Bruce Prichard On DDP’s Run In WWE, Why He Thinks DDP Didn’t Connect With WWE Audience

In a recent edition of Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard discussed why he thinks DDP’s run in WWE didn’t work, whether WWE creative was the issue, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Bruce Prichard on why he thinks DDP’s run in WWE didn’t work: “I think you can look at it both ways. Ted DiBiase in WCW, did that work? Okay. Ted DiBiase was one of the biggest ever in WWE as The Million Dollar Man. As I’ve always said, different brands have different fans. WCW had its fanbase, and a lot of them had never seen WWE before, and vice versa. If they had heard of them or were a big fan of their favorite – it’s like a football or baseball team, you love your team. You don’t love the other teams. So, no matter what, when they come in, it’s still not your guy. They’re still not on your team. They have to prove themselves on your team. For guys coming in from WCW, for the most part, they had to prove themselves and they were looked at by WWE fans as the enemy in many ways. You take Hall, Nash, and Hogan – they all came from WWE. They didn’t have to prove shit. Our audience knew who they were. DDP, not so much.”

On whether WWE creative was the issue: “You can have the greatest creative in the world, but if the talent can’t deliver it, how good is it? You can have the crappiest creative in the world, and if the talent can go out and deliver it and hit it out of the park, it doesn’t matter. The audience didn’t accept him. The audience was kind of like ‘meh’ to him in WWE. They hadn’t seen that build up in WCW with him coming from nothing and doing all the things that he did. And you’re going against The Undertaker – he was brought in kind of based on what he had done in WCW, but it was, to the WWE audience, ‘Okay, what have you done for me?’ Sometimes, one of the biggest mistakes we have all made a lot is bringing someone in and assuming they’re over. You still have to get people over to a new audience no matter who they are.”

On if WWE could’ve done anything differently with DDP: “I think it was a square peg in a round hole. Maybe if we had taken more time with the introduction of DDP – I don’t know. I’m a big fan of DDP personally, and I’ve always liked him. I appreciated what he did. If you look how hard he worked and the age that he started and what he accomplished, kudos. I just don’t know that the WWE audience was that into him no matter what he did.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Something to Wrestle with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.