Interesting Interview with Former WWE writer

[Strummer]

PWI:

 

Comedian Patrice O'Neal was on today's Opie and Anthony. During the interview, he discussed his time working as a writer for World Wrestling Entertainment, bringing up last night's Smackdown angle featuring The Undertaker and Muhammad Hussan.

 

O'Neal ran down the angle as Opie and Anthony hadn't seen it, mentioning the parental advisory at the start of last night's Smackdown. He then described the angle, comparing the masked men to being similar in appearance to terrorists on the "beheading videos" and Daivari "being carried out like a martyr." Opie and Anthony noted that they thought Vince McMahon had lost his mind.

 

O'Neal noted that he wrote for the company and used to fly with Vince McMahon in his lear jet. O'Neal said there are several people you will meet in your life where you will "completely lose your manliness" and Vince McMahon is one of them. He says that he was at McMahon's house in Stamford during rewrites and was like a little girl when McMahon spoke to him because McMahon is a "powerful dude." He said Vince "is a cold dude."

 

O'Neal then told a story about a wrestler who work a turban (Tiger Ali Singh). He says that none of the wrestlers talk to McMahon except for the "big guys" mentioning Triple H and Undertaker by name. He says that Singh came up to McMahon saying, "My family asks if you can please stop making fun of my turban because my people..." McMahon then told him, "Shut up and put on the turban. Get out there with the stupid turban."

 

Opie and Anthony looked at the angle, noting it was taped on Tuesday and was a coincidence over the timing of the London bombing. Opie and Anthony said, "It was a touchy subject" and said they "reenacted a beheading on WWE."

 

O'Neal said when he was working for the company, he was the fourth man down on the totem pole. He said there was a "skinny white kid" that was Vince's right hand man (Bryan Gerwitz?) He said that they are very corporate and you have to be committed to their cause. He said that he was fired by Stephanie McMahon six times, because she kept calling him back and firing him. He said that she didn't get that comics get fired and didn't matter to him that he was fired because he was comic. He noted that he was fired because he had a show and couldn't make a WWF date. He said Stephanie's reaction was, "What? You're committed to WWE!"

 

O'Neal joked that he met Steve Austin and that was "good enough for me." He said that he took from the experience how powerful Vince McMahon was and that The Rock was "cooler than he should have been...he was just too accessible." He said that The Rock was just like a regular guy to everyone.

 

O'Neal then discussed the importance of writers in the company, saying the wrestlers "kissed the writers' asses" because they created the storylines and made the stars. He said that the writers write everything, although the bigger stars like Kurt Angle get some leeway.

 

He said Vince McMahon runs everything else with an iron fist and is everywhere making sure everything from the pyro to the lines goes right. He did several imitations of McMahon's voice during the discussion

[Guest Sass]

Good shit, Stephanie sounds batshit crazy.

 

He noted that he was fired because he had a show and couldn't make a WWF date. He said Stephanie's reaction was, "What? You're committed to WWE!"

HHH is committed so much that he married her too.

[Resident Evil]

I don't really have anything to say. I just want to say thanks for everyone for posting all sorts of informative, interesting interviews here. Behind the scenes of wrestling is sometimes more entertaining than what goes on in the ring.