Chris Dunn Recalls Trying To Improve Alexa Bliss & Bayley ‘This Is Your Life’ Segment

The Alexa Bliss and Bayley “This Is Your Life” segment is famously hated, and writer Chris Dunn recently recalled how his efforts to improve it were for naught. The May 29th, 2017 episode of WWE Raw featured a segment between the two feuding rivals in which Bliss tried to use the famous 1999 Mick Foley “This Is Your Life” segment with The Rock as a template to bully and mock Bayley. She used photos of Bayley and “items” from Bayley’s life like a doll, a trophy for sportsmanship and more to make fun of her rival.

The segment was instantly hated, so much that WWE cut it out of the YouTube clip in its entirety. The segment became known as one of the worst segments in Raw history. Dunn bravely admitted on the Public Enemies Podcast to working on it with Johnny Russo, though he noted that they were simply trying to make a bad segment better and that all their work got undone when a producer took it to Vince McMahon. You can see highlights below:

On the Inherent Flaws In the Segment:

“I’ll give a good example of one I did. I did Bayley’s ‘This is Your Life’ with another writer. Rough segment. And you get it, and like the lead writer who’s no longer there — you know, in theory it was a good conceit. I think it was a little flawed, because it was taking off of Mick Foley’s ‘This is Your Life’ with The Rock. And Bliss, though she was incredibly over, you have a heel leading it instead of a babyface. Instead of this odd couple, it’s more you’re trying to bother the babyface.”

On Working to Improve It:

“I got stuck producing this with the writer, who’s now in charge of NXT, who’s awesome, this guy Johnny Russo. And it’s so bad. And you’re working to make it better and better. And also what you come up with on a Thursday for Raw and you write on a Friday goes through numerous drafts. But then you have to go through the production meeting and meeting with talent. So you have have chances to make it better and better. And for that, we were making it — I wouldn’t say good. We’re in the process about like, making it watchable. Sometimes you just want to get through it.”

On What Went Wrong From There:

“And then one producer was pissed off because — and I disagreed with him on this. He was pissed off because there was a debate in a production meeting about whether to, for the greatest PPV of all time that was going to become a yearly PPV, Great Balls of Fire, where Vince really worked hard to get those Huey Lewis rights… there there was a big debate about whether Brock’s opponent for Great Falls should be Finn Balor or Samoa Joe. And I think the writing team thought Samoa Joe was the better opponent. One, because Brock was going to win. And Samoa Joe can kind of hold his own, cut a promo, go against Heyman on a promo. And if you put Finn in that position where I think he was just coming back from the SummerSlam injury, where he’s still relatively fresh to the main roster. He has to be in a four-week build with Heyman doing promos, and then Brock is going to do what Brock’s going to do…

“I thought everyone felt like Joe would be better. And Joe f**king crushed it against Brock, but the producer was livid. And he then saw the segment and he’s like, ‘This is horrible.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, it was a horrible goddamn segment. We knew it. We’re trying to make it better.'”

On McMahon Reverting Their Work:

“And then he went to Vince, so Vince then took it over. And one thing that Vince would do is, if you didn’t like his brainchild and you didn’t handle it with respect and try to accept that it was bad, he would then dig his heels in and go back to the original creative, which he did.

“And then he — in one of the all-time great moments, he taught the two of the extras in that segment — I watched him in rehearsal in a back room, I think we’re in South Carolina — teach them how to kiss.”

On McMahon Teaching the Two Extras:

“It is weird to like have Vince McMahon, who you grew up with, have that conversation with two actors. But it’s like, you are kind of directing the scene so you have to you them a little bit, kind of… By the way, let me tell you the acting talent in South Carolina who’s who’s working a Raw on Memorial Day weekend, they’re not, you know, Juliard-trained.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the Public Enemies Podcast with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.