The legendary action star Arnold Schwarzenegger once got former WWE star Jesse Ventura. In an interview on Chris Jericho’s “Talk is Jericho” podcast, Ventura’s agent/manager Barry Bloom opened up on the matter.
Arnold Schwarzenegger got Jesse Ventura fired
Director John McTiernan was also introduced to Ventura, and he shared the instant admiration reaction as Burch and Silver. Ventura was signed to “Predator” a week later, and it was only then that they decided to tell McMahon what happened.
Bloom recalled that Ventura’s initial attempts to reach then-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon by phone were unsuccessful he kept being told that McMahon was in a meeting and could not come out to speak whim him. When Ventura finally left word that he was calling to let McMahon know about his being cast in an Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Bloom said McMahon called back within a minute.
“And he said to him, ‘Well, do they have Schwarzenegger? Or do they say they have?'” Bloom said about McMahon’s reaction.
McMahon then asked who arranged the deal for the Schwarzenegger film and Ventura said it was Bloom. McMahon then allegedly declared Bloom to be fired, to which Ventura told him that Bloom was not a WWF employee. And since Ventura was not under contract to WWF at the time, there was nothing to prevent him from taking the film role.
Ventura completed his “Wrestlemania 2” duties and departed to Mexico for the “Predator” production. While south of the border, Bloom said, McMahon called to see if he could visit the set and meet Schwarzenegger to discuss a WrestleMania appearance.
“I did what I could to set them up,” Bloom said. “I believe he went down. Obviously, Arnold didn’t do something at that time. But it was interesting how it went from doubt of Jessie to the fact that he wanted to be able to get Arnold.”
Schwarzenegger would later make appearances with McMahon’s promotion and was inducted into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015.
