I’m a Writer for the WWE

it's mainly just stories. I'm not trying to preach to y'all or teach you guys how to start a wrestling brand. But today we're gonna talk about the writing process, the creative process, the booking process, which I was really terrible at and still am, and some stories to kind of help you guys see what it was like when I was working there under Michael ps Pierce, Sexy Hayes, Vince McMahon, and Bruce Pritchard's going to get a shout out in in this week's episode because he was sort of my

first mentor backstage. So enjoy the episode. And here we go, now stuffing up for the mic of wrestling with Freddie Freddie Prince June. Yeah, I'm in New York City. You may hear me from time to time. Mentioned another writer who was hired the exact same day I was, and I call him Low Faz, So if you ever hear me, say Low Fas or low that's the That's a writer who I really kind of linked and bonded with, and he worked there another ten years after I left. I'm

in New York City. I'm living in Manhattan. M My wife and I had an apartment in downtown New York and it was super quiet down there at night because it was the business district. I love New York when it's quiet, so weekends when everyone gets out of the city, or living downtown at night because everything closes was perfect for me. It also happened to be the same building that Shane McMahon lived in. Kind of all worked out

and he drove me. I wasn't even tell the story, but he drove me home one night from White Plains, New York, which is where they housed the w W E jet, which was black with the red WW on it, and I got to fly on it all the time. But we were he was on the flight. This time he had just sold his shares of like I think, like a Chinese cable broadcast network or something, and he had just come back to the family and he was on this first flight with us, and we landed and

he was like, hey, Freddie, we're in the same building. Man, I'll drive you home. And he had this like I think it was like fifty six Mercury coupe that was chopped and just had a monster sleeper engined under the hood. And uh, it was me, him and the head writer of Raw, Brian Gowertz, who was sitting in the back. And Shane hit the highway and he must have had this thing going a hundred thirty five forty miles down the straight away. And I like going fast. I just

I just do. But Brian Gowerts does not. And I look back and the look of sheer terror on this man's face as he's looking for a seatbelt that's better than just the waist wrap, which is all that's in the fifty six coupe in the back seat, and the sheer look of joy on Shane's face from causing such terror to Brian was amazing. But that's not today's stories. Uh, today I get to work. On the first day, I took the train there. I took it with this other writer, Angelo,

and we hopped a cab. They didn't have like a shuttle or anything like that, even though it was a very corporate feel when you were in the offices. When you're on the road, it's a circus, but it was very corporate at the office. So we take a cab to work, show my fancy badge that lets you in. Uh, there's security out front, and you know, like, oh, good morning,

Freddy and h good morning. And I go up to I think what was the third floor, and that was the creative the creative floor, and so I walk in and uh, I'm talking to Michael ps Hayes, who used to be a professional wrestler. For those of you don't know, he was a part of the Fabulous Freebirds and he was really, really, really good on the microphone. And they put him in the this position as head of creative

for SmackDown. And Michael had just been in some trouble in the company and uh, he had just got sober. So everyone told me how nice Michael was. But at the end of the day he didn't have time for it. So he his patients would wear it thin with the redding staff, is what I was told. So I go in nice and early, um, and I go into Michael's office and he goes, hey, well, nice to meet you. All right, all right, he's got this like he lives it, right,

he walks it. He shows me this photo of his lady who got a tattoo of him on on his on her leg and and this I just met the guy. And he's like, look, someone sent me this. Like, oh, that's kind of creeping. He goes, isn't it. And so so he's telling me what I have to do, and he's talking to me about basically, we work backwards, is

what he says. He says, Vince gonna give you the pay per view who he wants to work it, and then you have to build the story that's gonna get us to that match, whether it be three weeks in between pay per views, a month, five weeks, six weeks, whatever. We're not doing as many as we used to do, so you get a little more time. I go, all right, yeah, I can do that, and he goes, Now, today's assignment,

everybody's gonna go out there. I need you to build me three weeks a TV on SmackDown and show me who's gonna wrestle and give me a reason why, and give me options. Freddie options is a w options. They say, all right, how many do you need? And he goes, well, the first two you do are gonna get shipped on just because you're new. The third one will be the one we take to TV, but at production day it will be about forty people who all crap all over it and rip it to shreds. So your fifth one

