Former WWE Podcast Producer Recalls Bad Corporate Pitches For Podcast Ideas

Former WWE podcast producer Dan Ryckert recently discussed some of the idea pitches he sat through in WWE that were, shall we say, less than stellar. Ryckert, who is now the Creative Director for Giant Bomb, appeared on the MinnMax podcast and talked about how the most frustrating part of his WWE experience was the corporate meetings he sat through. He specifically recalled one meeting where WWE was trying to come up with ideas for a New Day podcast before Feel the Power eventually happened that involved a potential partnership with the 5K run event The Color Run. You can check out some highlights below:

On the WWE grind: “Early on it was a lot because you know, I was doing some traveling. Not a ton, but you know, you’re wearing suits and stuff, things that I didn’t have to do before. But it’s more like running from meeting to meeting and trying to deal with more of the corporate crap.”

On the corporate meetings he was a part of: “These meetings and stuff, they feel like they’re straight out of like a dumb comedy or something, where it’s like, ‘Nobody could ever be this way.’ I remember for instance — so we had this business partner when I first started, before the pandemic. And they would fly in these experts, these podcast marketing experts or whatever from Beverly Hills. And it was always a big deal, we’re like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna have a three or four hour meeting with the with this company.’

“I got pulled into this room, and it’s this whole PowerPoint thing. And they’re trying to think of ways to do a podcast with the New Day. And the New Day, as a wrestling fan and a friend of those guys, I know what they’d, like — the answer is, ‘Let them talk, because they are hilarious. And don’t screw with the rapport, we don’t have to overproduce this thing and muddy it up with all these segments and stuff.'”

On one of the ideas pitched: “I remember a couple of the ideas. One of them is, they said, ‘Now we here at ‘Blank’ have a mad hook-up with The Color Run people, and WWE crushes epic podcasts. So why don’t we use our mad hook-up and you, crushing your epic podcast, to make the most epic…’ [babbles] And I was like, ‘Well, what does that mean?’

“And they were like, Well, I mean you know, we could do like a partnership with The Color Run. And they could like record a podcast from The Color Run. I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ And they’re like, ‘Well, while they’re in The Color Run they could be talking with people, and talking to each other… [The Color Run is] the thing you always see on like Instagram and stuff where you do like a 5K [run] and then someone shoots a bunch of chalk BS in your face … it’s the dumbest thing.”

On his reaction to the idea: “I’m asking them, ‘Wait, you’re asking us to record a podcast while they’re running in a race with street traffic. And what do you want, Lav Mics on them? Like, what do you mean here?’ And it became very clear that all they cared about was like, ‘It was the synergistic business opportunity, we’ve got our mad hook up with The Color Run.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit MinnMax with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.