Bruce Prichard On His Issues With The Rock And Mankind's 'This Is Your Life' Segment
During the latest episode of the Something to Wrestle Podcast, Bruce Prichard covered The Rocks career in 1999. One of the most famous segments in RAW history happened in 1999 and it was called 'This is Your Life', featuring Mankind and The Rock. The segment lasted a very long time but did a historic television rating during the heat of the Monday Night War. Prichard mentioned how pissed off he was backstage during that segment, and how it went over time by too much.
"I've never watched it since I watched it live that night," Prichard said. "I was so pissed off. I was pissed off at [Vince] Russo, I was pissed off at Rock, I was pissed off at Foley, I was pissed off at anybody that was standing in front of me. It went more than 14 minutes, it went 14 minutes heavy over its allotted time."
Prichard also talked about having to change things because the segment went 14 minutes over. He said it pissed off talent backstage and it wasn't a good segment compared to the rating it received.
"Here's the thing – okay great, after the fact, it did a great rating. But the effect it had on the rest of the television show was horrendous because now you're having two and three minute segments and matches are getting cut. Essentially, they went two segments over. That is one of my pet peeves with writers. Russo didn't care; he didn't have to re-write it and he didn't have to fix it.
"It really wasn't great. The after-effect it has on the rest of the show, and other talent are pissed off, and you're live – there's only so much you can do. I was pissed off at everybody because I didn't think it was good. It was disrespectful to the rest of the talent on the show, disrespectful to the rest of us that had to fix it. It screwed everything else up down the line. Plus, it wasn't good."
Prichard also mentioned how the Rock n' Sock Connection was formed. He said he believes it was Foley's idea to do the tag team even after their long feud in early 99' that involved multiple WWF Championship matches.
"I think it was Mick Foley's idea," Prichard said. "Its very similar to what we did with Steve [Austin] and Mick with the Mankind thing. This was something that was going to hopefully have a little longer shelf life, and both guys showed they had a chemistry working against each other, so the Rock n' Sock connection began. [They were] always highly entertaining and always ready to step up to the plate."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle With Bruce Prichard with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.