except the person that told me that 'this is how much money you're going to make,' and didn't come through with it. They can say what they want or think what they want, 'that was stupid,' but after that, I didn't plan on being in wrestling again anyway. I had basically had enough of it. If something else comes through again, another territory or promoter calls up and has a deal for me, I'll listen and if I think I want to do it, I would. Later, I did. WCW came through with an offer and signed me to a two-year contract and I didn't have to hardly work at all."
Wacholz appeared at WCW Slamboree as The Prisoner, losing to Sting.
Asked if he wish that night in Green Bay had gone differently, Wacholz replied, "I'm fine with what happened. I don't have any regrets. Never got too many thank you calls and thank you letters in my life. People that I hadn't heard from in years were sending me cards. A lot of people that ended up working for him later were the same guys that came and thanked me for what happened. People would say, 'must have taken a lot of guts to do that. I wish I was in your position that I could have done that years later.' He did step on a lot of toes and he made it tough for a lot of people. He made a lot of promises that he didn't fulfill and a lot of guys were in a bad predicament because he lied to them. That's their deal, that's not mine. I'm only speaking on what happened to me. What happened to me didn't come through."
In 1994, Wacholz did testify against McMahon in the steroid trials.
Wacholz would work for various promotions throughout the 90s before retiring in 2001.
Wacholz will be at WrestleCon in Detroit during SummerSlam weekend.
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