Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard

[El-P]

Looking back, it's kind of sad how WCW didn't know what to do with him after being forced to change his gimmick.

 

Agree, but it has to be said Traylor had some terrific matches with Vader & Sting in WCW though, before he kinda faded in the background. Didn't he got that contract where he was paid for every PPV even if he wasn't booked on them, only it was signed way before they went with 12 PPV's a year so he ended up collecting easy paycheks or being booked in meaningless matches just because he was being paid anyway ? Man, I miss WCW every day of my wrestling fandom...

[SomethingSavage]

It's kind of weird that Boss Man never had a blow-off or a high-profile PPV match with Austin. Things were moving crazy fast in those days, but he *was* basically brought in as a temporary roadblock for Stone Cold. Maybe I'm overlooking a Raw main event or something, but certainly it wasn't ever made out to be a big deal.

[C.S.]

The Ted DiBiase episode on the Network was fun. You could tell Bruce was leaning in and luxuriating in his own BS this week, but based on his facial expressions, I think he was doing it with a wink and a nod. I wonder if it's like that on the audio podcast too but it gets lost in translation because you can't see his face.

 

Lots of interesting stories about the Ted's debut, the production of the vignettes, the creation of the Million Dollar Belt, etc.

 

Conrad's disdain for Brutus "the fucking Barber" Beefcake was very odd. I realize it's "hip" to develop amnesia about just how over Beefcake was, and what a big part of the WWF he was in the '80s, but this felt a tad obnoxious to me.

 

Ditto for Conrad's takedowns of Virgil. Was the guy ever a super-worker? No. But that was a hot storyline, regardless of Conrad's opinion.

 

Awesome story about Vince on a plane as "the true Million Dollar Man."

 

[El-P]

So, basically, the Network podcast is a rehash of older podcasts. I don't see the point of listening to those when you could have the original thing, without the WWE filter.

[Mrzfn]

Beefcake was definitely over with the gimmick, but I always thought he was pretty lousy as a performer if Greg Valentine was dragging him to good tag matches.

[SomethingSavage]

So, basically, the Network podcast is a rehash of older podcasts. I don't see the point of listening to those when you could have the original thing, without the WWE filter.

Yup. I listened to a couple of the Network eps, since I had already converted them to mp3s, and they're basically abbreviated, filtered versions of earlier episodes. Doubt I'll be following anymore, unless they rollout exclusive shows there.

 

The WM14 debut show was technically new material, but that whole timeframe has *kind of* been covered a few times already - with plenty of talk about Austin/Tyson/HBK on numerous earlier shows.

[Victator]

Cornette confirmed the story about why Bossman left Crockett. He wanted equal pay because he climbed the scaffold and was taking the same risk.

[flyonthewall2983]

It's kind of weird that Boss Man never had a blow-off or a high-profile PPV match with Austin. Things were moving crazy fast in those days, but he *was* basically brought in as a temporary roadblock for Stone Cold. Maybe I'm overlooking a Raw main event or something, but certainly it wasn't ever made out to be a big deal.

 

One of the underrated highlights of the Attitude Era for me is when McMahon's group beat up Boss Man and he was thrown out, and the next week he came out during the middle of a Vince interview (I think), to his old music. He ended up begging forgiveness to be brought back in but for however long that music played I was really excited we were getting the old Bossman.

[Victator]

Which was done so Bossman could interfere in the ladder match where the Corporation was banned. He lifted the cases and next night he rejoins.

Which is probably why WWE never tries subtle because it my time online not a lot of people know that.

[SomethingSavage]

Hearing Conrad shill and push for some of the shittiest shirt ideas, and I got to wondering - who do you figure was the original driving force behind all that?

 

I mean, you can tell Conrad is a natural born salesman. Everything he does is dripping with that persuasive sales style. But then there's Bruce, who sat under the Vince learning tree of marketability and merchandising opportunities for decades.

 

The actual truth is likely somewhere in the middle, but it's something to think about. Say what you will, but their show has to be the single most monetized wrestling podcast out there. By a huge wide margin. And it's still trending upward. They're selling silly shirts, moving tickets for live events, touring alongside with the WWE circus, inking a deal with the Network, etc. It's crazy.

