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Bruce Prichard Recalls Filming Final Billionaire Ted Skit For WrestleMania 12
Image Credit: WWE
On the latest episode of Something To Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard talked about the “Billionaire Ted” skits that aired in 1996, specifically the payoff segment at WrestleMania 12. The skits, which parodied Ted Turner, Hulk Hogan (The Huckster), and Randy Savage (The Nacho Man), ended with a pre-taped match where the characters died in the ring. You can check out some highlights below:
On the Final Segment:
“Quite possibly one of the worst ideas I’d ever heard. And this is also where all the geniuses of the Billionaire Ted skits bailed out. [David] Sahadi couldn’t be found for miles anywhere near this, didn’t want to touch it. Nobody did. Vince didn’t even want to touch it. He promoted the goddamn thing, put it out there, but nobody wanted to touch it.”
On the Segment:
“And it was, ‘Bruce, need you to make this thing happen.’ And this, gave me an overview of kind of, Here’s what I want.’ I was like, ‘Why don’t we just cancel it? Why don’t we just say billionaire Ted huckster Nacho are all dead and not going to happen something, anything? Just don’t do this. Please God, don’t do it.’”
On it Ending:
“I think everybody was happy. I think everybody was ecstatic that it was over. And by that time, I think had a different Huckster at that point in the match. Was different than the one we had used all the other time because he had to work. It was embarrassing. It was really embarrassing, it was not good. I may be able to watch it now and chuckle at it. But at the time — and again, because nobody wanted to touch it. All the geniuses thought it was so funny in the beginning, nobody wanted to touch it. Vince was like, ‘No no, just — Bruce, just go get it over with.’
“And I did, by God, I killed all of them, killed every single last one of them. And used every — took all the s**t, the shoe and everything that they had done, and rolled it all into one. And shot it right there in the studio. Didn’t have to leave anywhere, anything. And brought some people that weren’t working, and ‘Come on out and sit.’ And, ‘let’s go. Just go.’ Just not a lot of reshoots. Just do. ‘This, get some cutaways, put it together, next.’”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something To Wrestle With an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.
