Posted By James Walsh on 10/30/25


During the Something to Wrestle podcast, JBL (John Layfield) and Conrad Thompson discussed Brad Maddox being fired by Vince McMahon for using the word “picks” in a 2015 WWE promo. Here was the exchange…

Conrad: “Is it true that that was all based on him using the word prick in a promo?”

JBL: “Yes, I think it was. Yeah. I talked to Vince. I, you know, talked with Vince a lot. I flew with Vince a lot. Vince told me one day, he goes, ‘That kid’s special.’ That’s the only time I ever heard him say that, you know. Now, he said nicer things about people, but I remember the way he said it — he thought, like, ‘that kid’s got it,’ you know. And man, you don’t hear that from Vince very much. Vince really liked Maddox. Then when he went out there — I’m sitting there waiting, it was like a pre-show, and I’m sitting there waiting to go out with Michael Cole — and that’s when Maddox called the fans a bunch of pricks or something. He comes back and Vince fired him. Vince hated that word. He thought that was a classless word.

I’ve told you before, it’s one of the few times I got in trouble. All the stuff I’ve said on commentary, all the stuff I’ve said in promos — one of the few times I ever got in trouble was when I called someone a selfish prick, I believe, or egotistical prick, or something like that. Vince pulled me aside. He said, ‘We have sponsors here, we have all these people here — you can’t use language like that.’ It’s something about that word that Vince hated. But yes, that was the word that got Maddox fired.”

Conrad: “Did you hear they used it on TV just last week?”

JBL: “I did. Yes, it was Becky Lynch, right?”

Conrad: “Yep. She called Paul Heyman a prick. Another reminder that, oh, Vince really is gone.”