Before he became the villainous on-screen owner of WWE, Vince McMahon was a commentator with plenty of memorable quotes!

The wrestling industry was shocked several weeks ago when it was announced that The Chairman of WWE, Vince McMahon, was retiring from active duty. While the fans are all too happy to see how Triple H will run creative, we can always look back and reminisce on the man who in a lot of ways shaped so many of our childhoods.

Related: Vince McMahon & 9 Other Special Guest Referees For WWE World Title Matches

He certainly shaped them with characters and storylines, but up until Survivor Series 1997, Vince McMahon was also predominantly the voice of his company. Vince McMahon was a commentator for WWE since his father ran things. In that time, he amassed a slew of memorable spots sitting behind the desk.

Vince McMahon might be a huge wrestling fan, but in the grand scheme of the business of the business, he wasn’t wasting time learning how to say complicated names for moves. He was never going to call a huge move like a “tope suicida,” or even a Piledriver. Instead, he’d simply exclaim “What a maneuver!” As Chairman, he has nine millions other things to do and couldn’t be bothered with researching names for moves.

For months, Paul Bearer had warned The Undertaker that his brother Kane was alive and was coming for vengeance.

Related: 10 Matches You Forgot Kane Competed In

In the midst of The Phenom obliterating Shawn Michaels inside the first ever Hell In A Cell, the arena went dark and then red as ominous music played. Paul Bearer was walking behind a huge monster that Vince McMahon let the world know, “That’s gotta be Kane!”

Since right after WrestleMania 11, Vince McMahon knew Shawn Michaels should be a babyface and the build to his crowning moment began the very next night on Raw. The road went all the way to WrestleMania 12 and the Iron Man match between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. Once Shawn won, Vince declared the iconic line “the boyhood dream has come true for Shawn Michaels.”

When you’re calling the action, you have to try and build up the anticipation during a match. The commentators try to sell every big move like it the end of the match. Plenty of commentators from Jim Ross to Gordon Solie to Micheal Cole all do it almost to a comical proportion.

Related: 10 Times WWE Announcers Ruined Big Moments

Vince McMahon did it too of course. Whenever the big moves were pulled off, he’d bellow out during the pinfall “1, 2, he got him - no he didn’t” as a wrestler kicked out.

During a match featuring Koko B. Ware and Frenchy Martin from Madison Square Garden, commentary between The Chairman and The Body, Jesse Ventura, seemingly things were getting heated between the two. McMahon consistently ripped into Jesse’s Hollywood and football departures and how lazy The Body was. Jesse explained that when you have a great manager you don’t need to work hard to make money. McMahon broke Kayfabe a little bit (if you knew he was the boss) and said “I can relate to that,” referring to Jesse and his manager’s negotiating skills.

Every so often, the heel Chairman would get behind the desk to call the action. He’d still retain a modicum of not being bias. During the Half-Time Heat empty arena brawl between The Rock and Mankind, McMahon was on the call. During the match, McMahon would show cracks in his biasness towards The People’s champion. Towards the end of the contest, Mankind and The Rock did battle near a forklift and Mankind politely asked the operator to move. Vince was incredulous about it and intoned “he said please?!”

Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper always had a contentious relationship. But the Chairman certainly knew what a great performer Roddy was in the ring and out of it. During the October 4, 1986, edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, Hot Rod went on one of his classic rampages, and Vince was there to call the action. Piper had come to the show injured and demanded his replacement, former WWE Champion to leave the ring. He faced The Iron Sheik basically on one leg and managed to quickly defeat Sheikybaby. But as he stood ready to swing a crutch at The Sheik, McMahon was marveling at “the look on that lunatic’s face.”

There is a section of the audience that bemoans the days of Vince on commentary. But if anyone knows how to tell the story that he as the promoter wants to be told. During the 1992 SummerSlam WWE championship battle between The Ultimate Warrior and The Macho Man, Savage had found himself outside the ring.

Related: SummerSlam 1992: Every Match Ranked From Worst To Best

Bobby Heenan had celebrated all Randy had to do was get counted out to retain. Vince chimes in with his insight that winning by countout wouldn’t be enough and that he had to prove he could beat the Warrior.

One of the scariest moments in wrestling history came at the hands of the icy cold Jake The Snake Roberts, who had been goading Randy Savage to fight him. Savage at that point was in a forced retirement but had been urging fans to help him get reinstated. On one fateful Saturday afternoon, Jake would get Savage to try and get physical, but ultimately The Macho Man was tied in the ropes and Jake would do the unthinkable and sic his cobra on Savage. The boss was just as shocked, bellowing “that snake better be de-venomized, it better be!”