On the latest edition of his Something To Wrestle podcast, Bruce Prichard discussed a myriad of wrestling topics including WrestleMania V.
Prichard revealed whether “Macho Man” Randy Savage had any concerns about a heel turn in 1989 and also weighed in on Tony Schiavone joining the WWF, Demolition turning face, and Hercules working as a face.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On If Randy Savage Had Any Concerns About Losing Money Due To Heel Turn: “I don’t think Randy looked at it like that and plus there was also depending upon, you know, if your heel or babyface whatever the hell it is a lot of times if a heel is just as important to the babyface. So, a lot of times they will compensate in other ways. May not have been as much merchandise sales, but they may be compensated in other ways and so that was never really a big issue. I think there were guys that would look at ‘Well, if I was a babyface and I was selling Hulk Hogan merchandise that much I’d be making this much more.’ Well, you’re not Hulk Hogan you aren’t selling that much merchandise and you’re not going to make that much more. So, there’s only one Hulk. There’s always going to be talent. There’s always going to be guys that are great merch sellers that can go out and make all that happen and then there’s guys that just can’t. That’s just the reality of the business.”
On Tony Schiavone Joining The WWF In 1989: “I was happy to have Tony part of the team and Tony I thought was good play-by-play and in addition to that what Tony brought to the table was or the ability to also product and to help produce whether it was vignettes for us or segments, but he eventually took over Coliseum Video and the production of those. So, having Tony on board that was a big help because he served a lot of roles.”
On Turning Demolition Face Due To Fans Wanting To Cheer Them: “Yeah, we were fighting the tide on that one because people had been cheering Demolition for a while might as well make the full turn and give it to them. The only reason they wouldn’t cheer Demolition was probably because of Mr. Fuji. So, move Fuji to the other side and also it was going to help the Powers of Pain because they were not the best on the mics. Not that Fuji was, but still gave them a little more color, yes.”
On If Hercules Worked As A Babyface: “Yeah, you know the issue becomes a lot of times discussed many times the person behind the character they’re not always the same person and Hercules Ray Fernandez was a sweetheart of a guy. Loved by everyone. Very gentle, very kind and just a great human being that you would want to be able to put that on display and allow him to project that. I don’t know that Ray Fernandez could project that as a babyface in front of the camera. Big jacked up guy that was Hercules, Hercules. It just, I don’t think that he could ever really portray a babyface too well. They liked him, but they didn’t love him. So, it was a difficult transition.”
