Very few sports figures are as legendary and as synonymous with a particular sport as John Madden. His voice and likeness will forever be immortalized following his passing two years ago at the age of 85. But, while most will remember Madden for his career as an announcer for the NFL (and Super Bowl-winning head coach), there was a time when the iconic figure could've joined the WWE at a WrestleMania.
According to WWE Executive Director, Bruce Prichard, the WWE tried to get Madden to cast at a WrestleMania.
Here's what Prichard shared at the Something to Wrestle podcast: John Madden, man, we tried for such a long time. [Getting] John Madden to do color commentary for WrestleMania was our goal for the longest time. We thought he was a perfect fit. John was a fan, John wanted to do it, but John didn't travel by plane.
In order to get John to our destination of WrestleMania on the three times, at least I worked on and tried to make happen, it just feasibly couldn't take place because where John was in the country with his bus, but I would have loved to have had John Madden to do color commentary with Gorilla or Vince for an entire WrestleMania, and he knew it. He knew the show. He knew the characters. He loved the characters.