Bruce Prichard On Backstage Reaction To Vince McMahon Tearing His Quads At Royal Rumble 2005
During the latest episode of Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard, the WWE Executive spoke about Royal Rumble 2005 and what happened that night between Batista, John Cena and Vince McMahon to end the show. In closing, Batista and John Cena both went over the top rope at the same time which led to McMahon coming down the ring to restart the match. In that process, McMahon tore both of his quads and had to give orders in the ring to the referees and talent by sitting down.
Bruce Prichard revealed the backstage reaction to Cena and Batista both falling over the top rope at the same time and what they decided to do in live time. The 58-year old spoke about the live reaction backstage once Vince entered the ring and wouldn't get up.
"Well f***, that's what goes on," Prichard said. "It's like okay, let's see who hit, maybe Cena hit first and therefore Batista wins and there you go. Maybe he hit first so it was like can the argument be made that they hit at the same time? All this is happening in the matter of seconds, it's not like okay stop everything, let's figure out what to do. You're trying to figure out as you go, it's like okay tell the SmackDown guy to raise John's hand and tell the RAW guy to raise Batista's hand. We're thinking, sh**, maybe you can get to a match or you know what, start it over.
"Then Vince is out, Vince is headed to the ring to figure it out. I don't know that we had exactly what we wanted to do before Vince went out. Vince just bolted out and went to the ring and then when he slid in the ring, nobody could figure out why the hell he didn't get up. He just sat on the damn mat."
Bruce Prichard continued to reveal what happened after the finish of the match and spoke about how fast things were happening in order to get the correct finish. The Director of SmackDown and RAW stated that nobody knew anything about the injury till long after the fact.
"No, I don't remember seeing him slide in," Prichard said. "We were trying to do a million different things and talk to a million different people trying to figure out what to do and you look up and Vince is sitting on the apron yelling at everybody. It's like okay, what the hell is going on here? We restarted the match and got our finish.
"Vince came back and sat down, the trainer came over to talk to him, everybody gave him his privacy and left. That's it, there was no big dramatics at that point. He was obviously hurt, you could see that he was hurt but nobody knew how he got hurt. No one knew what the injury was, we thought he blew out his knee or something maybe sliding into the ring. But they asked for privacy and we all left. No one knew what his injury was, how bad his injury was or how the injury happened. We didn't know that till, god, long after the fact."
Prichard also spoke during the podcast about his boss Vince McMahon likely working another 25-30 years in his current role with WWE. He mentioned how he hasn't seen any signs from his boss of him slowing down at all.
Continuing to speak about the 2005 Royal Rumble, Prichard revealed the reaction he heard later on from Vince backstage. The WWE Executive said he Vince walking to the back was probably a foolish move and continued to mention how nobody backstage knew what was going on in live time.
"Look, he walked back from the ring which is in and of itself, a miracle," Prichard said. "And foolish yeah, but when he came back, he got down the stairs, I didn't see it. I don't think anybody saw it. I remember being down the hall near his office and heard this horrific like howl and it was like what the f*** was that? Trying to walk and trying to get back, I think all that pressure on the other leg then that one went. He pulled both his quads and shit was on, we didn't even know that. Nobody knew till much later in the evening the extent of his injuries."
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.