Former WWE Superstar Discusses His Connection With Vince McMahon

Performing under the name Darren Young, Fred Rosser enjoyed a seven-year run in WWE, ultimately becoming the face of its LGBTQ community outreach when he came out in 2013 — the first openly gay wrestler in WWE's history. In a new interview with the "Ten Count" podcast's Steve Fall, Rosser opened up about coming out, and how former WWE boss Vince McMahon initially responded.

"It was Vince McMahon that actually reached out to me when I came out publicly and we talked for 20 minutes and it was really genuine," Rosser said, recalling how McMahon spoke about his close friendship with Pat Patterson, who was also gay. "It was a good talk." Initially debuting as part of Nexus in 2010, Rosser went on to become a mainstay in WWE's tag team division alongside Titus O'Neil as The Prime Time Players. The duo won the WWE Tag Team Championship in 2015 before parting ways. Rosser then became Bob Backlund's onscreen protégé before he was later released in 2017.

"I'll never say a bad thing about Vince McMahon because a lot of people don't know that he was the one who gave me that opportunity with Bob Backlund," Rosser said, going on to reference McMahon's recent fall from grace and retirement as WWE Chairman in the wake of internal company investigations into his alleged misconduct. "You can say what you want about Vince McMahon, but when I proposed the idea about teaming with Bob Backlund, he listened to me and my ideas and I sold him on it and we ran with it. It's just unfortunate that people who worked under Vince McMahon didn't have my back."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Ten Count" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.