Karl Anderson Recalls Early Meeting With Vince McMahon, WWE Being A ‘Political Insane Asylum’

The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) made an immediate impact in WWE, attacking The Usos on the April 11, 2016 episode of Raw and then attacking Roman Reigns the week after.

Anderson & Gallows joined WWE alongside AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura as the four NJPW stars made their way stateside.

For Anderson, he had to get used to how things worked in WWE, which included forming a relationship with the boss Vince McMahon.

“We debuted in the Staples Center,” Anderson recalled on Talk’n Shop. “The very next week was England Raw. We were going to attack Roman Reigns that night. He was the WWE Champion at that time. Me and Gallows do whatever we’re told. That’s just the way we came up. I didn’t realize WWE was a completely political insane asylum where you weasel around and try to get different things done, which really confused me at first. Then I figured it out and was like, ‘wow, this is place is fucked.’ I just asked, ‘Hey, does Vince want us to wear the same exact clothes we wore last week or does he want us to wear different clothes? Why would we wear the same exact clothes, this week? Are we broke? Are we poor? Do we just bring the same clothes?’ They’re like, ‘Well, what you should do is go in there and talk to him.’ We got an opportunity to walk in with Vince. We sit down and he goes, ‘What can I do for you fellas?’ We go, ‘Well, Vince, we just want to know if you want us to wear the same clothes last week when we debuted.’ He goes, ‘Jesus Christ, that was easy. Gray for you, black for him. Yes, I wish all these meetings were easy.’ He laughed, big hug. He goes, ‘Is that it?’ ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘You guys made a hell of an impact last week, thanks a lot.’ As I walked away, I was like, ‘Fuck, that was an opportunity we missed’ to maybe just talk to him. Brother with him a little bit. Just do something. He was almost expecting a complaint or something else. That part has eaten at me forever because that’s the whole American and WWE mentality that I’ve learned to find out the way it’s supposed to be.”

Anderson was then asked if he had other meetings with Vince throughout his time in the company.

He replied, “We sat with him a couple of times, but it was never about trying to do this or that. It was just, ‘Hey Vince, do you think this is okay? Do you mind us being doctors? Should we not be funny?’ He said, ‘I think it adds another layer to your character.’ ‘Okay, you like it?’ ‘Yes.’ That was it and we walked away. We were booked to be doctors, we liked it and think it’s funny. Then an agent goes, ‘You should talk to Vince about this. Make sure he doesn’t want you to be too funny.'”

Anderson noted that he didn’t want to throw the agent under the bus, so he didn’t provide the name.

Gallows & Anderson were released by WWE in April 2020. They signed with IMPACT Wrestling once their non-compete clauses were up and are now featured on IMPACT, AEW, and NJPW television.

They are set to defend the IMPACT Tag Team Titles on Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite against the Dark Order.

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