Bruce Prichard on Vince McMahon Giving Him An Edict To Stop Pushing For Shawn Michaels As A Babyface Leading Up To WrestleMania XI Match with Diesel

On the latest edition of Something To Wrestle, Bruce Prichard discussed how Vince McMahon was dead set on pushing Diesel as the company’s top babyface with Shawn Michaels as the heel leading up to WrestleMania XI, with Diesel going over, despite Bruce Prichard and Pat Patterson feeling that Shawn should be the face, and how ultimately they were given an edict to never bring up Shawn being a babyface again. Highlights are below.

On him and Pat Patterson feeling that Shawn was the babyface while Vince McMahon being set on Diesel: “There was a sentiment, at least amongst Pat Patterson and myself, that we felt that Shawn was the huge babyface in that deal and not necessarily Diesel, and Vince didn’t feel that. Vince was set and he really wanted to get Diesel over and put the championship on Diesel, get behind Diesel, and move forward. Trying to get someone else in that position, ala Shawn Michaels, was going to be a losing battle and it would have been an uphill battle. I’m not sure I necessarily agree with that, but that’s what we did.”

On being given an edict to never bring up Shawn Michaels as a babyface again: “And we pushed so hard that around the Royal Rumble, we were given the edict, don’t bring it up again, don’t bring up Shawn being a babyface again, he’s a cocky little arrogant heel, that’s how the audience sees him, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

On how they often would do the opposite of what the online dirt sheet fans wanted: “And you also have to understand, there wasn’t, even though it’s a minority, the online presence, there wasn’t that presence at this point and time, there wasn’t a loud, boisterous group who would bitch and moan about every single thing that you did. We would use as a barometer a lot of the times whether or not that vocal minority in the dirt sheet group, if they liked something, that usually meant we did something wrong. If they hated it, it usually meant it was extremely successful. So they were hating this. And we thought, OK, well this should be pretty good.”

On how the fans respected Shawn too much for him to be a heel: “But I think that for us, and you listen to the audience night in and night out, that while they did not like the character Shawn Michaels, and they did not like him in the role that he played, they loved his work and they respected it and they applauded it, so I always felt we were fighting an uphill battle to make him this nasty heel, the counter to that was we’ll put a nasty heel with him, Sid Vicious, and that’s gonna help. Eh. Don’t know if it did. Well, I know it didn’t.”

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