Former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. shared his thoughts on the AEW backstage drama on the most recent episode of the “Wrestling with Freddie” podcast. He also discussed some things that he heard from friends working for the company, and said the following:
“This should have been about the return of MJF. He’s going against CM Punk, which was the best storyline in wrestling in the last 20 freakin years, and because of a bunch of backstage bullsh*t, everybody’s talking about guys that aren’t even wrestling for the friggin championship. They’re not talking about this storyline. MJF was a friggin afterthought which is disgusting.”
“If they’re just making all this up to get people to go, ‘Oh, we got to have a big media conference thing like UFC and get people to talk about it’, and all this backstage fighting and calling people clowns and children, if this is a work, they screwed up. That’s bad writing because everyone should be talking about MJF. They should be talking about professional wrestlers, not goofy Soap Opera drama stuff backstage.”
“Apparently, CM Punk does not like a handful of people in the locker room, a large handful of people. It seems like it’s The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega based on comments that he said, talking about EVPs, executive vice presidents that should not be EVPs because they behave like children. He said a lot of hardcore stuff. He sounds a lot like John Cena when CM Punk was the one saying a lot of sh*t that people didn’t like, which is kind of weird. He said it. ‘If you have a problem with me, come confront me.’ He needs to do the exact same thing. I hope he is. Apparently there was some confrontation backstage, which is I think the only good part of this whole thing because hopefully they can just have the fist, beat each other’s ass, and then it’s done. That’s how men solved things in the 80s and 90s. It just stopped one day. I don’t know why. That’s why we have these ongoing 30-year beefs now because nobody just gets cracked.”
“It’s bad there, man. There’s no leadership. He was saying stuff in front of his boss that was making Tony cringe and become this shrinking violet, and that’s his boss. So there is no leadership backstage. Things have to be a mess back there. They have to find someone that everyone universally respects that can, not have a wrestlers court, but at least, or maybe that’s what they need is a wrestlers court. I mean, one of their EVPs, Adam Page, said he doesn’t need advice. He doesn’t take advice. I know a lot of actors that talk like that and they’re in their 20s, and I’m like, ‘Yo man. This is Peter Falk. You like not going to take a minute?’ They said, ‘I’m going to do what brought me here.’ All right, dog.”
“I don’t know what’s going on there. I have a couple of friends who work there who just say it sucks backstage. They need leadership or someone from the outside that is in a position of power above the EVPs that ain’t having this or at least can bring people together and say have it, like hash it out right now even if that means you guys gotta throw some punches. I’ll drive you to the doctor as soon as it’s over. I don’t know what’s going on there, but if they don’t get their sh*t together, Triple H is going to run away with the wrestling business. Run away with it.”
“Even if he’s right, even if he’s dead on, to bury your boss like that is, listen, you know, I’m working hard to start my own promotion to pull this off in a way that’s different from these other guys. I would never have a post-scrum because I don’t care about that stuff. But if I did, and one of my talents spoke like that, and I was sitting right there, it wouldn’t be in front of everybody. I wouldn’t rip them apart in front of everyone. But I would stand up. I would say ‘The media scrim is over. Punk, you stay right there, or whoever it was, you sit right there. Everybody get out.’ In that room, he or she isn’t going to work there ever again, or they’re going to know who their boss is. It’s one or the other. They’re walking out, getting fired, or playing ball. Even if he’s right, that was crazy and it stole all the limelight off the MJF-CM Punk storyline, which is what everybody should be talking about.”
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