is gonna be the one that makes the show. So make sure you don't put that one in first. And I'm like, yeah, that sounds like a regular TV show. Like the first draft of your television scripts are never the best one because the network's gonna give you horrible notes, and you don't want to get horrible notes on your

best stuff. You save those. See you write kind of a Vanila generic script, and then when they give their god awful notes, you just give them the one you wanted to write, and you say, hey, those notes were great, and all they wanted was an ego stroke anyway, So you of the executives don't even read the rewrite um of them. If you say hey, that was a great note. They just go, yes, it was, because they just want their fingerprint on the product. You know. It's a it's

a pride thing. It's not something I agree with wholeheartedly. But that show business. And we all know which words bigger, and that's gonna be a very familiar theme throughout this podcast, because the wrestling businesses show business and we all know business is the bigger word. So I sit down and I'm like, all right, um, now I have to write wrestling. My whole life has completely done a one eighty. Like I was wanting to just chill. I was gonna hang

in New York for a while. I had some friends out there who lived there full time, and I was having a lot of fun with them, and I was just I'd never lived the New York life before. I've been a Callie kid and a New Mexico kid it and that's it. So I was really enjoying myself, and all of a sudden, I take a full time job basically nine to five. Those are my hours, and uh, and I have no idea how to write wrestling. I

know how to write dialogue. I had done a lot of ghostwriting over the years, for different TV shows or movies, or just friends who liked the way. I wrote some scripts that actually sold that didn't get made, but everyone was like, dude, You're dialogue is sick. And my thing was always like, yo, I just write all the lines that no movie would ever let me say, because I was always the sweet boy in the movies that you would let your daughter go out with, never the guy

that would be like rowdy roddy. But I've come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum. Like nobody's gonna let Freddy Brend's Jr. Say that. So I would write all my fantasy lines, and so I knew I could do dialogue. So they give me the whole roster, and I put together like this guy versus this guy, this guy versus this guy, this girl versus this girl. And I bring it to Michael and Michael's like, what are you doing in here?

I go, Here's I brought you some options this. A couple hours later he goes, ship, don't bring it to me, give it to d J. And that's christ Joseph, who um in the beginning, like most people, probably wasn't happy I was there, but he and I got crazy tight by the end of this and one one of these podcasts we're gonna get into the Jeff Hardy story and Chris is a big part of that. It was Michael, Chris, and myself who were responsible for making people give me credit.

But that's not true. Um, I was a part of a wrestling triumvirate um that got Jeff to the title. But that's a story for another day. So I bring this to Chris and he's looking at me like, wait, what are you doing? And I go, I'm bringing you the options and he was like, oh yeah, let me let me see it. And I go did I do some Ryan goes no, just nobody does that. And I was like, oh, all right, he told me to do it. I'm bringing it to you. And so he's looking at

what I got and he goes, I'm sorry, man. He goes, none of this is gonna work. And I was like, well, what do you mean, and he goes, well, this guy can't work with this guy. This guy can't stand this guy because he slept with his girl and he's still wrecked over. These two girls hate each other, and this guy is never gonna lose a match to him for reasons X Y Z, and literally there's a flash that goes through my head where I was like, Yo, you need to quit, Like you don't know what the hell

is going on. You don't know who like, you have to know who likes who, You have to know who can work with who. By the way, I would still be a terrible booker to this day, even with all the stuff that I learned. I would have if I had my own wrestling brand, the World Wrestling Federation, I would have to hire like Cornet or DJ or somebody to book every match and I would just you know, help them come up with a reason why. And then whoever needed help writing, I would just write for them. Um.

So I get humbled. So and DJ wasn't being a jerk or anything. He was just being real like he had to write the whole show and had a bunch of writers that you know, he would have to rewrite a lot of the time. Um, and it was a frustrating job because he knew he was gonna get rewritten again on show day. Because Vince wouldn't even read the SmackDown script until the morning of SmackDown. All his focus

was on Raw because Raw was the cash cow. Um when I worked there, which I think with oh seven and oh eight or o or oh nine and two thousand ten. I can't remember those dates, but you guys don't know that better than me. Um. So anyway, I sit down and this writer, Angelo comes up to me and he goes, hey, man, let me help you. And this dude is like a wrestling thesaurus. All right, I learned more about the history of the bit man arn

