Andrew Ravens
George Barrios has offered an honest picture of what working with Vince McMahon was actually like, describing a man whose private personality bore little resemblance to the bombastic public figure that WWE fans came to know.
Speaking on the Two Man Power Trip podcast, the former WWE Co-President said the hardest part of his 12 years working alongside McMahon was not what people might expect — it was simply getting him to communicate.
His first impression of McMahon came during the interview process, and it immediately challenged the assumptions he had carried from watching him on television as a child.
“Met Vince during that process, and obviously, I had watched him as a kid and never put two and two together that he was actually the guy behind all of this. To me, he was the announcer in the yellow jacket,” Barrios said. “I met Vince, and I had my own perception that he was a loud, extroverted guy with strong opinions.
“In the 12 years I was with him, I saw it that very first day, a very quiet guy, more stoic, introverted. Very different than me. The hardest part of working with Vince, and it’s not what people expect, is the communication. He’s just a quiet, introverted guy.”
Barrios joined WWE in March 2008 as Chief Financial Officer before being promoted to Co-President alongside Michelle Wilson, working directly with McMahon throughout his tenure. He departed in January 2020 as part of what WWE described as a management transition, before returning briefly as a TKO board member from December 2022 to September 2023. Since leaving the company, Barrios has served as Founder and Co-CEO of Isos Capital Management and taken on several board and advisory roles across various organizations.
McMahon resigned from all roles at WWE and TKO in January 2024 after former employee Janel Grant filed a sex trafficking lawsuit against him and WWE, which he denies.
