Tom Prichard Hated His Time Playing Zip In The WWF

In an interview with Fightful, Tom Prichard discussed his time in the WWF as Bodydonna Zip, which he called a “horrible” time in his career. Here are highlights:

On his time as Bodydonna Zip: “Well, let me say this—Zip really wasn’t Tom Prichard at that point. It was a horrible time in my life, horrible time in my career. I think it was more of a rib on me. They’ll never admit it. But, it was everything that I wasn’t. I can tell you it was not fun and that’s why I tell people all the time, ‘If you can’t get into it and you’re not connecting with the audience and feel good about what you’re doing, it’s not gonna work.’ So, it wasn’t me. I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t even do my best. Because it was such a horrible gimmick to me. I was not Zip. I played the part of Zip. That’s not what you gotta do. In this business you can’t play a part. You have to be authentic. You have to be the part. That’s what we talk about when we watch these old matches. We talk about the difference between today and yesterday. Yesterday these guys were not playing a part. Bruiser Brody was not playing Bruiser Brody. He was that guy 24/7. Sometimes with the volume turned up. Sometimes you had to turn it down. But, guys like Wahoo McDaniel, Jack Brisco, Terry Funk—they were those people. They were authentic characters. I hate that word ‘character,’ but they were authentic. They were the real deal. When you met them on the street, there was something about them. They were special. These days everybody looks the same—not everybody looks the same—but, most guys are monotone, and look the same, in a variety of ways if that makes any sense. They’re just going out and doing moves for the sake of doing moves, whereas there’s no emotional feeling and no authenticity. With the Zip character, just to tell you, that was terrible for many reasons.”

On the end of the Heavenly Bodies: “It was a time after the Heavenly Bodies were done in WWE. My partner, Jimmy Del Ray and I were thrown together after my first partner, Stan Lane just decided to quit. He wasn’t making a lot of money and he didn’t like coming from Charlotte, North Carolina to Knoxville to Smokey Mountain. So, we got Jimmy del Ray. We had a couple shows, pay-per-views there. Then, Jimmy decided to be Jimmy and didn’t want to come back. So, it was one of those things where I said, ‘Hey, if there’s any opportunity, whatsoever…’ It was pitched like this, ‘Well, would you like to cut your hair, dye it blonde and be a Bodydonna?’ I said, ‘Absolutely not,’ and they said, ‘Okay.’ Click. I said, ‘Oh. Wait a minute. Hold on.’ At that time, once again, you have to have the right mindset and you gotta think positive. There was not a whole lot of positivity going on back then for me.”

On how he could have approached it differently: “When I came into it, I came into it with all the wrong way of looking at it and the wrong attitude about it. It was a disaster. That’s how I know and that’s why, when I talk to people about stuff like that, I can tell them. You have to have this mindset. You’ve got to think positive. You gotta believe. You gotta know what you want and you gotta know who you are. So, it was pitched as, ‘Well, if you want this, this is what we have. If you don’t, we got nothing for you right now.’ I understand that. I just wasn’t ready to stop wrestling at the time. But, man, when I got in that situation, I almost wish I would have, quite honestly.”