Vince McMahon Told Tyson Kidd “You’ll Be Just Like Me” When Taking Producer Job With WWE

You never know where your WWE career might take you when you first start your journey. For Tyson Kidd, he was able to translate his time in the ring and years of experience into something very special even after a career-ending neck injury.
It couldn’t have been easy for Tyson Kidd to sit at home after being on the road for years. But pro wrestling was still a great love of his, but he wasn’t allowed to see her. His wife would come home off the road and he wouldn’t be present for Natalya’s stories on Total Divas either. The rumors at the time was that they didn’t want to feature an injured wrestler on the coach taking care of the cats.
But in time, Kidd was able to make a return to the WWE, only he utilized his incredible mind for pro wrestling into a fruitful producer role backstage. He opened up to Slam Sports about his transition from injured retired pro wrestler to active WWE producer and apparently, it was something Vince McMahon himself had to coerce him into taking on.

“I finally stopped being super stubborn. Once I actually opened up communication with WWE, it made me feel better. I was like, ‘Oh man, I’m an idiot. I should have dealt with this from the start.’ But sometimes we need to go through our stuff to kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“That was [Vince McMahon’s] idea. He thought I’d be good at it or I could get good at it.(McMahon) said to me, ‘You’ll be like me.'”
“I didn’t know if I’d be good at it and I didn’t know what all it entailed. I didn’t know if I would get any real fulfillment out of it. But right off the bat, maybe two weeks in, I was a part of a battle royal and I had an idea that Tye Dillinger would be one of the last three guys. I thought his ’10’ stuff was getting over and I thought it would be good and he could have a good showing. I’ve been given those same things where maybe you’re not being super featured but they throw you a little something and then see what happens out of it.”
“The audience was completely with (Dillinger). When he came back, he was happy and I felt that fulfilment (McMahon referred to), which now I’ve felt a million times over. I love my job. I’ve been doing this now almost a year and a half and I haven’t taken a week off yet.”
“I’m most happy that I found happiness in a different role that’s still involved in what I’ve done my whole life. There was a time where, like I said, I wasn’t really watching that much and I didn’t really get much joy out of watching. It was just too hard. I didn’t get enjoyment out of watching it. So I’m happy that I saw the light and that I was able to get through that.”

Tyson is booking a lot of women’s matches at this point and he commented about how well that works for him. He said that he gets where they’re coming from and being able to work with his wife Natalya also helped the situation out for him.

“We gel well. I get where they’re coming from. It’s really cool because there have been a few of them that I’ve literally seen it click right there while we’re talking. I’ve seen it click for them and then they’re off to the races. They don’t really need me after that. I trained Nattie how to wrestle and I helped her with a million matches so I understand how to kind of work with the women, maybe not to the degree of Fit (Finlay) because he’s been doing it forever and he molded that entire division from scratch basically. But I think I’m not a bad apprentice.”

Only time will tell what is next for Tyson Kidd in WWE, but his in-ring career is over. That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t make a good authority figure eventually. But right now he is benefiting the backstage culture and product on the screen in big ways that some fans might never realize.
Injuries aren’t the end of a wrestler’s career in the pro wrestling business, but adjustments need to be made. It has worked for so many throughout the years, and while it’s a shame that a Muscle Buster from Samoa Joe during a dark match on Raw had to end Kidd’s career in the ring, but at least he’s happy and able to do what he can to continue being a part of the WWE Universe.