On a recent edition of his “Something To Wrestle With” podcast, WWE executive Bruce Prichard recalled having discussions of an exploding deathmatch at WrestleMania 16 and why it was quickly shot down.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On whether an exploding deathmatch was considered for WrestleMania 16: “No, it was never seriously considered. I think it was looked at as far as, ‘Okay, is there anything to this?’ And I think that once everybody saw it, it’s like, ‘We can’t do that!’ Certainly can’t do it indoors. But also, anybody that’s ever seen an exploding match, it’s — they’re terrible. They’re absolutely — the payoff is a big explosion. You know, we blow off more pyro for entrances than what was in an exploding deathmatch. And a whole bunch of dust and just, people can’t see. And then you have an anti-climatic finish.
“So you know when you look at it and try and analyze, sounds cool. ‘Oh my God, exploding deathmatch! Holy cow, the the chaos, oh my!’ They’re farts in church. I just — you know, once you build up in your mind what this is going to be and it doesn’t produce, it’s a bunch of concussions with a bunch of smoke. And then somebody lays on top of somebody.”
On the matches being unimpressive in his opinion: “So the the referee wears this whole outfit that is, the fireproof outfit. But the two guys working wear nothing. So the explosion happens, there’s no damage to the guys that were wearing nothing. But the guy that’s wearing the whole explosive thing is like passed out on the mat. It’s ridiculous. Again, when you you watch it I think that there’s that desire, our human desire to want to see it for the first time. And then you see it, you go ‘Oh. That wasn’t that great.’ So I’ve seen him on tape, seen them in person. And in person frankly was a bigger letdown than watching it on tape.”
On talking about it at all: “So I think that you know, looking at something to do. Because for Kane, that’s logical. like an Inferno match, an explosion match. You know, what’s the next evolution of that? But then after watching it and trying to figure out, ‘Okay, could we do something similar to this?’ The feedback was unanimous that, ‘Alright, once you get to the explosion, then what?’ It doesn’t pay off other than ‘Big Boom.’ And again as I say, the pyro and everything we do for entrances and things of that nature is more than the pyro would have been for for this. Yeah sure, we could done a huge explosion. But, then nobody’s affected by it? And the people that are sitting at ringside, doesn’t affect them at all? It’s all on the outside of the Ring. It’s closer to the fans than it is the the guys in the ring.
“So yes, it was discussed. We discussed it several times. I go back to whenever we went and worked the Onita match with Vader and Shamrock. That was the first time I saw it in person. And oh my God, it was built up to me. And there was one guy, Victor Quinones, was like, ‘Eh, watch it back here. It’s not much of a match. It’s not much of a — you know, I don’t know how they pay this gimmick off. It’s terrible.”
