Gerald Brisco Reveals Why His And Pat Patterson's Push As Vince McMahon's "Stooges" Stopped
Wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Famer Gerald Brisco sat down with Drew Rice of Wrestling Inc. recently an interview on The Wrestling Inc. Daily and discussed a variety of topics.
Brisco, who was released late last year as a part of budget cuts made by the WWE, discussed how he felt about the weeks leading up to WrestleMania. Brisco says he despised the lead up to WrestleMania due to the high amounts of stress involved.
"Truthfully, I hated it," admitted Brisco. "I couldn't wait for the week to be over with. You can't explain to anybody, unless they've experienced it, how much pressure there is all of that week, and how little time you have during the week. And it's not only that week, it's a couple of weeks leading up to it.
"So that night when that countdown comes, you hear that countdown, 'Okay, on-air in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 [he takes a deep breath and exhales].' Now the wrestling starts, now that pressure is off, now all you have to do is your job. And your job, not anyone else's job. Once that bell rings it's the greatest event in the freakin' world, and I love it to death. But that preparation leading up to it is the most pressure filled lead-up you can have in that business. . . And everybody is stepping forward with that attitude, 'What can I do to make this better?' And that's a great thing, and that's what makes WrestleMania, WrestleMania, is that everybody is coming forward with their best thoughts.
"The production of that event and that week is truly a team effort. It takes from the security, to the referees, to the ring crew, to the announcers, to the catering, to everybody, to make that week what it has become. And they have the most skilled people to do it. So, it's truly a team effort. This isn't just this is Vince McMahon, or this is Triple H, or this is Stephanie McMahon. WrestleMania is truly a team effort. It's everybody in the truck, everybody carrying a camera, everybody carrying a microphone. It's an entire crew coming together with their best suggestions and their best thoughts on how to make things flawless. I mean, do they miss? Hell yes they do. But you can go back, and the majority of times they hit."
During the interview Brisco also discussed his career resurgence alongside Pat Patterson, who sadly passed away last year, as Vince McMahon's lackies 'The Stooges.' Brisco talked about how they were brought together and why he thinks their push was halted.
"It happened by accident, just purely by accident, and that's how most really good things happen," reminisced Brisco. "We just stumbled upon it. Was it written to be that way? No. Was it talked about to do that? No. It just happened. Because Pat and I had a reputation of being so close to Vince. Pat and I were, in the early days of WWF, Patterson and Brisco are Vince's right-hand men, and we were. We were with him all the time.
"So, Stone Cold Steve Austin started coming along and I remember the first night where we kind of got classified as Vince's stooges or [associates], because Jim Ross didn't want to use the word stooges in the beginning. If you go back and listen, J.R. always said, 'Patterson and Brisco, Vince McMahon's associates,' because of the respect levels he didn't want to call us stooges. We're in Chicago and Stone Cold had done something, so Vince said, 'Come on, we've got to have a corporate meeting. You guys come in here.' So, all of a sudden, we became part of Vince's corporation. . . We did the little two-minute skit and the chemistry between the three of us just worked.
"Back then we were competing with Nitro. So, we were getting every five-minute ratings. You'd see what spiked what, who spiked what, when it spiked, and why it spiked. So, when we came on and the ratings started spiking. Then the next week we had another little bit/piece with Vince and it spiked again, and it just started growing. Then they started writing it in. I think what the demise was of The Stooges was that Vince was going against The Rock and Stone Cold, and they wanted him to be a sheer badass guy.
"But Pat and I started getting over as babyfaces, so we thought it was taking some heat off of Vince's character. So, it was time to separate the funny old guys from the mean, old, and tired boss. So, I think that was our demise. We got over too damn good! We were being goofy and funny and started getting over. It was weird. I mean, you could walk out in those arenas in Pennsylvania, somewhere in New York, or Boston, and look up in the rafters and see all these Stooges signs and Brisco and Patterson [signs]. I wondered, 'What the hell?' And consider the talent on the roster: Dwayne Johnson, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, everybody. And we were getting over. We had the highest rating on Monday Night Raw, ever."
You can follow Gerald on Twitter @FGBrisco. The full audio from part two of Brisco's interview can be found via the embedded players below.