Bruce Prichard Talks Shawn Michaels Being Difficult Around WrestleMania 14

On the debut episode of WWE Network’s Something Else To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard (transcript via wrestlinginc.com), Bruce Prichard spoke about Shawn Michaels being difficult around WrestleMania 14, if people believed Michaels back injury was real, and more….

On People Doubting The Legitimacy of Michaels’ Back Injury: “There were definitely grumblings and I would venture to say that there were far more skeptics than there were sympathetic ears at this point because of the timing and the fact that a year [before], his knee was injured and while talking about dropping the title due to a knee injury, he brings up losing his smile.” Prichard continued, “so I guess it was ‘suspect at best’ as my friend, J.R., would say. People doubted it. People didn’t know if it was legitimate, which, by the way, it was a legitimate injury and it was a very bad injury. The timing of it though, didn’t help. And it certainly didn’t help that, Shawn being Shawn, wasn’t talking to a lot of people and I think that he didn’t allow anyone to feel sorry for him, really.”

On Michaels Being Difficult To Work With: “At this time, during this whole run, earlier, you could deal with people who were assholes and people who were difficult because you knew what you got and how to deal with them. You can figure all that out. That’s not that difficult. Shawn, at this point, going into WrestleMania, and probably from January on, the injury on, he was a good 9.5 to deal with. Yeah, he was there.” Prichard recalled, “Shawn had made a lot of demands. Shawn wanted security when he arrived in Boston. And he felt that the unruliness of the fans at the [public] workout [where Michaels was struck by a battery] and in general he had a lot of heat on him in general. Steve [Austin] was so red-hot as a babyface that Shawn wanted protection 24/7, and he got it, and we got it for him. We had the police escort him everywhere that he went leading up to WrestleMania and all the way till WrestleMania and after, so that’s the reality and that’s something that we did do.”

On Undertaker Intimidating Michaels: “Undertaker was seated directly in front of me and he sat there and wrapped his hands as Shawn Michaels made his way to the ring.” Prichard admitted, “and there was a subliminal message there, ‘I’m going to be right here when you come back to make sure you do business’. That was the message. That was the message the entire locker room took and that did happen. And Undertaker was sitting right in front of gorilla [position]. He didn’t say anything to Shawn, nothing. But Undertaker had just finished his match, sat there and just wrapped his hands.”

In Vince McMahon’s Relationship With Shawn Michaels: “Vince has a special place in his heart for Shawn and he does appreciate everything that Shawn did for the company.” Prichard added, “I think Vince looked at Shawn kind of like a father-son and he loved Shawn. It was a love-hate relationship early on, but Shawn always stood up to Vince and told him what was on his mind. And this was an opportunity to give back, I guess you could say. But Vince always looked at Shawn kind of like a son and he loved him. Shawn was the guy who did the Montreal Screwjob and Vince always, or will never ever forget that, and he appreciated Shawn’s work ethic and he appreciated Shawn Michaels the human being. So there was just a lot of love there. But like any relationship, especially fathers and sons, you want to strangle them, but for the most part there was a lot of respect and a lot of love there.”