Chael Sonnen Says Vince McMahon Offered Him $5 Million To Leave UFC For WWE
Former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight Chael Sonnen revealed on his podcast entitled You’re Welcome that Vince McMahon offered Sonnen $5 million to jump ship from the UFC to WWE.
Sonnen discussed the matter with WWE writer John Piermarini, who appeared on Sonnen’s podcast on Wednesday.
“Here’s the nuts and bolts of it: I was offered $5 million by Vince McMahon. Now, I was still under contract with the UFC and I never took this to Dana. I handled it on my own. I told WWE, ‘No’ and that was the end of that. I never told Dana White this story, but here’s why I didn’t tell him. I knew if I called Dana and said, ‘I’ve got a $5 million offer from Vince McMahon,’ Dana would have matched it.”
Sonnen’s UFC career ended a lot earlier than Sonnen wanted it to back in June, when he tested positive for two banned, non-performance-enhancing substances, Anastrozole and Clomiphene.
Sonnen subsequently failed a random drug test, testing positive for three performance-enhancing substances, human growth hormone (HGH), recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO), and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). After his failed drug tests, Sonnen was unapologetic for taking performance-enhancing drugs.
After Sonnen’s multiple drug test failures, he was suspended for two years by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
In an interview with WWE superstar and Fozzy lead singer Chris Jericho on Jericho’s podcast Talk is Jericho, Sonnen said that WWE had been interested in hiring him in the past, but after his failed drug tests, WWE called him to inform him that they were no longer interested in him unless rival promotion TNA tried to sign him.
“I got a call about two days before I was suspended. A WWE exec calls me up, and he said, ‘We read what you’re going through, we’re not interested.’ So I’m thinking, ‘Why did you call me?’ He said ‘If you were 24 years old, you’d be making a whole jackpot full of money. But we think TNA is going to be calling you and if they do, we want back in the game.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, now at least I get we’re you’re coming from.'”
Since Sonnen’s suspension, he’s been dabbling into a bit of everything. On October 3, Sonnen teamed up with former WWE play-by-play announcer Jim Ross to call a one-night MMA tournament. Sonnen also competed in a jiu-jitsu match for Metamoris over the summer against Andre Galvao.
Now, Sonnen has entered the podcast world, and, who knows, maybe the door is still open for Sonnen to join WWE.
[Image via TMZ.com]
