Kayfabe! Guest Booker with Bruce Prichard

KAYFABE!
Guest Booker with Bruce Prichard

This is best described as being split into two distinct portions. The interview, where Sean gets the usual background information on Bruce’s history and experiences, and, the booking exercise itself. I’ll discuss the booking part first, because I feel it’s the weak section of this. Simply put, Bruce’s ideas are just too far ‘out there’ to be anything close to realistic. I know that sounds like an awfully strange criticism to levy at a fantasy booking interview, but most of the GB exercises try to come off like they could have actually happened. I personally found Robert Fuller’s idea of using Shawn Michaels as Col. Parker’s gift to Sheri to be awful, but, at least it could have theoretically happened. You don’t get any of that from Bruce.

Bruce’s exercise is to get the WWF through Survivor Series and finish up Bret without having to screw Bret in Montreal. The first idea he has is to have Hogan jump from WCW. Now, if Bret was leaving because Vince couldn’t afford to honor his contact, how in the red and yellow hell is he going to afford Hogan? I can pretty much guarantee that Hogan would cost boatloads more than Bret. Then, he gets the idea of Bret sticking around until WrestleMania XIV, and having a farewell match with Undertaker. The same Undertaker, who’d, started a program in October with Kane that was totally designed to culminate at WrestleMania. I know that some of the GB guests do their booking on the fly, Raven in ECW for instance, but Bruce actually came with notes.

The interview portion is as every bit excellent, as I found the booking to be mediocre. Much like Breaking Kayfabe w/ Lanny Poffo was as close as we’ll ever get to a shoot with the Macho Man, this is as close as we’ll get (for now) to a shoot with Vince. Bruce worked for, and alongside, Vince for years, and he gives some great insight, and tells some great stories, about how Vince’s mind works. The one that really jumped out to me was when Bruce told the world what Vince was thinking when he made Terry Taylor into the Red Rooster. It had nothing to do with goofy hairstyles or clucking. Vince saw Terry as a cocky young kid, who thinks he’s already every bit as good as Ric Flair ever was, or ever would be, and saw him strutting around like he’s the rooster in the hen house. Bruce also defends the concept of Bill Irwin as ‘The Goon’ by explaining that Irwin was really a former hockey goon, and loved the gimmick, it just had a short shelf life for 1996.

There are other topics covered as well, of course, like Bruce’s history in the business, and a hilarious comparison of working for the WWE versus working for TNA. Of course, the exercise is about that infamous day in Montreal, so we get Bruce’s perspective of the whole situation, and his memories of when it all went down. Bruce is firmly entrenched the camp of believing that Bret screwed Bret, and he makes a very good argument for why he feels that way.

The 411: The interview itself is far and away the best thing here, and it takes up the bulk of the hour and forty-minutes, so this is mostly good stuff. I wasn't too fond of Bruce's booking, but booking is a subjective thing anyway.
Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]