Vince McMahon Convinced Tyson Kidd To Take Producer Role By Saying “You’ll Be Like Me”
Tyson Kidd on his current role in WWE.
On June 1, 2015, Tyson Kidd suffered a severe neck/spine injury after landing wrong while taking a muscle buster from Samoa Joe. The injury left Kidd temporarily paralyzed and effectively ended his wrestling career. No longer being able to wrestle every day, Kidd went into a deep depression that included less working out and more beers and video games. It wasn’t until two years later that Kidd pulled himself out of his funk and returned to WWE. In June 2017, WWE officially hired Kidd to be a backstage producer.
Speaking to Jan Murphy of The Kingston Whig Standard, Wilson discussed the transition from being a wrestler to now producing.
“That was (Vince McMahon’s) idea,” Kidd said. “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.”
Kidd continued, “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.”
The article notes that Kidd works as a producer on Raw and works with the likes of Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler. Fightful reported over the summer that Kidd produced many of the women’s segment on the SmackDown brand leading up to SummerSlam.
Kidd seems to relish working with the female talent.
“We gel well,” Kidd said. “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.”
Fit Finlay is highly praised by the female superstars for his role behind the scenes. Natalya called him “the driving force behind the women’s division” prior to WWE Evolution.
