Bruce Prichard On Undertaker Wrestling Ultimate Warrior, Vince McMahon Trying To Prove People Wrong
Recently on Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard, the professional wrestling veteran shared some insight into The Undertaker's legendary WWE run. Among other things, Prichard discussed The Undertaker's feud with The Ultimate Warrior, his friendship with Charles Wright, whether Undertaker spent any time with Andre The Giant, whether the Giant González experiment should have concluded sooner, and Undertaker being a member of The All-Americans at Survivor Series (1993).
On the subject of The Undertaker's first major feud, and working with WWE Hall Of Famer The Ultimate Warrior in particular, Prichard stated that the seven-time world champion was still new to the company at the time and just trying to get along.
"Taker just wanted to get along and Taker was happy to be in a top spot and it was a top spot working with Ultimate Warrior. It was a big angle. It was a big deal. Taker was simply was happy to be there, I guess, and he just wanted to do whatever he needed to do to get along and make it work. But I think you'd be hard pressed to find anybody that said they really enjoyed working with Warrior. It was, 'he was stiff', 'he was sloppy', but Taker was a double-tough son of a b—h, especially back in those days."
According to Prichard, The Undertaker and Wright, also known as WWE Hall Of Famer The Godfather and Papa Shango, were great friends going way back. The current Impact Wrestling onscreen authority figure shared that The Undertaker was quite the "connoisseur" of strip clubs back in those days.
"Well, they both started down in Dallas and they trained together. They shared a lot of common interests as far as motorcycles and gentlemen's establishments, so they just kind of hit it off and were friends from day one." Prichard recalled, "we had some good times back in the day. Undertaker was quite the connoisseur and there was a time, man, he knew exactly where to go and everybody knew him and he could walk in and be escorted right to the back, to the VIP section of the bar and nobody would mess with you and we had a lot of fun back in the day."
During the podcast, Prichard was asked whether Undertaker spent any time with WWE Hall Of Famer Andre The Giant when both big men were under the WWE umbrella and Prichard claimed that Andre did not like big guys and 'The Deadman' was respectful and stayed out of Andre's way.
"Yeah, but it was very brief and Andre wasn't really fond of big guys and Taker kind of knew that and gave his respects and stayed out of the way."
With respect to Giant González, Prichard professed that the worst thing you can do is tell McMahon is that someone does not have 'it' when he feels otherwise.
"Well, Vince hates to give up and Vince likes a challenge, so the worst thing you can do, if you feel that something isn't working, and that somebody may not have 'it' and Vince feels otherwise, is to let him know that because, by God, come hell or high water, he's going to prove you wrong. It doesn't matter how long it takes. It doesn't matter how much money it costs. It doesn't matter at whose expense it is expended upon. He's going to prove you wrong."
At Survivor Series (1993) and during the lead-up to the main event elimination match, The Undertaker sported an overcoat lined with a colonial American flag, as 'The American Bad Ass' was the final member of Lex Luger's All-Americans. Prichard recalled that the jacket was McMahon's idea and that Undertaker told McMahon that his dog ate the lining of the coat to avoid having to wear it again.
"You had the All-Americans, Lex Luger's team, and Undertaker being on it, you had the Steiners and everybody there and then you have Undertaker. And Vince says, 'Goddamn, pal, once you get out there and Luger introduces you as one of the All-Americans, you just open up the coat and there's the red, white, and blue!' And Taker's looking at him like, 'are you f–king ribbing me?'" Prichard continued, "so they had a coat made for him. They took his coat and they lined it with 'The Stars & Stripes' and it was like an old colonial flag. And Taker came out, he did it for the interview, he did it for the match and the next day or whenever the next tapings were, Vince comes to him and says, 'hey, we want to do something with the jacket' and "Taker says 'Well, yeah, about that.' [McMahon interjects] 'What do you mean?' 'Well, my dog kind of ate the lining of the jacket.' 'What do you mean?' 'Yeah, my dog got ahold of the jacket. It's the craziest thing too, he only ate the lining.'"
Doot, doot, doot. If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.