Anderson and Angelo. And Angelo grew up just a fan, not even in the business, but he just knew every match by heart, every story by heart. He was up on something called a dirt sheet, which I had never even heard of, which was basically the national and wirer for for wrestling fans. It was like a tabloid site, which I just in the eighties. I don't know if that existed, Like if guys did that, we would get beat up by other guys because that wasn't a guy

thing to do. He saw a little old ladies getting the inquiry, not dudes in their twenties and thirties, unless there was like Aliens. Maybe I don't know. Um So anyway, Uh, I'm super humbled. Di stude. Angelo comes like goes, let me help you out, man, and he says, these guys have wrestled before. It was three years ago. It was in Phoenix, Arizona, and he's telling me the whole and I'm looking at this guy like, dude, what bro Like,

how do you how do you know this? So he really helps me adjust it and I put together like my first group of wrestlers, and uh I bring it back to Chris and to DJ in about an hour and he legit. When I walk in, he goes, yeah, man, what do you need? Like he just doesn't he does not want me in there at all. And I said, uh, hey, I just I'm trying to get better, dude. It's like hash course, man, can you just take a look at this? And he goes, yeah, I'll take a look at it.

I'll talk to you at the end of the day. So this is still like not even lunch, and I got nothing to do for the rest of the day. So everybody like goes to get lunch and they're doing their thing, and I stay in the office and I just start writing promos. I just start I just started writing promos. And it was an undertaker one and I didn't show it to anybody, but I just I just held onto it. And it was kind of about this young this young stud who was going to challenge him

in what he thought was a different way. But the Undertakers seen it all, He's heard it all, and this is just another young warrior trying to climb them mountain and it's gonna be another failure. Um. And this became the promo that everybody loved. That Undertaker cut in London, UM on Jeff Hardy's Rise to the to the title, and it was Jeff Hardy saying, you know I'll be the one and Undertakers like many before you have walked.

I don't remember what. I wrote this a long time ago and I'm forty five years old now, um, But so I write this, and I write a couple other ones for some of the other talent there, and one of them was Brian Kendrick and h they called him the Brian Kendrick. And to know Brian is to know that his mind is fully right brain operational. There is no left brain function right. The right brain is the creative side. The left brain is the logic side. If you want to know if somebody's lying to you you

asked him a question about something that happened. If they look up into the left, they're remembering factual information. If they look up into the right, they're creating a story of fiction for you to know. So that's just something cool for everybody to use to find out when their lovers are cheating. What I write this promo for Brian. He was getting ready to separate from Paul London. They had a good tag team thing going, but Brian could

really talked um, but he was a smaller guy. So I wrote this other one for Brian, and I only really remember the first sentence, which is there's a fine line between genius and insanity. And Brian was one of the guys that I had on my like booking sheet that I gave to a DJ. And at the end of the day, DJ comes up and the only one that got approved was Brian's match. So I asked if I could get sixty seconds of backstage time or promo.

I asked for promo time. He said no, I say, can I get sixty seconds backstage just to kind of show this new character. I mean, the guy's never been solo before. He goes, yeah, I'll give you sixty seconds, but you have to time it out. I've never even known about that concept timing it out. I would just my undertaker promo was They asked me how long it was. I was like, it's as long as it is. But with live TV you just can't get away with that stuff. So anyway, I write this thing, and and DJ really

likes it, and he puts it in the show. So now we're going to travel and I wasn't on the jet US yet, so I took a regular plane and we're gonna shoot Monday night RAW. I get there. I haven't written anything for RAW. They put me on SmackDown to kind of help me learn the rope. SmackDown wasn't live, it was taped. They could fix screw ups a lot easier. So now it's the live show, it's the big show. And I'm at my first production meeting and right away

Vince tears up the entire script. After about thirty people give notes, which sitting I'm sitting in the back next to DJ and Freebird, and Freebirds already like hat it. He doesn't. He's not given a note. He's like, I'm a SmackDown. I'm not dealing with this nonsense. So we're sitting back there and Vince says, how do we fix this? And no one speaks, and he gets crazy mad. No one's got a one single god, god, damn my, damn right,

and he's just going off. So now nobody wants to raise their hand again, right, So it's just dead silence, and you just hear poor brang go where it's get this number two pencil that he would always hold in his hands, and you just hear this and this snap, and for whatever reason, it broke the tension for me, and I just I threw out an idea. I said, I compared Collie to Andre the Giant, not as in terms of quality of wrestling, but just in terms of size. And I said, what do you throw the great Collie

