Former WWE Writer Brian Gewirtz Talks The Dropped Ballad Of Little Dave Batista Angle, Working With John Cena Sr, More

– Former WWE Writer Brian Gewirtz recently appeared on E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness (via wrestlinginc.com), here are the highlights…

On John Cena, Sr. Going into Business for Himself During The Cena vs. Edge Feud: “I think John gave us a little warning before we went over there too. He had a [comment like], ‘oh, Johnny Fab, huh? Good luck with that.’ And then, so me and Bruce Prichard, we were the co-producers of this. We liked teaming up together because, if there was heat, at least it would be split. Yeah, [split between the two] we could at least handle it together. So [Edge] and [Lita], we went to the Cena house, yeah, and the idea was [Edge] would go in, make fun of his upbringing, make fun of his house, and eventually get into it with his dad and everything. but what we didn’t know was Mr. Cena is a bit of a performance artist in his own right. Yes, so and the line was just ‘Edge berates John Cena’s dad and storms off,’ so then, [Edge] would berate him, and he goes, ‘well, let me tell you something, I’m going to put you over the edge!’ And then, he looks into the camera. We’re like, ‘what the f–k? What? Hey, Mr. Cena, in this particular set of circumstances, you are just going to stand there and kind of get berated. We’re going to get sympathy for you and your character and everything.’ [Imitating Cena, Sr.] ‘Oh, got it. Okay.’ So then, [Lita] cuts her promo and it’s like, ‘let me tell you something chicky-poo, you’re nothing! And I’m going to make sure you’re both put over the edge!’ He kept going back to that for some reason. He was doubling down on the ‘over the edge’ and [Edge] had to do [his] best to stop from laughing at everything. [Imitating Cena, Sr.] ‘I don’t care if you do it till the cows come home! Hahaha! See, because that’s how it works around here in West Newbury, Massachusetts!’ I’m like, ‘what is happening?’ He couldn’t help himself and Cena warned us about it.”

On Vince McMahon Hating The Footage: “Then we get the call from Vince [McMahon], Bruce and I, and he goes, ‘guys, that might have been the worst thing we ever recorded in the history of this business. I’m extremely disappointed.’ And then, Vince said the greatest thing in the world, which I should apologize to Bruce, but I can’t. But he goes, ‘it’s unusable, it was unprofessional, it was terrible – Bruce, I’m really disappointed in you.’ And I’m just like, ‘yes, I agree with that! Bruce, I am, too, disappointed. I was trying to learn from you!'”

On Working on The Jericho/Shawn Michaels Feud: “To be able to have that Rock/Hogan promo segment in Chicago [Illinois], which, that is, again, I don’t know if anyone really remembers the actual words that were used in the promo segment, but just to be associated with that. It’s the same thing with, again, it’s like, ‘well, it would take a really talented writer to screw this up,’ the Shawn [Michaels]/Bret [Hart] reunion in, I think it was Dayton, Ohio, when Shawn and Bret were back in the ring. I mean, I was the ‘writer’ tied to that. And, for me, personally, and I’ve said this before, I always took pride in the Shawn Michaels/Chris Jericho angle that we did for many, many months, because I was not… I mean, I always respected Shawn Michaels, but as growing up and everything, I always rooted for Bret Hart against him. I wasn’t like The Kliq fanboy or anything like that even though my friends and I followed him to a hospital once in Syracuse [New York], War Memorial, house show when we were in college and they asked my friends directions to the hospital and then, we followed them there and we got kicked out in the waiting room.”

