Bruce Prichard: “Vince McMahon Didn’t Kill The Territories”

– Bruce Prichard spoke with WrestleZone for a new interview. You can check it out here. In the interview, Prichard talks about the perception that Vince McMahon killed the old territories when he took WWE national and said that’s not what happened.

“Vince didn’t kill the territories,” he said. “Vince went in to these guys from these different promotions from all across the country and offered to work with them. It was the guys that were in the individual territories that said, “Hey, no Vince. I’ll squash you like a bug. You know what? I’ll come in to New York and I’ll destroy you up there. How about that?” The reality of that situation was Vince gave all of those guys an opportunity and said, “Hey, here is what I’m going to do. This is what I’d like to do. You’re kind of with me or you’re not. I’d like to bring you in to the fold. I’d like to work something out.” To the man with very few exceptions, Mike LaBelle out in LA and maybe a couple others, but to the man they all said, “To hell with you. I’ll come in and I’ll take New York. Bah Gawd you’re not coming in to my territory.” And Vince would say, “Well, yeah, I am. It’s a free country.” I used to laugh when guys would sell territories eight, nine or ten times over. What the hell are they selling? It’s air. It’s America. You can practice your trade anywhere in America. Just because there’s somebody else laying wood floors in Friendswood, TX does that mean I can’t do wood floors in Friendswood, TX? That guy was here first? He owns it? That’s why I laugh at the promoters and the people that say, “Vince killed the territories.” No, he really didn’t. He went in wanting to work with them and wanting to come up with a way to make it all work and they were all like, “No. This is my territory. You’re not coming in here.”