Bruce Prichard On Who Did and Didn’t Like WWE’s Dress Code, Not Being a Fan Of It Himself

– Bruce Prichard recalled WWE instituting its dress code in 2004 on the latest Something to Wrestle, and which talent were and weren’t on board with the idea. WWE had a dress code originally before the Attitude Era, but it went away during that period Vince McMahon decided to let talent dress more relaxed because of the era’s feel. It was brought back in 2004 and Prichard recalled not being a fan at all of the decision.

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

On what he thought of the dress code: “During this time, we had — I think that it was overdone to the point of the sport coat, the jacket, the tie and all that other s**t. I just think the guys should dress neat, be presentable, that’s all. And especially at that time. Now for me, ‘presentable’ at that time was usually khakis of some kind. I always wore the same shoes like I wear now. Cole Haan, Nikes. And I’d either wear a polo shirt or a Tommy Bahama short-sleeved shirt. Didn’t matter. Wear sweaters in the winter. But I never wore a sport coat and man, I was pissed when we changed over. Because see, two things happened. I’ll go back to when we got rid of the dress code during the Attitude Era. I had just spent like $4,000 on new suits and shirts, and just a whole new wardrobe. $4,000 is a lot of money to go out and spend at one time for a bunch of monkey suits and s**t. I hadn’t even got the stuff back from the tailor when Vince proclaims, ‘God dammit, we’re Attitude! No more dress code, just be neat!’ I was like, ‘Motherf**ker!’ So now, the flip happened. I had gotten rid of every suit I owned. And I didn’t have any suits! And now all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Gotta wear a sport coat, gotta wear a suit.’ And I was like, ‘F**k!’ So yeah, I was not in favor of it, not a happy camper about the new dress code.”

On who really embraced the new dress code: “See, those were the guys who were already doing it, though. Those were the guys who were dressed to the nines, no matter what. You know, Ric Flair. I’ve never seen Ric Flair not look like he was tailor-made. Best-dressed man in the business, no matter what. And you know, those guys were gonna do it anyway.”

On Randy Orton not being a fan of the dress code: “God, you know, Randy Orton. As a matter of fact, Randy was like, ‘Why can’t I just wear nice jeans?’ And jeans were on the ‘X’ list. Randy didn’t like it. And you know, it was — I think that most of the guys looked at it like, kind of roll their eyes and say ‘Okay, we’ll do it.’ But there was nobody that was, ‘Yay! We’ve got a dress code!’ Because the guys that dressed, they were already doing it. I really think it came down to seeing the guys that were dressed, that looked really good like Batista and all those guys. It was like, ‘God damn, they look sharp!’ And somebody walks in behind them with shorts and flip-flops, or a Tommy Bahama shirt and Nike shoes, and you go ‘God damn!’ I think it was a combination of a lot of things, that got us to that point.”

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.