The late, great Patrice O’Neal is primarily remembered for his stand-up comedy and his many appearances on the Opie and Anthony radio show, but there was a point in his early career where he briefly wrote for Vince McMahon’s WWE (which, at the time, was still called WWF). Around November 2000, someone from the WWF caught one of O’Neal’s performances, and he was approached about working for the company shortly thereafter. As a wrestling fan, it was a dream gig for O’Neal, but he later admitted that he only took the job for the bragging rights. It’s unclear how long O’Neal actually lasted; some reports claim his stint was as short as a week, while the timeline of his stories places him in and out of the company between 2000 and 2002.
During that time, O’Neal got to fly on McMahon’s private jet, rub elbows with some of the biggest wrestlers in the business, and even direct a couple of WWF vignettes. While speaking with Atlantic City Weekly in 2010, O’Neal said that McMahon was one of the only people he’d met in his life that he was in complete awe of. He also said the experience was “short and sweet” because he didn’t make it far enough to deal with anything really negative. O’Neal did, however, get to appear on-screen with Chyna for a few segments from Sunday Night Heat:
Patrice O’Neal Once Got His Dream WWE Job, but It Was Over Almost Immediately
Shortly before his death in 2011, O’Neal spoke with Triple H on Opie and Anthony, and humorously recalled how Triple H’s wife, Stephanie McMahon, gave him the axe back in the day. According to O’Neal, Stephanie fired him four times during a single conversation. Part of the problem, evidently, was O’Neal’s commitment to stand-up. That didn’t sit well with Stephanie because of the WWF’s focus on the brand over everything else, which O’Neal remembered thinking was very cult-like.
In another radio interview featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, O’Neal called Johnson one of the nicest people he’d ever met. He shared similar sentiments about Chris Jericho as well. After learning of O’Neal’s passing in November 2011, Jericho had the following to say on Twitter: “Sad to hear about Patrice O’Neal…I met him when he was a WWE writer and worked [with] him many times. Sweet guy and very funny! God bless [you] man.”
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