Bruce Prichard Looks Back On 'Horrible Execution' Of Killing Paul Bearer Off In WWE

Under the stewardship of disgraced former Chairman Vince McMahon, WWE had its fair share of controversial, notorious, and downright infamous moments from 1984 all the way through McMahon's official departure earlier this year. One of the more infamous moments that fans may not remember, however, occurred at the Great American Bash 2004, where The Undertaker proceeded to bury his long-time manager, Paul Bearer, alive in a crypt of cement.

While discussing the 2024 Great American Bash on "Something To Wrestle With," Bruce Prichard, who was a member of the WWE creative team at the time, took co-host Conrad Thompson through the storyline. As Prichard explained it, the idea for the angle all came about as a need to get Bearer, then suffering from gallbladder problems, off TV.

"Paul Bearer had reached a point where traveling for him was very difficult," Prichard said. "He had put on so much weight that traveling through airports, just getting up and down [wasn't feasible]...he could go to the ring, but he couldn't get into the ring. He was in very poor health and needed time off. He needed to go away and he needed to get help. 

"So [we decided to] kill him off. And the idea was 'Well, what if we actually killed him off?' And it was this...actually, I think this was Dan Madigan too, the concrete crypt. And Vince loved it. He thought 'Great. We'll bury him live on television. Concrete crypt.' And, you know, some of those start off as 'Ha ha' and then they...become reality. That's when you go 'Oh, this sucks.'"

 In the end, Prichard could find no redeeming qualities in the angle, no matter which way one chose to look at it.

"It was horrible," Prichard said. "It was absolutely...it was a horrible idea, horrible execution."

If you use any quotes in this article, please credit "Something To Wrestle" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription