During an interview with Wrestlinginc back in 2015, WWE Hall of Famer Harley Race (who recently passed away at the age of 76) talked about Vince McMahon trying to stop him from working Starrcade 1983, joining the WWF & more.
Below are the highlights:
On Vince McMahon trying to stop him from working Starrcade 1983:
“He was asking me about coming up there [WWF], and trying to avoid that part of it. I had been involved in wrestling for a long time and the NWA World Title was what I had my heart and mind set on doing since day one. I wasn’t going to get involved with Vince until I was through with the NWA side. That’s what I wanted to do, and that’s what I did.”
On why he left NWA & joined the WWF:
“Once [NWA President] Sam Mushnick was out of it. He was losing his capabilities to be who he was and do what he was doing. Without him being the head of the NWA, I think everyone knew it wasn’t going to be long before it was over. I started looking for the opportunity to go in with Vince, and when it arrived I took it and ran with it.
Once I got there and realized that [McMahon] had a hell of an organization, I was going to their worldwide thing and that I’d made the right decision.”
On why he left WWF in 1989:
“Time and stuff was starting to catch up with me. I started wrestling when I was 15 years old, and back when I was world champion, I was wrestling seven nights a week. I would have a complete week off every four weeks. With Vince, there was no time period off, just every day.
Back then it was pretty tough, because he was in the process of trying to take wrestling over on a worldwide basis. The only place he wasn’t was Japan or China, because he had nobody who spoke those languages, and you had to have somebody who did to be able to get in there and to that to help take it over.”
