Freddie Prinze Jr. launched a new podcast called Wrestling With Freddie, where he spoke about his first day in WWE. It's a long story, but very insightful.
āIt was Orlando, FL and it was Ric Flairās retirement match. He was wrestling against Shawn Michaels. We went out there early. It was me and Macaulay Culkin. We were sharing a hotel room, and our hotel room was right next door to Snoop Doggās, and they brought like a garbage bag of marijuana in there by the way. Iām not exaggerating. Saturday was the Hall of Fame speech. This was when everyone hated John Cena. They booed him when was trying to give this speech about somebody who was going into the Hall of Fame. It was a poor showing on the fanās part, but they were mad. John Cena represented a different kind of WWE than what they were wanting at that time but he had to because the company was PG.
We went to that. We met a bunch of the wrestlers, and I met this lady who helped do the invites and she tries to book celebrities and things like that for WWE events. We chatted up at like the Hall of Fame party or whatever it was, and then everybody went home and went to bed. The next day is WrestleMania. Weāre there and weāre watching the final match. Iām talking to this nice lady, and I donāt know if she wants me to say her name, so Iām just going to keep it out. She said, āYou should talk to Stephanie McMahon. You got some really cool ideas about wrestlingā because we had talked about like the old school versus the new school and where the happy medium is. Is there a happy medium and that kind of stuff? I was kind of done acting. Iām staying in New York with my wife and I had an apartment out there. I said okay, āIāll take the train out there and Iāll come and meet Stephanie McMahon.
I was kind of disenfranchised with my business if thatās the right word, but you know what I mean. I was wanting to retire all the way. If at the very least, I had a foot and a half out. So I go and I sit with Stephanie. We start talking wrestling, and characters, and characters who maybe seen stale or couldnāt get over. They would challenge you with, āWell, how would you get this character overā and and really just on the spot kind of thinking. So you have to be quick and fast. My improv skills are good. So, Iām in there with Steph and we start talking about acting workshops and things like that, and techniques and stuff to make people feel things, little cheats you can do here and there. Our meeting is not over and she says, āYou have to talk to my dad. You have notes on the brand but youāre not crapping all over it, and you come to the table with ideas not just āOh, that sucksā, āWell what would you do?ā āWell I donāt know but it sucks.ā I would have three or four ideas for everything so she would say, āHey what would you do with Kane?ā and I would say, āWell how about this, or how about that?ā and just try to build it up. This all happens in a day. I shake hands with Steph. I hadnāt met anybody else.
I go into Vince McMahonās office. I have a very similar conversation that I had with Steph. Weāre talking about the characters and the reason two people will fight right, thatās the story. So he hits you with āWrestler X is John Cena. Wrestler Y is Randy Orton. I want them to wrestle at WrestleMania. Get me there in a way that we havenāt got there before.ā So we would start talking about stories.ā
Not growing up with a father, Iām a sucker for him, I want to please my boss. I want to please people that I looked up to when I was younger. Itās just something anyone without a father or mother can relate to, so Iām sitting in there and he calls me son. He says āWell, I think we could really use you sonā, and he puts out his hand and Iām like, in my head Iām like, wait, hold up I didnāt even see a contract and this guy is putting out the letās make a deal hand. But because he said son, thatās kryptonite. And he did it to me twice. He got me to come back with the same technique. I shake the manās hand. I hadnāt even spoken to my wife yet. She was in L.A. He said, āOk, weāll send whatever we need to your people and you will start next week.ā
They sent me a contract. I donāt want to throw out exact numbers because I donāt know if their business is public or not, so weāll say it is $250,000 to write for them per year. It was a number that they werenāt going to budge from. I said, you guys can keep all that money and just give me stock. Iāll take stock in the company and bet on myself. Against my managerās advice, thatās what I did. I signed the contract and the deal was for me to travel to every single Monday Night Raw and every single shot on Tuesday but airing on Thursday I believe was the date of SmackDown back then. So we would shoot Raw and SmackDown. I would be all of those tapings and I would be in the office every single week. That was the job.
Iāll finish with this story because itās awkward, horrible and really funny. I get to Titan Towers. Iām super excited and I meet my Superior, Michael PS Hayes. Michael, whoās seen it all, now has to deal with this Hollywood guy coming into his writerās room, and heās supposed to teach me the wrestling business, and Iām supposed to write better scripts. Nobodyās been told anything about the other person. I got in there. I have my meeting with him and heās awesome. He couldnāt have been cooler to me. He had just been in some trouble with the company, I was told, so he was kind of humbled, and maybe thatās why he was nice, but Michael and I by the time I left were really really tight. He kind of breaks it down for me. He said, āHereās how many wrestlers you have on the TV roster that are going to be working and you have to give me four weeks of stories for all of them. Most of the time itās not going to go through because thereās not going to be enough time in the show, but thatās your job no matter what. āI said cool. If thatās my job, thatās my job.ā While Iām having a meeting with him, they knock on his door and they say āVince wants to see Freddie in his officeā and Michael is likeā You need to go.ā I go to Vinceās office and thereās this other dude sitting in there named Brian and I sit on the other side. Vince shows me the Monday Night Raw script and he says āBrian, this is Freddie. Freddie, Brian.ā Iām like, āNice to meet you.ā
Brianās looking at me all side eyed at me. Heās like, Who is this guy? Vince shows me the script and says,ā Brian, Freddie is here to help out with all the scripts and the dialogue. Iām going to have to send you back to the drawing board on this one.ā He hadnāt even read it yet. Brian visibly and audibly snaps a number two pencil in half upon hearing this. He snapped a lot of pencils. He goes out, makes a big sigh, and grabs the script. Vince looks at me and kind of smiles, like this is a test. Heās going to pit me against these guys and see if I can freaking take it. This is who this guy is. I donāt mind the challenge so I walk out. Brian is not waiting for me by the way. Heās already halfway down the hall. I catch up to him and I say āHey man, thatās a terrible way to meet. Iām so sorry. Iām not here to rewrite your stuff. He said, āThis is because of you manā, just straight-up all the cards on the table right away and Iām like, this guy hates me. He did, but by the time I left, Brian and I were really tight too. Weāre not like friends. We donāt send each other Christmas cards or anything like that, but if we ever randomly see each other or randomly like are on the same chain on the social media thing, itās always all love, and I always check in on him. Heās a good dude. So Iām sitting there like they just threw me in the fire on day one. So I go back into the writers room and Freebird goes, āSo how was your meeting?ā, and he has this big grin because he knows, like this is a routine for Vince. I wasnāt the first Hollywood writer they had there. They brought writers from USA TV shows in there all the time. I said, āYeah, everything is fine.ā He said, āSo are you ready to work on some storylines that are going to get cut every week or not?ā I sat there. I sat down. I opened my computer and I just started writing.āā
Leave a Comment ()