in there? And he just smashed. I don't want to give the reasons why this became what it was, because it would damage somebody else's career basically because they got like jobbed out, right, But I pitched this thing and and Vince goes, well, we'll just do that. It wasn't a good idea, but it was something, right, And uh, he goes, Freddie, you're gonna shoot it, and I'm sitting there like, what am I gonna shoot? That bitched a match in a ring, and Freeberg goes, you should have

just kept your bleeping mouth shut. And so now I'm like, all right, I'm gonna be learning some lessons here. And so the production meeting ends. It's like two and a half hours long. It was just just death, but being drugged by a horse while you're still alive, just knowing you're gonna die at the end. It was horrible. And uh, I meet Bruce Pritchard and I'm already exhausted just from the production meeting, Like it was crazy. The notes were psycho.

I've never heard dialogue options like that ever, Like it was just a different world for me, and I didn't I didn't respect their their process. Add yet I still thought I could do this way better. Right, So I meet Bruce Pritchard, who was Brother Love back in the day, and he had these big, rosy red cheeks and had this like eighties reverend evangelical gimmick going where he's like I love you, and I'm like, yo, is this brother? Is this brother freaking Love? Like I didn't know about

the behind the scenes stuff. I had never read a dirt cheat, and he's like, hey, how are you doing? All on? Bruce? Good to meet Fredd, And all right, I almost show you what you're gonna be doing. I'm kind of meant were you And I'm like, all right, and he's just good old Texas boy. And I grew up in New Mexico, so I've seen a lot of these guys and I kind of know you gotta you gotta, you know, let them know how great they are and how gracious they are, or or they're gonna stop with

it real quick. So we get up there and and I'm looking around. He goes, so we're gonna do the Andre Walk. The camera's gonna be nice and lowe, and uh, he's gonna be approaching the ring. We're gonna just make this look real great. Okay. I go all right, and he goes, all right, I'll see you later, and he leaves. This just me. Okay. He didn't introduce me to a crew, a stage manager, a cameraman, gaffer, that someone who does lights, audio, which we didn't need, no nobody. He just left. I'm like,

all right, so now it's time to hustle. So I'm running around backstage. Um, I'm just asking guys like, hey, hey man, what do you do here? He's like, oh, I'm magic, which is like their word for props. I'm like, sorry, wrong guy, I'm Freddy. Nice to meet you. I see this dude with a camera. His name is Luise. I go, hey, man, uh, could you help me shoot something backstage? And he says, I'm on another I'm on another shot. Who are you?

I said, I'm sorry man, I'm Freddie Prince Jr. And he goes, hold on what and I go, I'm I'm shooting this segment. He goes, you aren't shooting a segment. I go yeah, man. He goes, you've worked here. I go yeah, because you're Freddie Prince Jr. I go, yeah, man, but I need a camera. He goes, bro, I got you. So Luis is awesome and he runs back and uh, I find the Great Collie and he doesn't speak English and I don't speak Punjabi. So I walk into a

knock on the locker room door. Another wrestler comes out, one of the younger guys on the restaur and I go, my allow to go in there. I don't want to, and he goes, who do you need? And I said I need Collie, and he goes, all right, So he goes and I've never met the great colleague. But the guy is legit, like seven foot four, okay, like he's

a legit giant. He ducks to get out of the basketball arena locker room door where the doors are built for tall, large statuesque type men, and he ducking and turning his body sideways because his shoulders don't fit if he walks straight through. And he goes and I'm not trying to be mean, but this is what I heard. Hello friend, nice to meet you. And I go, oh, this guy speaks English right on, and I go, okay, Kellie,

I go, so, I'm gonna be shooting your segment. It's gonna be a real simple andre walk and uh, I'm gonna light it so it looks real cool. So we get some great shadows over your face and then you go into the light and out of the light and then back in. It's almost gonna be like a horror movie and you're just gonna destroy my man in the ring. And he looks at me and he goes, I don't understand,

And I'm like, do you do you speak English? And he goes, no, brother, Like this and I'm like, uh, hey, just just come with come with me, bro, just come with me. He goes okay. And so we just walked me and my giant. I feel like I feel like Karen Culkin in The Mighty and uh. We get there and I got Louise and I say, hey, can you help me? Fine? Oh and Bruce. And then Bruce Pritchard comes back up and he goes, hey, you got him? And I go yeah. I go can I can we

get some lights? He goes no lights? I go, okay, well can I get an audio guy? He goes, no sound. What are we gonna do? He goes, you're doing it? I was like, all right, okay, so no, so you were you were just walking with a camera. He's like, that's it and he just leaves again. This is my mentor all right, it's a secret swim company. Let's party. So we shoot it? Oh sorry, we rehearse it. And then I say, okay, we're gonna we're gonna shoot it.

