On a recent episode of his Something To Wrestle podcast, WWE executive Bruce Prichard reflected on TNA Victory Road 2011 and admitted to being optimistic about the promotion’s success.
In 2011, Prichard took over the role of TNA head writer from Vince Russo. The following year, he was promoted to Senior Vice President, Programming & Talent Relations.
Prichard also addressed Ken Anderson’s failure to be a main event star for TNA.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the upside of working for TNA: “Look, there were moments, I’ll be really honest with you here. At this point in my life, I was looking for a steady paycheck with insurance. I had a wife at home that had cancer and needed treatment and all these things. I needed insurance, so I needed to have a steady check because I hadn’t been with WWE for over a year and it was that constant, ‘Hey man, no we’re starting this in three months. We’re starting this in six months. We’re working on this project, working on that project.’ I had so many irons in the fire, none of them ever got hot and this came along and it was real money. And it’s steady and it was insurance and I thought, ‘Well, here’s an opportunity to do something that I know what I’m doing, that I’m familiar with, and get a check and get back involved.’
“A lot of times when you’re working, more opportunities come to you while you’re employed than when you’re not. When you’re employed, nine million things come at you. All these great opportunities. When you’re unemployed and you’re looking for something, man there’s nothing. You go back to all those guys and gals and say, ‘Hey what about this, we talked about that.’ No, it just kind of dried up. So, this period of my life I’m telling you, as much as I love the business I took this gig for the check and for the insurance. Now working in it, I enjoyed myself working in it, I did. Because I just love, I still love the business. I love to do what I do. You look at the opportunities that existed with that brand with the TNA brand and look at and go ‘Man if we could just make some big cuts over here and refocused and repackaged in a different way, holy s*** you’re never gonna go oh hey we’re the next WWE.’ No chance in hell that was ever going to happen or even come close. However, I do believe that they could have been a very profitable business that guys could go and have a place to work and learn. So, yeah, I was optimistic, yes.”
On being confident Mr. Anderson could be a top guy: “I mean, we all were. Look, we all were a big fan of Ken’s. Unfortunately, it just didn’t pan out. In this instance in particular, as you just said, you got Ken Anderson going out there and he’s mad at an unknown with no face, no name, thing in the network. It’s like who cares? I can’t feel something if I can’t see it. It’s not tangible I have no idea who’s pulling the strings. Do they have a mohawk or what? It’s give me something to feel instead of just “oh, the network says.” Nobody got it, nobody cared.”
