
WWE Senior Vice President Bruce Prichard recently took to an episode of his โSomething To Wrestle Withโ podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including if there was chaos backstage when Vince McMahon missed shows.
Prichard said, โNo, not at all. I mean, it was โ you know, hereโs the thing, people are [like] โOh, my God.โ Everybody is trained. Everybody knows their jobs, and can function and do it. You take away one piece and everybody fills in, does their job, and covers whoever is gone as well. So to that I say, itโs like everybody thinks, โOh my god, if somebodyโs gone, itโs gonna just crumble.โ Not even close. Everybody is trained, and everybody is very good at their jobs and what they do, and they just do their jobs. There is no โ the rhetoric, the perception that it all just crumbles.โ
โAnd I think, you even look later on with Vince no longer in the picture, where itโs โOh, my God is gonna crumble.โ No, itโs not. Weโve been trained. Everybodyโs been trained for years to do their job. And we did it while he was there, and we did it without him. So thatโs what it is. And without him being there, it was not a lot. A lot of times โ you know, itโs funny. You read reports from people who arenโt there or have any clue. I would read reports that I wasnโt there, but yet I was there, literally in the building calling the show from an office. But because whoever the stooges were that were feeding the information back to the dirt sheet people didnโt know that. Had no clue, but yet itโs reported as fact. And itโs inaccurate. Itโs just lies, itโs just incorrect information. So same thing here. You know, it was like sometimes Vince was there, and sometimes when Vince wasnโt there, people didnโt even notice. Because people just did their jobs and carried on. And a lot of times, they donโt even know that until way down the road.โ
On there being fewer changes when McMahon is not at the show:
โLess, definitely less. So again, it just comes down to, youโre still talking to him. He has a phone, youโre going to be talking to him. But also, I would say that there was a need, maybe in his mind, to โ until that show is on the air live, that you have an opportunity to make it better. Now, thatโs all relative, and thatโs all personal feeling. I think that the general feeling was that, โWe can make it better.โ And youโre going to keep going until and relook at it until man, itโs on the air.โ
On the show being rewritten when itโs on the air:
โThen, I would say that you talk about rewriting the show during the show, I did that more than Vince McMahon ever has. I probably have done it more in a year than Vince McMahon has in a lifetime. Because thatโs what I do when weโre live and we have to rearrange because of timing, because of injuries, or because whatever comes up. And itโs just life, and thatโs the business, thatโs what you do. And people donโt understand it, because they think that, โOh, youโve got control over everything.โ But you donโt have control over someone getting hurt. Sometimes, you donโt have control over someone going 18 minutes heavy in a segment. And when that happens, 18 minutes is the equivalent of three segments on the show, that you have to make up. You still have to take those commercial breaks. You still have to make all this work.โ
โSo thatโs me, and thatโs what I would do. And I would go in and make those changes. It wasnโt Vince. And he gets painted with that brush and itโs not a brush of, โOh, hey, Iโm in the middle of the show. Letโs change it.โ No, there are reasons that we change it once that show starts. If things happen, or something doesnโt go right, then we have to go in and change it. And that would โ God, you know, itโs on a weekly basis. But it doesnโt happen every week. And thatโs a good thing. But when it does, we have to go in, and we have to kill it. Thatโs what I do.โ
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)