Bruce Prichard On WWE Landscape Had Bret Hart Jumped To WCW In 1996, Not Knowing Roddy Piper Was Leaving For WCW

In a recent edition of Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard discussed the WWE landscape had Bret Hart jumped to WCW in 1996, not knowing Roddy Piper was leaving for WCW, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Bruce Prichard on the WWE landscape had Bret Hart jumped to WCW in 1996: “That’s a crazy what-if because if you look at not just the business aspect of it, but also the creative aspect of it and what became of Bret returning and what became of all that strife and the whole Mr. McMahon character emerging from the “Montreal screwjob.” So, it’s hard to tell. It really is hard to tell. I think Steve would have been pushed up, and I don’t know that Steve would’ve had the same effect that he had later had he not had Bret and the whole Canada vs. USA thing later on to work with.”

On not knowing Roddy Piper was leaving for WCW: “We didn’t know. I had spoken to Roddy the week before about coming back with us, so I was caught off guard. Roddy didn’t – look, I never asked him the question. I never said, ‘Hey man, are you going to WCW?’ I never asked him that question. Maybe subconsciously I didn’t ask him that question because I didn’t want to force him to lie to me, and I don’t know if he would’ve lied to me frankly. But he didn’t tell me. He had an opportunity to tell me, several opportunities that entire week because we were in talks with him about coming back and doing something with us during that time.”

On Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin at Survivor Series 1996: “I thought it was excellent. It stole the show. When you look at the build to this, it was all built with Steve cutting promos and will Bret be there or will he not. It was Steve coaxing Bret back. ‘C’mon, Bret, what’s gonna be your answer?’ This was a classic example of people being talked into the show. It was a tremendous job by Steve, and it was kind of Steve’s coming out party as well.”

On whether WWE was surprised by the reaction to Sid at Survivor Series 1996: “Not really. Sid was getting those reactions and going out and big impressive bastard – people were cheering him everywhere we went. You kind of thought that was gonna happen, but we also thought that – for him to do something to Jose and capitalize on that, that it would turn him and I think it did. I really think that people did turn on Sid after the fact.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Something to Wrestle with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.