Former WWE star Matt Hardy isn’t mincing words when it comes to his memories of working under Vince McMahon.
On a Christmas Day episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Hardy described a long-standing dynamic he believes defined McMahon’s leadership style—one rooted in deliberately pushing people into uncomfortable territory.
“I felt like Vince had a thing,” Hardy said. “Vince had a thing for putting people in positions that made them feel uncomfortable, and he kind of got off on that, in all honesty.”
According to Hardy, those moments weren’t rare or accidental. “There were certain people I felt like, if you ever showed signs of weakness or said, ‘No, I don’t want to do that,’ or if you were outright uncomfortable with it, then he would push it even harder,” he recalled.
Hardy acknowledged that McMahon often framed this approach as a growth tactic. “If you don’t go into areas or positions where you feel uncomfortable, you will never grow,” Hardy recalled McMahon saying. While Hardy conceded there can be truth to that idea, he added, “In some ways too, I think he was abusive with it as well.”
Hardy singled out Jim Ross as one of the people he felt was most frequently targeted. “JR probably was one of the guys he was more abusive with in many, many ways,” Hardy said, describing what he viewed as a “real weird rivalry” between the two men.
Ross himself has offered a different explanation. On a recent episode of Grilling JR, the WWE Hall of Famer suggested McMahon’s behavior stemmed from professional jealousy.
Ross theorized that McMahon resented him because he “was never the play-by-play guy” Ross was, and because Ross didn’t receive enough credit for helping shape the Attitude Era while also running talent relations during the Monday Night War.
Grisham described being screamed at for mentioning that a top heel had written poetry, recalling McMahon shouting, “What the f**k?” before ordering him to stop speaking entirely during a live broadcast.