Details on Vince McMahon making people sell brooms and water in WWE auditions
Former WWE on-screen personality Todd Pettengill has recalled how he had to sell a bottle of water to Vince McMahon during his WWE tryout.
Pettengill worked for WWE between 1993 and 1997 as a host and backstage interviewer. He is due to co-host the NXT TakeOver: In Your House Global Press Conference with NXT commentator Wade Barrett on Saturday.
Ahead of his upcoming WWE appearance, Pettengill spoke to John Poz on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast about his time in WWE. Discussing his audition, the former radio host disclosed Vince McMahon’s interesting interview technique:
“I went for an audition,” Pettengill said. “I think he wanted to make sure I was at least competent on camera. You hear the audio part [on radio] but yeah, when you interview for Vince, you’re given a broom or a bottle of water to sell, so I was given the bottle of water. And it was just like, ‘Alright, sell me this. Talk for two minutes. Go.’ A lot of people get the broom, a lot of people get the water. That’s how it went.”
Pettengill said he received his WWE audition because Linda McMahon and Vince McMahon enjoyed listening to him on the radio. He believes his career in radio set him up perfectly to succeed in his WWE audition and as a backstage interviewer.
Vince McMahon asked Eric Bischoff to sell him a broom
Before joining WCW in 1991, Eric Bischoff unsuccessfully auditioned with WWE to become a backstage interviewer in 1990. Footage of the audition can be seen from the two-minute mark of Bischoff’s first interview on the 'Legends With JBL' series on the WWE Network.
Speaking from behind the camera, Vince McMahon could be heard telling Bischoff to sell him a broom:
“Sell me that broom, okay?” McMahon said. “It can be an imaginary broom, a magic broom, whatever it may be. But sell me that broom.”
Brooms and water are not the only items that WWE interviewees have been asked to sell in auditions.
In 2018, WWE released footage of Renee Paquette (f.k.a. Renee Young) interviewing for a job with the company. As the video above shows, she was told to sell a pet groomer during her audition.
Please credit the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.