Bruce Prichard Says He Hated The Diva Search, Recalls Infamous ‘Diss the Diva’ Segment

– On the latest Something to Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard shared his thoughts on the 2004 Diva Search and the infamous “Diss the Diva” segment on Raw that went way over the line for live TV. The segment in particular was on the August 30th, 2004 episode of Raw and had Christy Hemme, Carmella DeCesare, Amy Weber and Joy Giovanni — all contestants for in the search — cutting short promos on each other.

DeCesare wasn’t at all liked and while the others leveled fairly tame disses at each other, when they got to Carmella it got very non-PG. Giovanni said DeCescare “talks a lot of s**t, but you got a gap so wide you could drive a truck through there” while Weber called her a “Whore,” said she “doesn’t know s**t about wrestling” and added, “Guess what? Having a c**k in your mouth has nothing to do with wrestling!” Hemme was the final contestant after DeCesare and followed suit but upped the ante, calling DeCesare a “c**-burping gutterslut.” It was instantly controversial for obvious reasons. Hemme would win that year and while and Giovanni, Weber both got contracts — along with eliminated contestants Michelle McCool, Maria Kanellis, and Candice Michelle — DeCesare only made it as far as a Lingerie Pillow Fight match at Taboo Tuesday in October before leaving the company.

Highlights from the discussion, and the full podcast, are below:

On Carmella: “I couldn’t pick her out of a lineup. And I assume that she was the ‘c**-burping slut’ that Christy referred to in an impromptu, live promo segment on Monday Night Raw that we had to have a little chat with everybody about. I hated the Diva Search. I just wasn’t a fan of it, and I tried to distance myself as much as possible. But if I am thinking of the same person, than I remember it got down to the two of them at the end, right? And I stuck a camera in her face and she went nuts. And that was the only part that I really liked. That, ‘Okay, she’s a crazy whackadoo bitch,’ and we got that. So I was happy, I was like, ‘Okay, great! Finally I got some real emotion out of you.’ Because everything else, I just thought she was terrible.”

On the ‘Diss the Diva’ segment and Hemme’s controversial comments: “[She] sure did [say that]. At the same time, she said it so f**king quick, I think everybody was kind of looking at themselves, saying, ‘Did she just say c**-burping gutterslut? Can we say slut on TV?’ [laughs] ‘I think the c**-burping part is okay, it’s accurate, but um–‘ Yeah. It was one of those moments of, ‘God dammit!’ You need to tell ’em what not to say. And ‘c*m-burping gutterslut’ became one of those phrases on the ‘Do Not Say’ list.”

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.