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Tom Prichard Discusses Training Vince McMahon for His In-Ring Debut, Addresses McMahon’s Awkward Table Bump in Match Against Steve Austin

November 3, 2018 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
WWE Vince McMahon Image Credit: WWE

– X-Pac, aka Sean Waltman, recently interviewed Dr. Tom Prichard for his podcast, and Prichard discussed training Vince McMahon for his WWE in-ring debut in the late 1990s. Below are some highlights and a video of the interview (transcript via WrestlingInc.com).

Prichard on the process of training Vince McMahon: “The first match with Austin, I’d be there with Vince and he would want to train at 11 o’clock at night. He would come to the ring… we would lock up and would do hold for hold, and we would do stuff and he would try to throw some punches… It was the first match he had ever been into and I thought well ‘Holy Christ, this is interesting.'”

Prichard on McMahon’s awkward table bump: “We measured how far the table was from the ring in the studio, because he was gonna take the bump on the table off the cage. We practiced it, we put the bump pads down, practiced it and practiced it and he got it right in the studio and then he took the bump in the match. If you notice, he bounces and he bruised his back pretty good on that one but he didn’t shy away from it.”

His thoughts on Tyler Breeze: “One of the guys that I was really happy for and impressed with was Tyler Breeze… He’s one of these guys, such a nice kid, and when you’re too nice you know what happens and that’s kinda what was happening to him until he came up with this gimmick. I was surprised that they let him do the gimmick and I was surprised that they let him do what he’s done with it. Just because I thought they were moving away from that. The rest of the guys like [Seth] Rollins and [Dean] Ambrose and Roman Reigns, I mean you could see it when those guys were there.”