Bruce Prichard Recalls Shane Douglas’ Issues With the Kliq, His Dean Douglas Character Not Working

– On the latest Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard discussed Shane Douglas’ issues with the Kliq and how the Dean Douglas gimmick didn’t work out for Shane. Douglas has been outspoken for years about his issues with Shawn Michaels and the rest of the Kliq, accusing them of sabotaging his WWE run. Prichard recalled that the group didn’t like Douglas largely because his ring work wasn’t up to snuff and discussed Douglas’ infamous gimmick that he was given when he came in in 1995, hot off helping launch ECW’s era:

On Douglas’ issues with the Kliq: “No, they didn’t [get along]. To Razor’s credit though, people went to Shane. Razor went to Shane, said ‘Hey man, you need to step it up. We’ll work with you, let’s get the ring rust off.’ And I just don’t know that it came fast enough, or that it ever really came during the whole Dean Douglas stuff before Shane left. So it wasn’t for lack of trying, and there were people who went to Shane. I believe Razor went to Shane, agents had gone to Shane, Vince went to Shane. So it wasn’t like it was a secret to him. And yeah, it just — the Kliq didn’t click [with Douglas]. And he didn’t click with Razor, that’s for sure. He didn’t click with Shawn, either.”

On Douglas’ assertion he was set for a big rock star gimmick in his 1991 WWE run: “I don’t remember, I never heard of a rock star gimmick. But I do know that throughout the years, there was always interest in Shane. And whether that — f**k, I’ll go back to the late ’80s, there was interest in Shane. So for whatever reason, it never worked out until the Dean Douglas thing. And that didn’t work out.”

On the Dean Douglas character: “Dean Douglas was like that horrible schoolteacher [or] principal that used to walk down the hall with the paddle, and was a complete asshole to everybody in school. That was an abuse of power and abuse of authority. So he was Dean, and we took Shane Douglas from the Shane Douglas stuff and made him the Dean, Dean Douglas. It was this professor, or principal, whatever you want to call him from Hell. I wanted him to paddle people after he was done with them.”

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.