Barstool CEO Erika Nardini Details Conversations With Vince McMahon At WWE Fastlane

Barstool CEO and WWE Board of Directors member Erika Nardini attended WWE Fastlane on Sunday to take in the WWE experience first hand.

Speaking on her Token CEO podcast, Nardini recalled her experience at the event and conversations with Vince McMahon.

“The most inspiring thing about Vince McMahon is he thinks about things from a fan perspective. It gives me comfort from a Barstool perspective because I see so many similarities between Dave [Portnoy] and Vince and what we’re trying to do. We were talking about WrestleMania and Vince was saying he gasps every time he sees the price for WrestleMania tickets. ‘Can you believe people are paying for this?’ He’s been in this business for decades,” she said. “Vince and I were talking about, ‘Where do you put the camera if you’re trying to show someone in the ring and off-stage.’ He said, ‘Most people would put the camera behind the shoulder of the person off-stage, so you see the person in the ring. No, you have to do it differently because you always have to have eyes like the fan. The eyes of the fan look over the wrestler’s shoulder to the person off-stage.’ Little things like that make a huge difference in the point of view of the product.”

Nardini noted that she was a Roman Reigns fan because of how he carries himself and Vince explained his thinking when it comes to characters and revealing layers little by little.

She said about Vince’s thinking, “Vince was saying, ‘everyone has to start in a box. People like boxes and you have to start in a box, but if you show glimpses of being something other than what people expect from you in your box, that’s where stories get interesting.'”

Nardini continued, talking about her conversations with Vince on the plane about planning that goes into WWE.

“I was asking Vince on the plane, ‘how early are the shows ready? How far in advance is Fastlane produced?’ He’s like, ‘We’re in a business where spontaneity matters. A little bit of chaos at the finish line is a great thing because it means it’s real, it’s vibrant, and you’re reacting to exactly what is happening right now,” she said.

Nardini was elected to the WWE Board of Directors on October 5, 2020.

If you missed anything from WWE Fastlane, check out Fightful’s full report on the show by clicking here.

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