Bruce Prichard on Rumors Pat Patterson Retired Due to Heat With Triple H, Why Patterson Actually Cut Back His Schedule

– On the latest Something to Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard addressed reports from 2005 that Pat Patterson retired due to heat with Triple H. Conrad Thompson recounted a report from the time that the rumor was that Patterson retired because he was frustrated with the power Triple H had behind the scenes and too much push on the air. Triple H denied the reports, and the report did say that Patterson was telling people his retirement had nothing to do with The Game.

Prichard shot down the reports and pointed out that Patterson didn’t retire at all, just cut his schedule back so he could have more time for himself. Highlights and the full podcast are below:

On reports that Patterson retired due to issues with Triple H: “It’s complete bulls**t. I mean, I started to laugh when you said ‘Pat Patterson’s retirement’ because yes, he’s still around now. And Pat, I think that the — okay, first Pat retired from being in the ring. Then Pat retired in the office. He got a big screen TV then. Then he came back, and then he retired again. Got a second big screen TV, and then he came back. And I told him the second time he came back, ‘Okay Pat.’ I said, ‘This is it. No more big screen for you, motherf**ker. You’re gonna stay a while this time.’ So Pat had a tendency to, when he would be on the road for a while, he would get tired. He would just get burned out. And at this point in his career [in 2005], he was single. He was living life, and he couldn’t do that being gone as many days a week as it took to be on the road and everything. So he looked at it and just wanted to have more ‘Me time.’ And Pat was fed up with the business at that point. When I say ‘fed up with the business,’ he was fed up with the travel. He was fed up with being at the building at 11:00 for the production meeting, and then having to do the show, and then talk about it afterward. [imitating Patterson] ‘Oh boy, I’m sick of it already!’ Just yeah, it was just Pat being tired, and Pat wanting to not commit.”

On Patterson not actually retiring at all: “Now, here’s the other funny thing about this, is people say ‘Pat retired.’ Pat didn’t f**king retire. Pat just cut back on his schedule. So instead of going to every single TV and every single PPV, it’s like, ‘Hey Pat. Come on out for the PPVs. Eh, make the TV afterwards.’ And that was a good schedule for a while. Every once in a while he would want to come out and do something else. So, all of that — Pat retiring, him having heat with Triple H. That’s 100% complete just bulls**t. That’s something that someone made up to try and come up with a story to sell news dirt sheet f**king subscriptions or something, to say ‘Oh hey, here’s the real scoop.’ No, there was nothing there. That was Pat being frustrated and wanting to go off and live live, and not be tied down every week.”

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