Former WWE Writer On Which Stars He Gravitated To, His Favorite Angle, Mike Tyson Backstage At RAW
Recently, Brian Gewirtz, the former WWE Senior Vice President of Creative Writing and current Senior Vice President of Development at Seven Bucks Productions, was a guest on Talk Is Jericho. Among other things, Gewirtz discussed thinking that he was going to be heading up SmackDown's creative following the initial brand split. Gewirtz had high praise for WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T. Gewirtz talked about his favorite angle he worked on as a writer for WWE. Also, Gewirtz shared a story about finding boxing great 'Iron' Mike Tyson in the WWE writers' room backstage at Monday Night RAW.
At the time of the initial brand split, Gewirtz believed he was going to be the head writer of SmackDown. Gewirtz, who was famously brought to wrestlers' court for giving the likes of Edge and Christian preferential treatment, would have been working with some of his most preferred talents as SmackDown's main scribe, including the aforementioned former WWE Tag Team Champions, Kurt Angle, The Rock, and Jericho.
"I think [what] Vince was trying to do when he split the brands, is you can't get into your comfort zone too much. You've got to take on new challenges." Gewirtz recalled, "when RAW and SmackDown split, it was a great rib on me, I thought, because they split the rosters and all of my guys were on SmackDown. It's like Rock's on SmackDown, Jericho's on SmackDown, Kurt [Angle]'s on SmackDown, Edge, Christian, everyone's on SmackDown. And on RAW is all the people that I [do not work as well with]. Alright. Triple H and Scott Steiner and Bob Holly and JBL, Steve [Austin]. So I was like, 'oh, this going to be great! I'm going to be the lead writer of SmackDown! They've got to do that, right? All of my guys are on SmackDown. All of Paul Heyman's guys are on RAW, so great! Lets do that!' And then, 'Paul, you're going to be heading SmackDown. Brian, you'll be heading RAW.'"
Gewirtz admitted that he immediately gravitated to Booker T and Goldust when he became RAW's lead writer.
"On RAW, the first thing I did when we split the brands was I gravitated to Booker and Goldust. [They were] awesome. And then, that sort of circumvented into, it started out as a niche thing, reviewing The Scorpion King and doing the bit at 7-11, product integration, plus I got a [New York] Knicks jersey to give to Goldust, so I could keep it afterwards. Then, it actually turned into a real storyline with the nWo and they want Booker [but] they don't want Goldust. It became a real thing."
On the topic of Booker T, Gewirtz indicated that he believes that Booker T is one of the most entertaining performers in the company's history.
"I think, personally, Booker T might be one of the most entertaining people who [has] ever lived in this company. [He could do] everything. He could be serious. Being King of the Ring is a mixed blessing because, in my opinion, we live in this antiquated universe where, 'oh, I'm the king? I have to get my Party City USA $5 crown and cape and walk around with a sceptre and stuff.' But Booker took that and [ran with it]. Oh my God, it was so entertaining though!"
Gewirtz noted that his favorite angle that he ever worked on as a writer for WWE was the feud between Jericho and Shawn Michaels.
"It's [Jericho], Shawn, and that angle. Yeah, because there's no comedy in that at all. And, that was a real money-drawing angle of which there are many that I've worked on and everything. But to be able to, especially with [Jericho] and Shawn because I wasn't ever really close with Shawn and everything. And Shawn wasn't an active participant. He came back and everything in 2002 at SummerSlam and I had already been there for a few years and everything, so it was meeting, introducing myself, and kind of proving myself all over again."
Apparently, Tyson sought refuge in the writers' room to "take the edge off" before appearing on RAW.
"At some point, because again, it's like crazy running around, Larry Sanders, Muppet Show, like, just crazy backstage, one of the writers come up to me and was like, 'hey, I don't know if you know this, but Mike, Mike Tyson, he kind of needed to take the edge off a little bit and he didn't want to do it in his dressing room with his family there." Gewirtz continued, "and as soon as I opened the door to the writers' room, [the writer said], 'I took him to the writers' room.' [Gewirtz asked] 'what?' And then, I see Mike Tyson sitting in our room. He's sitting like John Candy at the top of the tank in Splash, just kind of like hanging out with his legs dangling. And he was like, 'hey, you don't mind if I hang out in here, do you? I needed to take the edge off a little bit.'"
In addition to these topics, Gewirtz discussed taking a powerbomb from Bubba Ray Dudley, working as The Rock's personal writer, and much more on this episode of Talk Is Jericho. Click here to listen to the podcast. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Talk Is Jericho