Bruce Prichard Talks About Vince McMahon Working Personally With Chris Benoit On His Interview Skills

In the latest episode of Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard spoke about Chris Benoit adjusting to being world champion in 2004 and revealed that Vince McMahon worked with him personally to help him improve on things like speaking. Here are highlights:

On sending Benoit a week early into Edmonton to handle PR for the event: “Any and everything we possibly can. It helped from a standpoint locally that they all want him. They all want him. They all want to talk about the hometown boy that made good. So they’re already requesting it and we’re getting him out there every way that we can. So it was good, the fact that Chris…I even believe that Chris still had a place there, was going back and forth. To that end, that worked out really well and people knew him. Chris wasn’t one that always went out and did a lot of that stuff. It was good practice for him as well. Because Chris wasn’t the best on the microphone. He wasn’t one of those guys that was over the top. This was a chance for him to get out of his comfort shell, for him to be able to get out in front of audiences and tell his story and let people get to know that real guy.

On how Benoit adjusted to being the world champion: “Still learning. I don’t know that that was ever anything that Chris was ever completely comfortable with. It was something that Vince did work a lot with him on personally, but Chris, he wrestled in the ring. That’s what he did best. That is what made his name for him. That is what people loved him for. So for him to go and verbalize that a lot of the time, that was difficult. That was difficult for him. That was something that Vince did work with him an awful lot. You know you get the very best that you can out of it and it was a slow process. But the only way you’re gonna get better, no different than how you get better in the ring, is repetition. The only way you’re gonna get better at doing media interviews and speaking in front of large audiences is actually doing it. Go out there, flub up a few times, do what you have to do. But then you’re going to be more comfortable and when you’re more comfortable, it’s better.”

On why Backlash 2004 has a rematch from Wrestlemania 20 in the main event: “A couple of reasons. One was to get [Benoit] a victory over the other guy, that being Shawn Michaels. And it was a great match. The story didn’t end at Wrestlemania. It was just another chapter at Wrestlemania to crown the new champion. And now to solidify that champion, what better way to solidify him than to beat both guys that were in that triple threat, and really establish him as ‘this is the guy now.’ He beat your two top stars in basically one match. It was two matches, but you know what I mean. It was a triple threat, you didn’t beat the weak guy, you beat the two strongest guys. That solidified him as World champion.”

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