Bruce Prichard Discusses Concerns They Had Over Giving Sean Morley The Val Venis Gimmick, Inherent Limitations of the Gimmick

On the latest edition of Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard discussed bringing in Sean Morley and giving him the controversial Val Venis gimmick, the concerns about the gimmick, and more. Highlights are below.

On if they thought of the porn star gimmick because Morley looked like a porn star, or if they had the gimmick and were looking for someone to play the role: “No, he looked like a fucking seedy porn star when you looked at him. The first time we saw him was in the camp, and when Val came up and worked the camp, then we brought him out to a couple of TVs after that, but the first thing when we looked at him, goddamn he just looked so sleazy. Looked like a, he did, he looked like a fucking porn star. The way he dressed, wear the tight shirts and everything.”

On when he first heard of about the Val Venis gimmick: “I wasn’t part of those conversations early on, and when it came to me, it was, when you look at Val Venis, what do you see, or when you look at Sean Morley, what do you see? And then, I think that they gave me the name, and I said, ‘What the fuck, he’s gonna be a fucking porn star or something?’ ‘Exactly!’ And I was like, ‘Well, we’ve never had one of those,’ but the immediate spidey sense goes up, this guy can go, he can work, he can talk, he can do it all, can he pull off a porn star? Yes.”

On concerns about saddling Morley with such a controversial gimmick: “Do we want to saddle him with that type of a gimmick that could pigeonhole him for the future? And that was when you hear people say, ‘Oh, JR and Bruce were so negative.’ Wasn’t being negative, it was being cautious, and it was bringing up points that you do need to consider when you’re looking for the longterm and you’re looking for the long haul and you have someone in front of you who has the tools to do it all. So that was the concern, was are you going to have a porn star main event WrestleMania? A former porn star? So those concerns were brought up, however, at the same time, I loved the gimmick.”

On the inherent limitations of the gimmick: “It’s limited. You can do business with it, you can do things with it, but I just don’t know that it’s gonna main event WrestleMania.”

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