Former WWE Star Mace Recalls Match With Top Talent That Vince McMahon Rejected

While Mace's run in WWE is largely remembered for being either a model or a member of the reviled stable Retribution, he also once had a brief brush-up against Brock Lesnar. The angle occurred in 2019 when Mace was working as a commentator on "WWE Raw" as Dio Maddin, with Mace confronting Lesnar after the then WWE Champion got in the face of Jerry Lawler, leading to Lesnar F'5ing Mace through the announcer's table.

In an interview with "WrestlingNewsCo," Mace discussed the angle with Lesnar, and how it left him hoping that there may be a follow-up between the two. In the end, however, Vince McMahon was ultimately against the idea of the angle going further.

"In that...maybe three-week period of not knowing, I'm back in the ring and I'm training, cause I'm like 'Oh surely [we'll have a match],'" Mace said. "Because the segment did so well on everything. I looked at the numbers on Twitter, or X, and on YouTube. The numbers were tremendous, and the response...I'd never gotten a response like that for anything.

"And I'm like 'Man, even if I just get in the ring with Brock, and he kills me in 2 minutes, that could make my career, cause that's a cool story of the commentator that put on some boots and went toe to toe with Brock Lesnar, even if it's for a minute.' But as I understand it, Vince thought it would confuse the fans, cause they didn't know I was a wrestler. And then I had to go and become...I had to sneak back on to 'Raw' as a [member of] Retribution."

If you use quotes in this article, please credit "WrestlingNewsCo" and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription