Bruce Prichard On Vince McMahon Thinking Triple H Was A Mid-Carder, HHH & Chyna, MSG Curtain Call
On episode 51 of Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard, current Impact Wrestling on-air authority figure and pro wrestling podcaster Bruce Prichard talked about WINC alum Vince Russo's WWE run. Notably, Prichard talked about Russo advocating for Triple H, the Madison Square Garden Curtain Call, Triple H and Chyna being a "package deal" behind-the-scenes, who wanted The New Age Outlaws in D-Generation X, and who came up with WWE "attitude".
According to Prichard, Russo was the biggest advocate for Triple H early on while Vince McMahon and Jim Cornette used to say that 'The Game' was a midcarder at best.
"I do remember Corny and Vince McMahon saying that Triple H would be a midcard guy at best early on in his [pro wrestling] career and Russo was a huge proponent of Triple H. And I dare say that without Russo at the helm at the time, Hunter probably would not have gotten the breaks that he got at the time."
Prichard continued, "yeah, [Russo was Triple H's biggest advocate at the time] and then Vince McMahon became, but Hunter was one of those guys who was always around, always asking questions, and wanting to be a part of whatever he could do to learn. I liked Hunter because I always liked his attitude, just willing to do whatever it took to learn the [pro wrestling] business, but Russo was definitely pushing Hunter and had an awful lot of ideas for him."
On the subject of the MSG Curtain Call, Prichard claimed that everyone was offended, not just him and Cornette, as was suggested by podcast co-host Conrad Thompson from reading excerpts of Russo's own writings.
"It was simply a feeling of what they did being disrespectful to Vince [McMahon], being disrespectful to the memory of Vince's dad doing it in the Garden, our home. It was something that hadn't been done before and something everybody was upset about, not just me, not just Cornette, but Vince McMahon, pretty much every one of the boys who wasn't involved in the Curtain Call."
Moreover, Prichard stated that Triple H was punished in an upfront way for the Curtain Call and explained that McMahon decided not to go with Triple H for King Of The Ring because The Chairman did not feel like he could trust 'The King Of Kings'.
"Hunter was punished and he was considered for King Of The Ring, but Vince didn't feel like he could trust him at that point in time and he wanted Hunter to prove himself and Hunter did."
During the podcast, Prichard confirmed Russo's assertion that dealing with either Triple H or Chyna meant dealing with both of them, calling the pair a "package deal".
"Probably so [Triple H had to be present for Chyna's creative meetings with Russo] from his vantage point pitching stuff. Whatever Joanie was doing, she was with Hunter, so I'm sure Hunter wanted to be there. But they were also an item at the time, so they did everything together. Whenever I'd call either one of them, the other was usually there. It was kind of a team decision because they were a package deal."
Another rumor Prichard attempted to dispel involved D-Generation X. Pro wrestling rumor and innuendo purports that 'The Road Dogg' Jesse James and 'The Bad Ass' Billy Gunn were not picked by Triple H and Shawn Michaels to join the group. Prichard recalled that Michaels wanted The New Age Outlaws for the stable.
"The guy that brought Billy [Gunn] and Road Dogg to Vince [McMahon]'s attention was Shawn Michaels who saw those two guys. They were singles. One was a Rockabilly and then Jesse James? It was Shawn Michaels who brought them to Vince and wanted them to be a part of DX and felt that they would be a great team together."
Finally, Prichard credited McMahon with conceiving of the 'attitude' concept after fining Shawn Michaels for his vulgar and explicit antics.
"That's where Vince McMahon coined the phrase 'attitude' because Shawn, in his defense, was like, 'because I've got attitude, you're going to fine me, blah, blah, blah?' And that's where Vince, I'll never forget, Vince came back to us and said, 'that's attitude! That's what we need. We need more attitude!'"
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