Bruce Prichard Defends 2005 ‘Dr. Heinie’ Jim Ross Segment, Says It Was ‘Done Out of Love’

– Bruce Prichard discussed the infamous “Dr. Heinie’ skit centered on Jim Ross in the latest Something to Wrestle With podcast, and whether it went too far. The segment took place on the October 24th, 2005 episode of Raw, after Ross had undergone a real-life colonoscopy. The seven-minute segment, which you can see below, featured Vince pulling several items out of “JR’s” behind, including sound effects and more.

Prichard defended the segment, saying it was done “out of love and respect” for Ross. He had noted earlier in the episode that he had oral surgery done recently and his teeth looked all messed up, and he was laughing about it because every time he saw himself in the mirror he looked like an idiot, and brought that up again as a way to point out that he had a weird sense of humor and thus he and Vince found it funny.

Ross, for the record, recently said on his own podcast that he thought the skit was mean-spirited and said that he was only told by McMahon that ‘we got a little something special for you tonight on Raw,’ not what it was going to be. The highlights of the discussion, as well as the full podcast and video of the segment, are below:

On if the skit was too mean-spirited: “Well first of all, no it wasn’t mean-spirited. And I think that a lot of people had a problem from the standpoint of the reality of JR having surgery. Now, I’m gonna get a lot of s**t for this, and I don’t give a f**k. This was done out of love and it was done out of respect to JR from the standpoint of this: we’re gonna do a skit, we’re gonna make fun of your s**t. We’re gonna laugh at it, we’re gonna have fun with it, because we want you to get through this.”

On his and Vince’s sense of humor: “Look, I have a weird sense of humor. I was talking about my teeth earlier. When I got out of surgery, and my wife called Vince to let him know that, ‘Hey, I’m out of surgery,’ he says, ‘Well let him know’ — he says, ‘How’s he look, is he okay,’ made sure I was fine — he says, ‘Well if his teeth look funny, let him know I’m laughing my ass off.’ Which, when I came to and I heard that, I laughed my ass off, because that’s what I would have said to him. And you go through this, I would send him pictures of my face all f**ked up after the surgery, and he would send me back laughing s**t. That’s our humor, that’s our way of communicating. And this was done to put even more sympathy on JR, but more than anything, say ‘Hey JR, man. Thinking about you, and we know you’re gonna be okay, and we’re thinking about you.’

On the criticism of the segment: “People will take anything and turn it into mean-spirited s**t. You can look at it in any way you wanna look at it. Was it in good taste? That’s debatable. And again, what’s your — what you think is good taste, and what other people think is good taste.”

On if he would have felt the same if it had been his wife in JR’s position: “If my wife Stephanie was a character on television? Maybe yes. Again, but it wasn’t — first of all, we knew JR was out of the woods. We knew that he was okay. And [he] was told about ahead of time. And it was done to keep his name out there and have a little fun with it. And let him know, ‘God dammit man, you’ve gotta laugh at this s**t and you’ve gotta move on.’ And he was okay. And again, my wife isn’t a television character. She’s not a public figure.”

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