The “Andrew Thompson Interviews” YouTube Channel shared the following with us, an interview with former WWE Head of Security James Tillis. Here are the highlights:
James Tillis recalls taking Vince McMahon to his doctor after Vince tore both of his quads:
“When Mr. McMahon got injured once, and I had to take him back to one of his doctors the next day and he had hurt both his legs. And just to give you an idea, I’m not trying to blow smoke at you or anything. It’s just that him and Shane, they just [have] an unbelievable toughness, but anyway, I had to take him back to a doctor in I believe it was in… Georgia? I’m not sure.
But I had to take him on the plane and we get onto this private jet and I’m holding his leg, while somebody was trying to scoot a prop up under his leg and somebody said something to me and I turned to answer, dropped his leg. He was like, ‘What the hell!!?’ And his wife was there and I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ He looks at me and goes, ‘Are you kidding me!?’ That was probably one of the funniest things.”
James on the first time he met Batista/telling Batista he couldn’t come into the backstage area without an appointment:
“One day we were in Boston, and I used to keep the backstage clear and Mr. McMahon didn’t want anybody backstage. That was the number one rule. You could not get backstage, especially when I was there, and I kept that backstage clear. [A] gentleman came up to me and I said, ‘Excuse me sir, who are you here to see?’ He says, ‘I’m here to see Johnny Laurainitis.’ I said, ‘Do you have an appointment?’
He says no. I believe he said no… so I had to ask him to leave backstage, and he became one of my closest friends, after he’s a four-time WWE Champion, he’s the second biggest actor in Hollywood right now and I just look at him and go, ‘Oh my God’ — Dave Bautista, and he was a gentleman. He was a gentleman. He was like, ‘Okay.’ The next day, he came back, he had that appointment, the rest is history.”