 

But yeah. I might be the only person on the planet interested in knowing who initially came up with the idea of branching out this way and maximizing profit off a podcast about wrestling stories.

[Beast]

They must have 100-200 shirts by now, right? Seems like any "bit" get a shirt. Each week's show must inspire 3-5 new ones.

[BigBadMick]

Hearing Conrad shill and push for some of the shittiest shirt ideas, and I got to wondering - who do you figure was the original driving force behind all that?

 

I mean, you can tell Conrad is a natural born salesman. Everything he does is dripping with that persuasive sales style. But then there's Bruce, who sat under the Vince learning tree of marketability and merchandising opportunities for decades.

 

The actual truth is likely somewhere in the middle, but it's something to think about. Say what you will, but their show has to be the single most monetized wrestling podcast out there. By a huge wide margin. And it's still trending upward. They're selling silly shirts, moving tickets for live events, touring alongside with the WWE circus, inking a deal with the Network, etc. It's crazy.

 

But yeah. I might be the only person on the planet interested in knowing who initially came up with the idea of branching out this way and maximizing profit off a podcast about wrestling stories.

He's on Wade Keller's free podcast this week.

 

He's a businessman through and through.

 

https://www.podcastone.com/episode/WKPWP---Flagship-with-Keller--Conrad-Thompson-talking-All-Ins-sellout-Starrcast-convention-the-rise-of-Pro-Wrestling-Podcasts-Reigns-5-17-18

[SomethingSavage]

The Bischoff shirts are the absolute dirt worst. To be fair, it's still super early & they haven't established any distinct shtick or "bits" quite yet. But Conrad will latch onto anything that's repeated more than once & turn it into a shirt before the tape machine's stopped rolling.

 

"Context is King"..? I mean, who the fuck would pay money to wear something like that? Wrestling shirts are embarrassing enough to begin with - even the slightly cooler ones that aren't instantly recognizable, but some of these are People of Wal-Mart level bad.

[El-P]

He's a businessman through and through.

 

Yeah, and that comes through more and more and actively drives my interest away, because the more it goes, the more the show looks like it's just a vehicule to sell shit and live shows now. My IRL distaste for sellers doesn't help I guess, but the whole Conrad stuff playing himself as "just a fan" when he's actually dating Flair's daughter and on the other hand bragging constantly about his large collection of memorabilia that he *OWNS*, ya know, is just getting tiresome, if not plain annoying. I've not given up because there are some good topics coming up, and a few of the last shows have been really good (the RVD one).

[SomethingSavage]

I find the shows are still mostly enjoyable. You've kind of got to know what you're getting into by this point. There's going to be some high-fiving and heavy shilling for live shows and shit up front, then some good stories and discussion in the middle, with some shirt stuff interspersed throughout. All that is practically a given.

 

Conrad doesn't bother me too much on this podcast or the Bischoff one, actually. It's on the Tony show where he has actively chased me away with his fascination for dicks and dirt jokes & whatnot. The show was barely ever on the rails to begin with, but they temporarily found a niche for a few months - before he abandoned that and took it totally off course. It's unlistenable for me at this stage.

 

I've actually listened to a few of the Network episodes, and it's really weird. Conrad admits they're covering older topics again - for a new audience - but he pretends to be having these conversations with Bruce for the very first time. So there's a lot of instances where he served softballs and unnaturally transitions from one topic to another. Because he's had this same conversation with Bruce before, so he knows what to ask or how to ask about things - but he's trying to pretend that it's all new to him.

 

So you wind up with something that sounds like a scripted, rehearsed version of a podcast you've already heard. And a lot of that over-the-top forced laughter, where Conrad is basically laughing st jokes and stories before Bruce ever finishes his line. It's just bizarre.

 

To no surprise, I'll be sticking with the original podcast only.

[El-P]

So you wind up with something that sounds like a scripted, rehearsed version of a podcast you've already heard.

 

I never listened to a second of this ones, but it's pretty much exactly what I thought it would be.

 

 

To no surprise, I'll be sticking with the original podcast only.

 

 

Yep. Not listening to that bullshit !

