Bruce Prichard Explains The “Catch-22” Of Booking WrestleMania
WrestleMania can mark new beginnings in WWE but as fans saw in the spring of 2023, not only stories end at the show of shows and now Bruce Prichard has explained the “catch-22” of producing the company’s biggest show of the year.
At WrestleMania 39, many fans were expecting to see Cody Rhodes dethrone Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and finish his story by capturing the title that his legendary father Dusty Rhodes never did. But those fans were left disappointed as Reigns shockingly retained, continuing his historic reign.
Speaking on his Something To Wrestle podcast, WWE executive Bruce Prichard explained what he sees as the balance of ending stories and starting new ones at WrestleMania as he reflected on the PPV which came after the event in 1997:
“Different people look at WrestleMania in different ways. Some people look at it as the end. Some people look at it as the beginning. So, there’s a lot of both.
“You try to have that variety where you’re not just ending stories, but you’re starting new ones, and that’s that fine line that you have to walk to make sure that, ‘Alright, you’re gonna build something up for the big climax, and we also have to build something up for the first one where you want to see a lot more of that going further.’ So it’s a Catch-22.”
For context, following The Undertaker’s win over Sycho Sid for the WWE Title in the main event of WrestleMania 13, the WWE Hall of Famer defended his title against Mankind the following month. However, Bret Hart and Steve Austin did clash again just one month ever their famed submission match on the grandest stage of them all.