Bob Costas can get under your skin when he’s interviewing with his sharp, incisive questions, but he rankled WWE boss Vince McMahon so much in a 2001 faceoff that the wrestling federation boss wanted to punch him out.

The revelation was made in Jim Miller’s new book Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers … where both McMahon and Costas recalled just how combative it was, and remains, reported TMZ.

The pugnacious Costas peppered McMahon over the showboating of the WWE and the experimental XFL football league ratings and that drew so much ire that McMahon almost couldn’t take it.

“I was sitting there really pissed off and started thinking, I wish he wasn’t 5-feet high and 140 pounds. If he was 6-5 and 295, he would deserve to get the s**t beat out of him. I could have really given them some great television,” said McMahon.

“Once we were doing the interview, he kept interrupting me and interrupting me, and bringing up topics that had nothing to do with what we were supposed to be talking about,” McMahon said. Costas said he was tough but fair.