 

[SomethingSavage]

I caved in and gave the Brother Love episode a listen the other morning. I wanted a longer podcast, so I could get through my workout uninterrupted. And this was one of the longer ones I had on my phone, so I just went with it. Wasn't sure what it would be going in, but it was fairly fun. Not a lot of new ground covered or anything. I feel like they offered a more enjoyable version of this back when they did the Houston episode - basically merging Bruce's intro with the Fed along with some fun stories and memories of working for Bosch.

 

But yeah. This wasn't bad. I still get a kick out of Vince giving Bruce shit about being ugly. "Not with THAT face, pal!" Good stuff.

 

Oh. And the story about Slick having a problem with the religious overtones of the gimmick was gold. Because, as they pointed out, you just KNOW Vince's immediate response was, "GOD damn it, pal!"

 

I still feel like the red makeup was some kind of rib on Bruce (by Vince and company). Hearing Prichard talk about it, I almost felt bad for him - like he wasn't originally in on the joke, but he later convinced himself that he was laughing *with* them, instead of being laughed *at* by them. It's hard to describe, but hearing him tell it - it's like he later made up his mind that the red makeup was a good idea, even if he didn't totally understand why it was done in the first place. Just an odd deal there.

 

Also wish we would've got a little more about Vince's remark to Don Muraco. I mean, can you imagine? Recasting the beach bum as a religious conman or whatever? Sounds strange on the surface, but it's no more out of place than OMG transitioning into Akeem or anything else they would try.

[C.S.]

I still feel like the red makeup was some kind of rib on Bruce (by Vince and company). Hearing Prichard talk about it, I almost felt bad for him - like he wasn't originally in on the joke, but he later convinced himself that he was laughing *with* them, instead of being laughed *at* by them. It's hard to describe, but hearing him tell it - it's like he later made up his mind that the red makeup was a good idea, even if he didn't totally understand why it was done in the first place. Just an odd deal there.

 

I'm not so sure it was a rib.

 

Brother Love was based on Benny Hinn - one of those old-time televangelists.

 

Look how red is his face is. Brother Love is just an exaggerated version of that.

 

(Note: The YouTube thumbnail makes him look redder than he really is, but once you click the video, his face is still red - albeit a more natural Rosacea red.)

 

[SomethingSavage]

Nah, I get that. I appreciate the explanation and all, but hearing Bruce explain it could give you a better idea of what I mean.

 

Basically, Bruce had no idea the red makeup was put on him like that. He goes out, does his Brother Love bit, and notices red makeup all over his white suit. The red makeup was never mentioned to him beforehand as being part of the look of the gimmick.

 

I'm not saying there wasn't a reason behind it. I'm saying it sounds like it was done to fuck with Bruce and get a few laughs, but he rationalized it and just kind of kept it going. At that point, Vince probably just shrugged and said, "Fuck it. Keep painting him red."

[Zoo Enthusiast]

That sounds like total bullshit.

[Bix]

Am I reading way too much into things or is it starting to feel like Conrad is being deliberately vague at times while also avoiding obvious follow ups to allow Bruce to do the anti Meltzer shtick?

 

With the former, there were moments where it was fairly clear that he was reading from Bret's book, but he didn't say it, and Bruce why off on a Meltzer rant where Conrad didn't correct him.

 

On the latter front the new Davey Boy Smith episode, they get to the Rock Bottom in the dog poop and Conrad reads the Observer description of the match, complete with Dave noting how it evoked Bret's recent Calgary Sun column. The one where he said he saw a dog rolling around in its own filth and being too dumb not to enjoy it. So he's like "Sure seems like Meltzer nailed this, what say you?" Bruce then ignores the part about Bret having written the column, takes a shot at Dave...and then basically says that it was a Russo thing that he didn't know the exact pitch for.

 

There's still value in the shows at times and they're still enjoyable, but I'm getting really uncomfortable with the extreme anti-truth/reality distortion field/"FAKE NEWS!!!" direction they're going in. "Working" is one thing, this (and stuff like the weird Lawler rant about Meltzer that has little to do with reality) is another.

[Victator]

Its pretty much set up that way. The going off on straw man with no follow ups is the most common presentation style there is.

