{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"HarmonyTALK","title":"Behind the Main Event: Jordan Mendal’s Life in WWE","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2264,"description":"What happens when your dream job turns out not to be your dream career?\nFor Jordan Mendal, the answer eventually involved The Rock, John Cena, Stone Cold Steve Austin, nearly three decades at WWE, and one unforgettable run-in with Mick Foley’s Mr. Socko.\nBut none of that was part of the original plan.\nOn this episode of HarmonyTALK, host Todd Stephens steps behind the curtain with Mendal, an award-winning sports and entertainment producer and WWE’s Vice President of Special Projects, for a funny, candid conversation about persistence, rejection and finding your place in an industry you love.\nGrowing up outside Chicago, Mendal wanted to become a sportscaster. He made it to Syracuse University’s legendary Newhouse School, where he was surrounded by future broadcasting stars and began to realize that his own path might lead somewhere other than the announcer’s booth.\nCall it a career pivot. In WWE language, maybe it was a power flip.\nWhat followed was hardly a straight shot to the main event.\nMendal started his career making $100 a week. He applied to NBA Entertainment and got rejected. He tried again. Another rejection.\nOn the third attempt, he landed the job.\nThen came an opportunity at WWE, despite one fairly significant complication.\nHe wasn’t really a wrestling fan.\nWWE needed a producer. Mendal knew how to produce. The rest, he figured, he could learn.\nNearly 30 years later, he has helped create the stories around some of WWE’s most recognizable Superstars and worked across a sports entertainment operation that moves from RAW and SmackDown to WrestleMania and beyond.\nHe also knows what happens when the person behind the camera suddenly becomes part of the show.\nOne night, Mendal was drafted into a live television segment opposite The Rock and Mick Foley, playing a media critic and WWE “heel” in front of a sold-out arena.\nHis reward?\nMr. Socko.\nMendal survived the segment, and the fans even recognized him afterward.\nBut behind the laughs is a career built on...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/Ee5Gp6RaczE7AweMg9xhmD_JTcZkBJuuAV7D-psKneY/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS85MzRl/MjdiODU2ZTljMjZk/MGI5MDU3MWI5ODUz/NThlMi5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}