wrestling / News

Bruce Prichard Explains What Made Junkyard Dog a Great Worker in the Business

November 8, 2023 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
Mid-South Wrestling Junkyard Dog 9-17-1983, Dark Side of the Ring Image Credit: WWE/Peacock

– During a recent edition of Something To Wrestle, WWE executive Bruce Prichard discussed the legacy and career of late WWE Hall of Famer Junkyard Dog (nee Sylvester Ritter). Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):

Prichard on how the Junkyard Dog was unique: “JYD was different, JYD was unique. He had charisma. You can’t teach charisma. And the Dog had charisma walking out of the locker room, and would own that audience as soon as he burst through those doors.” While JYD is renowned as a wrestling legend today, he has often been seen as an inferior worker to some of his contemporaries. Prichard acknowledged that JYD wouldn’t ever be seen as an all-time great in-ring talent, but ultimately believes that JYD was a great worker for an entirely different reason.”

On how JYD was great as a worker: “You want to talk about great workers … or talk about great wrestlers, Junkyard Dog wasn’t a great wrestler, by any stretch of the imagination. There’s not a human alive who would say ‘Oh, JYD was the best wrestler.’ He was the drizzling s***s. Best worker? JYD couldn’t be touched, because he knew what to do and when. And that’s where people, your experts of the world and your 32-star matches and all that b******t, means absolutely less than nothing.”

WWE posthumously inducted Junkyard Dog into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2004.