Even Meltzer does it on Twitter cherry picking tweets to reply to.

I think only Cornette is willing to go deep into the weeds. Which is probably because he keeps records and has a great memory.

I wish more people were like that. But we have an echo chamber culture.

[BrianB]

Am I reading way too much into things or is it starting to feel like Conrad is being deliberately vague at times while also avoiding obvious follow ups to allow Bruce to do the anti Meltzer shtick?

 

With the former, there were moments where it was fairly clear that he was reading from Bret's book, but he didn't say it, and Bruce why off on a Meltzer rant where Conrad didn't correct him.

 

On the latter front the new Davey Boy Smith episode, they get to the Rock Bottom in the dog poop and Conrad reads the Observer description of the match, complete with Dave noting how it evoked Bret's recent Calgary Sun column. The one where he said he saw a dog rolling around in its own filth and being too dumb not to enjoy it. So he's like "Sure seems like Meltzer nailed this, what say you?" Bruce then ignores the part about Bret having written the column, takes a shot at Dave...and then basically says that it was a Russo thing that he didn't know the exact pitch for.

 

There's still value in the shows at times and they're still enjoyable, but I'm getting really uncomfortable with the extreme anti-truth/reality distortion field/"FAKE NEWS!!!" direction they're going in. "Working" is one thing, this (and stuff like the weird Lawler rant about Meltzer that has little to do with reality) is another.

 

I noticed that moment as well. I'm guessing it's a case of Conrad not feeling like it's worth correcting Bruce on the original source that went into Dave's comments. Bruce just seems to check out at spots in these recent episodes and then repeats a lot of what he remembers hearing or just goes to canned material. But you might be right that Conrad is also leaning into "it's entertainment" and not caring about accuracy and confronting Bruce as much as previously. If that's the case, I hope he puts his efforts on that front heavily into the Bischoff podcast because that Bret episode was a fucking whopper.

 

The other possibility, which briefly came out on a WHW episode (Tony saying Conrad encouraged him to take shots at Meltzer to help their social media numbers, except for that one time they made a diss track for it afterwards), is that Conrad encourages Bruce to go after Meltzer to some degree, and since he knows it's schtick he automatically shifts to "move on" mode.

[Matt D]

I'm on board with the Bischoff stuff right now, would only listen to a Tony episode if there was real novelty to the topic, and wouldn't listen to a Bruce episode unless you guys specifically told me to.

[Cox]

I've always felt that Conrad existed only as a Meltzer/Keller strawman for Bruce to run roughshod over, and their arguments (with Conrad providing a voice for the internet fans who listened to the show) were largely a work designed to ultimately put over Bruce, but help Conrad maintain a level of integrity for asking Bruce the "tough" questions (even if the questions weren't always that tough and Bruce would evade them anyway, like all questions related to money). Lately, they've largely stopped the argument gimmick, and now the show is just Conrad providing the Meltzer explanation, Bruce refuting it, and then they move on to the next topic.

 

While I was tired of the token arguments that bogged the show down, it did remove a part of the Meltzer point of view, even if I felt Conrad often came off as a typical online wrestling fan rather than somebody with an informed opinion. The thing is, I think Bruce does confirm a lot of Meltzer's reporting, but a lot of what he confirms is less newsworthy and certainly is less attention-grabbing than when he refutes his reporting, so it's often never commented on. But now a large part of the gimmick of the show has become Bruce going after Meltzer to where he even refutes things that Meltzer is correct about or invents things out of thin air, which is dangerous.

 

I made the call a few weeks ago to stop listening to the show, for a variety of reasons. The main one being, I only have so much time to listen to podcasts at work anymore, and a lot of my longer podcasts didn't survive the cut because they were easy to drop, so Something to Wrestle routinely going near four hours made it an easy cut. But honestly, I feel like I got to a point with the show where I didn't need to listen anymore. I got the gimmick, I understand what it is, and I got what I wanted out of it, which was insight into the mind of Vince McMahon. At this point it's just further going into the road of schtick and I don't really have time for that anymore. I'm sure when the topic is right, it's still a good listen, but that was becoming less and less frequent for me, so it felt like a good time to bail.