On Vince McMahon Wanting to Make Back Stories For The Wrestlers & The Ballad Of Little Dave Batista: “Everything is done for the right reasons. It’s just not executed the right way sometimes. So one day, we were in the writers room and Vince told us, ‘dammit, characters need backstories. We don’t know anything about these guys when they come in. We need nuanced, layered backstories.’ I’m like, ‘okay.’ [Imitating McMahon] ‘So, with that in mind…’ We’re like, ‘oh boy, here it comes.’ [Imitating McMahon] ‘What if Dave Bautista was a foster child?’ I’m like, ‘what?’ He’s like, ‘no, it’s why he has a chip on his shoulder and that’s why Ric [Flair], because he’s in Evolution at the time, Ric is kind of his father figure,’ so all that kind of makes sense. Okay, he’s a foster child. That’s why when someone attacks Ric, he gets all worked up because he has this real life respect for Ric and his father figure. Great! So Vince kind of lays out this promo for Flair where it’s this very nuanced, interesting story about how Dave was abandoned as a kid and bounced around from foster home to foster home and grew a chip on his shoulder. And so, okay, it’s my job to take that and kind of, not rewrite it completely, but get it formed in form where it makes sense for television and everything and a little less rough.

On Pitching The Angle: “As I’m writing this promo, I am thinking, ‘this is it, this is what changes people’s perspective on professional wrestling because it’s that good.’ So in the production meeting, I’m reading this promo. Ric has pulled Dave aside. He’s like, ‘alright now, big man, listen. I know why the pain inside of you feels like it’s growing every day and because of your history of being a foster child’ and all this type of stuff. As I’m reading it in the production meeting, I see Vince take his, peripheral vision, he doesn’t like it when I do this, but I see this giant X being formed over this precious promo that I’ve spent all weekend working on because he’s like, ‘God, it’s so boring! You’re putting me to sleep!’ I’m like, ‘but you wrote most of it!’ This is what actually aired. This is the whole vignette, his whole backstory, ‘we need backstories’: it’s Ric warming up Dave and going, ‘alright, big man, tonight, you’re going to walk down that aisle, woo, because you’re an animal! You’re the man! You’re also a foster child. Now, later tonight…’ That’s the whole thing, one little throw away [line]! Yeah, and never mentioned again ever.”

On feeling intimidated: “Yeah, I mean, [Edge, Christian, The Rock, Chris Jericho, and Kurt Angle] was probably the starting five of my first go around. I think, like, Al Snow and Steve Blackman too. Yeah, it’s a great starting line because, as a writer and everything, you’re supposed to write for everybody, but, like, human nature gets in the way. I mean, I was intimidated by a lot of people and if nobody was… I always figured, like, Triple H is very intimidating, and he was a big star, and he always seemed to put his material together himself, so it’s like, ‘okay, great – he’s all set.’ Rock, I had met at MTV before coming [to WWE], so I kind of knew him, and, well, he helped get me an interview with WWE in the first place, so we clicked right away and Mick [Foley] too, and Jericho. And this was at a time too when Jericho was going through a period where it was, like, ‘I’m losing to Viscera on [WWE Sunday Night] Heat? What the hell is going on?’ That type of thing. And then, [Edge and Christian], I think [clicked right away as well]. We’re around the same age. I pretended to like hockey a little bit to open the door.”

On WWE not wanting Edge & Christian to do comedy: “Yeah, that was a big back-and-forth that I used to have when the subject of Edge and Christian came up and it was ‘they’re too goofy – they’re too goofy; they’re never going to be main eventers if they’re going to be doing this type of ridiculousness’ and my argument was, and I’m sure it was not eliquated in a nice, mature way at the time. It was probably more like, ‘you’re stupid!’ and running away or something like that. But the point that I did eventually get across was, ‘it’s like, well, you’ve got to start somewhere, right?’ Like, [Edge] went from silent rage and puffy shirt, and evil vampires, and running around the subway for some reason, and now, [he has] got an identity…Nobody’s saying you have to be this forever, but now you’re more comfortable on the mic and you can go out there and cut a promo.” Gewirtz added, “but, no, it’s all that stuff though that gave you the ammunition to eventually evolve, that was my roundabout point, to eventually evolve into ‘The Rated-R Superstar’ and, I can’t really peg [Christian’s] character into one little catchphrase. I don’t want to say ‘The One More Match Guy’ because that doesn’t really do [him] any justice. I guess ‘Captain Charisma’. That’s true.”