wrestling / News

Brian Gewirtz On Whether Vince McMahon Wanted Competition After WCW, Talks Simone Johnson’s New Name

September 13, 2022 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Vince McMahon WWE, Adnan Virk, ECW Image Credit: WWE

Brian Gewirtz was one of the key writers for WWE during the Attitude Era, and he recently weighed in on whether Vince McMahon yearned for real competition after buying WCW and more. Gewirtz spoke with Sportskeeda for a new interview and you can check out some highlights below:

On if he thinks Vince McMahon wanted real competition after WCW went out of business: “I don’t know if he did. Because I think you know, after WCW went down, I think he considered all of television competition. So he wasn’t necessarily looking at it from a wrestling standpoint. I think there was a certain amount of pride in being the victor of the Monday Night Wars and getting WCW for pennies on the dollar. And I don’t think he would have shied away from it if AEW had been around, and if AEW went head to head with him. We all remember there was a brief time when TNA, Impact went head to head with Raw for a few months anyways and certainly Vince wasn’t — I don’t know if he even acknowledged it. As far as he’s concerned, it’s like, ‘That’s their show, let them worry about their show. We need to focus on our show.’

“So that was always the case and he always felt you know, as WWE strove to become know more widely accepted in the pop culture realm and to attract higher rates for their television rights and you know, advertiser fees and all that kind of thing. And not not to mention it being a publicly traded company, I think that the key was you know, ‘Let’s be number one on cable. Let’s beat everything that’s our competition. Let’s be network shows if we can. But mainly it’s really like, don’t put your focus on them, put your focus on yourself and that’s kind of what we always had in mind.”

On Simone Johnson changing her name to Ava Raine: “First of all, ‘The Rock’s writer,’ it’s one of those things that gets a little bit misinterpreted over the years. I collaborated with Dwayne a ton, we always wrote our promos together. It was never like, ‘Here’s this piece of paper.’ ‘Thanks, Brian, I got it.’ It was always a back-and-forth.

“And think it’s the same with Simone. It’s not my place as a writer to tell her like, ‘You’re either going to use your real name or use a new identity.” It’s like, ‘What do you want to do?’ What does she want to do? What is she most comfortable with? There’s a ton — I can’t imagine the pressure of having to live up and a be a fourth generation star… I mean, this is her world now. This is her playground to explore and craft her own persona. So I think ultimately, whatever decision she wants to make, that’s the right one because ultimately she knows this better than anyone. She can’t rely on her family and last name to succeed. She needs to succeed on her own, and that’s why she’s putting in the work and working her ass off. And I’m excited, I’m truly excited to see how she progresses and how she, you know, introduces herself.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Sportskeeda with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.