Bruce Prichard Aims To Dispel Misconceptions About Vince McMahon’s Creative Process

For years, fans and pundits have heard stories about the creative frustrations that often arose under Vince McMahon’s leadership in WWE. The prevalent narrative has been that McMahon would frequently scrap fully written episodes of his shows just hours before airtime, forcing writers to scramble for new storylines and segments, sometimes even during the live broadcast itself.

However, in a recent episode of his “Something to Wrestle” podcast, WWE executive Bruce Prichard sought to shift the blame away from McMahon, asserting that he was often the one responsible for such last-minute changes.

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 that’s what I do when we’re live and we have to rearrange because of timing or because of injuries.

Bruce Prichard emphasised that the creative team’s lack of control over unforeseen circumstances, such as injuries or segments running long, often necessitated these on-the-fly adjustments. He argued that the perception of Vince McMahon’s micromanagement and constant script rewrites was not entirely accurate.

People don’t understand it, because they think that, ‘Oh, you got control over everything,’ but you don’t have control over someone getting hurt. Sometimes you don’t have control over someone going 18 minutes heavy in a segment.. 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.

Bruce Prichard also attempted to provide context for Vince McMahon’s approach, suggesting that the WWE chairman’s desire to continuously improve the product until it aired live was the driving force behind the last-minute changes.

There was a need, maybe, in his mind, [that] until that show is on the air, live, you have an opportunity to make it better. Now, that’s all relative and that’s all personal feeling. I think that the general feeling was that we can make it better, and you’re going to keep going and re-look at it until it’s on the air.

Bruce Prichard Explains Who Is The Greatest Character in WWE History

WWE Executive Bruce Prichard also recently shared on his podcast that he feels The Undertaker is the greatest character in WWE history because of the time and effort Taker himself put into his gimmick.

H/t to Wrestling Inc