Former WWE producer Bruce Prichard was a recent guest on the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast and opened up on what it was like to work with WWE CEO Vince McMahon:
Come join us at 8 ‘o clock in the morning and stay ’til 11:30 at night. That was only Monday through Sunday every week. Go stay with him [Vince McMahon] 18 hours a day and if you breathe wrong, [McMahon impression] ‘Bruce you’re breathing heavy.’ Or Pat [Patterson] would go out and smoke a cigarette [McMahon impression] ‘Damn it Patrick you smell like smoke.’
Prichard compared his time working with Vince McMahon to his time working with Dixie Carter:
I went to work for TNA and Dixie Carter. I’d gone to work there, started out just free lancing producing and stuff like that. I eventually took over talent relations and so on and so forth. I was still living in Texas. Their offices are in Tennessee. One Friday about 3:30 in the afternoon, my phone rings and it’s Dixie Carter. The first thing out of her mouth was, ‘I apologize for calling you so late on a Friday.’ I’m like, ‘Ummmm, it’s just 3:30.’ She’s like, ‘I know; but, it’s Friday. You probably want to go off and be with your family and everything.’ I’m thinking, ‘It’s 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. What do you think I’m doing?’ She was apologetic and I just started laughing and I told her then, ‘I could never imagine those words coming out of Vince McMahon’s mouth, calling me at 2 ‘o clock in the morning.’ You have no idea how many 2am, 3am, 4am phone calls I’ve gotten from the man and the first thing out of his mouth is, ‘What are you doing pal?’
When Prichard received those early morning calls he would inform McMahon that he was sleeping, to which McMahon would reply,
‘Sleep when you’re dead.’
Prichard continued,
After the salutations, then he just starts up as if you were on the same wave length as him. You would get up at 6:30, 7 ‘o clock in the morning…..Vince notoriously would get up earlier than Pat or I did. The phone would ring and he would say, ‘Damn, that 4th match last night.’ I would say, ‘Vince my eyes are shut.’ McMahon replies, ‘Goddamn it, what have you been doing all day?’ It’s 6 AM! That’s how your day would start. You’re barely out of bed, the phone is ringing and you’d hear the fax machine in the other room and he’d say, ‘Match 4. What the hell was going on? Who told them to do this?’ I don’t know Vince. See you in an hour boss. That was the other thing. We were gonna see him in like an hour and a half. There was nothing that could be accomplished between the time he started bitching about it at 6AM and when I’d see him at 7:30. There’s nothing that could be done.
Prichard describes Vince’s early morning calls as a regular part of the job; but, host Sam Roberts wondered if McMahon ever slept.
Prichard talked McMahon’s sleep habits:
He’d probably get a couple of hours of sleep before he’d wake up to do cardio. He takes like 30 minute power naps every once in awhile. I’ve gotten alcohol poisoning two times in my life, both times with Vince McMahon. The first time drinking moon shine and the second time was just a crazy night and I remember Vince coming to me and going, ‘Brucie, what are those buses like?’ Those were the early days of the rock n’ roll buses we had for the cameramen and the ring crew guys. Actually they’re pretty nice. McMahon said, ‘Get everybody off. We’ll take a nap in there.’ We would go and just 30 minutes. He would go nap. He goes out and when he wakes up he’s like, ‘Goddamn let’s go. Holy cow that was good! Good times, huh? You know what? I think I got an extra minute there. I think that made a difference.’
Readers interested in listening to Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast in its entirety may do so HERE.
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