Val Venis has divulged the origin of his initial gimmick when he first debuted for WWE in 1998.

Speaking with Andy Malnoske from Wrestling Inc., Venis revealed that, unsurprisingly, it was Vince McMahon who came up with the idea.

“I think it was successful because it was clearly something that was new, innovative, envelope-pushing, it was controversial,” he said.

“Vince McMahon came up with the name ‘Val Venis’ and the general idea of the character,” he admitted. “Of course, the towel, the ‘hello, ladies,’ and the jokes, they all came about as we were developing the character after producing a couple of vignettes that would introduce the character. It was in development from day one and continued to evolve. It took a long time to really develop into the towel-wearing, ‘hello ladies’ character that ultimately it blew up into.”

During his time with the company, Venis would become a two-time Intercontinental champion, a European champion, and a Tag Team champion with then-partner, Lance Storm.

After his initial gimmick, Venis would eventually shift into a new role, joining the Right To Censor and introducing a major change to his character. Val would continue wrestling for the company under different gimmicks until his release in 2009.