Working behind the microphone in WWE has never been a low-pressure job, and former commentator Todd Grisham knows that better than most.
In a recent sit-down with Chris Van Vliet, Grisham revisited some of his most chaotic moments working under Vince McMahon—including a pair of infamous blowups sparked by something unexpectedly harmless: poetry.
One incident unfolded live on commentary during a match involving John Morrison, who was positioned as a top heel at the time. Grisham tried to add texture to the broadcast by referencing a feature from a newly revamped WWE magazine that leaned into personality profiles. Morrison, he explained on air, had written a poem inspired by his finisher, “Starship Pain.”
That was a mistake.
“Did you just say that our number one heel is an effing poet?” McMahon shouted into Grisham’s headset, according to Grisham. “You stupid f**k. What the f**k? Shut up. Just shut up. Don’t say anything else.”
The reaction was so severe that Grisham was effectively benched mid-match. “Jim Ross, you call the rest of this fight. I don’t want to hear another effing word out of you,” McMahon barked, leaving Grisham silent on commentary for several minutes.
That wasn’t the only poetry-adjacent meltdown. Grisham explained that McMahon viewed any detail that softened a villain’s image as a threat to the product’s presentation.
In his words, the outrage wasn’t really about poetry—it was about control. “He could micromanage everyone,” Grisham said, noting that McMahon treated commentary like a verbal minefield where even a single extra adjective could trigger chaos.
The pressure extended far beyond that one broadcast. Grisham recalled another moment that summed up McMahon’s intensity, this time away from the desk.
After allegedly leaving weights on a bar in the company gym—a claim Grisham says wasn’t even true—McMahon confronted him face-to-face. “I did it for you. Which makes me your boy,” McMahon yelled, standing inches away before abruptly walking off.
Looking back, Grisham described his WWE tenure as learning how to survive constant volatility.