Former WWE commentator Todd Grisham has revealed that what he considers his biggest on-air mistake during his time in the company had nothing to do with botching a call or missing an important moment, but rather saying something completely harmless that enraged Vince McMahon in real time.
Speaking on the Insight podcast, Grisham recalled being verbally berated by McMahon on live television for describing John Morrison as someone who enjoyed poetry.
Grisham explained that the comment was not improvised and was actually tied directly to WWE’s own promotional material at the time. WWE Magazine had just been rebranded into a lifestyle-style publication, and announcers were encouraged to reference it on air. “There was a new WWE magazine. They just transformed it from being like a results-based, boring magazine… to more of like a Maxim-style lifestyle magazine,” Grisham said. “They’re like, ‘Anytime you can incorporate stuff from the magazine, do it. It helps sell the magazine; it helps sell their story; it syncs everything up.’”
That week’s issue featured John Morrison, whose finishing move was called Starship Pain. According to Grisham, Morrison had even written a poem with the same name. During the match, Grisham tried to tie everything together on commentary. “So he’s in the ring and I go, ‘John Morrison, Starship Pain. He’s a big fan of poetry and wrote a poem about the finisher, Starship Pain,’” Grisham recalled.
What happened next was explosive. “Vince goes insane in my ear,” Grisham said. McMahon screamed, “Did you just say that our number one heel is an effing poet? You stupid f**k! What the… shut up. Just shut up. Don’t say anything else. Jim Ross.”
Grisham said McMahon then instructed Jim Ross to take over commentary completely. “So literally the match starts and I don’t say a single word for like five minutes,” Grisham said. “And then the match ends and we got to do like the promo going to the next fight and he goes, ‘Okay, you can talk now.’”
The incident left a lasting impression on Grisham, not just because of the outburst, but because it showed how volatile working under McMahon could be. “He was so angry at me over that,” Grisham said, emphasizing that the comment itself was harmless and even company-approved in spirit.
Grisham noted that this type of treatment wasn’t unusual. “Like every day, all day,” he said when asked how often McMahon would yell in his ear. He even summed up his WWE role: “I used to describe it to my wife at the time. I would say, ‘I go to WWE to get mentally abused for two hours a week and then I come home and I get paid well for it.’ That was my job description.”
Looking back, Grisham believes the Morrison incident perfectly represents the tightrope announcers had to walk. “It was basically trying to avoid landmines from Vince McMahon,” he said. “Don’t say this. Don’t say that.” He added that it forced him into a very cautious style on commentary. “I was very vanilla, more than I would ever normally be, just to stay employed.”
While Grisham laughs about the situation now, he clearly remembers the humiliation of being silenced live on air over a single word.