And the stage manager comes up, who I hadn't met yet, and he goes, no, you're gonna shoot a live Well, why don't we just shoot it now? Like we got the camera here now and I've got Collie here. Now he goes. They told me they want to shoot a lot. I'm like, man, these guys just want there's just they want me to fail so bad, like they're just and I know it in my heart. They're just grinding me right.

And it was the only show in town basically, so they can get away with doing stuff that's gonna screw up their own show, like legit screw on purpose just because it'll give Vince a laugh. I saw him do this a million times to talent in the ring. I saw them gimmick a chair when Big Show was gonna read Christmas stories to Hornswoggle so that the chair with fall. I was like, yo, man, what if he gets hurt?

And Vince's like, guy, he's falling harder than that. And I'm like debating the whole that I gotta tell him, man, I gotta tell Paul this is crazy or Big Show. I gotta tell Big Show this is crazy. And then Jerry Briscoe is like, you better not tell him shit. It's like, okay, I won't. So anyway, back to the show. They make us shoot it live. Luis is like, bro, I've done this a million times. Luis is the cameraman. He says, bro, I've done this a million times. I'm

gonna make you look bad. Don't worry about a thing. And he knows that what they're doing to me too, and he's being so cool to me, this guy. And so they go in three to one and uh they do the shot and Kindie just walks and you can't even see him because it's completely dark. There's no light anywhere. This is, you know, the backstage of the arena. You can't see anything. It looks terrible. This his camera work because he was does all the boxing fights, so he's

a pro, a legit dude. But there's no light, and they just put like rock and roll music, which doesn't fit the mood at all. It's like coming up next the Great Colleague by now Brown No no, no, no, no no, and he's doing this slow like monster walk like it just doesn't match. It's a horror movie without music. So so anyway, we do that and I don't see anybody else and I'm sitting in the room like, man, these guys they played me. I was waiting for tomorrow. We'll go to the next city and uh, I get

to shoot my thing. So the show ends. I see Bruce and he goes, hey, great job with that promo, and I go, yeah, man, thanks, thanks. We uh we take our our flight or cars. We drove to the next town and we get ready for SmackDown. We get to the production meeting and Vince hasn't read the script and the showrunner for this I think his name was Ed and uh we're sitting there and DJ, yeah it was and indeed I did an x T, DJ did macdam.

So we're sitting there and Vince hasn't read anything, and uh, he starts tearing the script apart, and he starts asking for input, and again nobody says anything. So I I put my hand up again. I'm the new guy, and they hate me whatever they're gonna hate me. I'm Eyther, gonna prove myself or I'm not. And so I just start pitching what I had originally done, but now with the wrestlers that they had agreed we're going to wrestle,

So I'm just kind of forcing stories on people. I'm going in there and I'm talking to Brian and he's wanting to do this like sadistic kind of cerebral heal character who's gonna use his mind to be people. But he's not willing to cheat. And so I showed him this promo and I tell him basically what I just told y'all, which is, you know, anything that you don't like, throw away. You can ask my producers. I say, hey, you give me any criticism you want. It's not You're

not gonna hurt my feelings. We're all working on the same thing here. There's a million ways to get it right. The only way to get it wrong is if you don't commit right. So I'm talking about this and he's really goes, no, man, I really like this. I just want to get it right. I go and I feel that, man, because I was like that when I was a young actor. I said, but if something sounds off, just kill it

and do your own thing. Put it on there. And they've teamed Brian up with this huge dude named Rickland and they called him Ezekiel Jackson, so buff man, I mean, just looked like he was carved from stone. And Zeus was like, yeah, that guy, that's what I want to look like, not tiny Zeus, the actual Greek god Zeus. So they don't tell me this, I get there we're backstage and he's like, hey man, I'm Rickland and he's like the nicest dude. I'm like, oh man, he's from Oakland, California.

And I shake his hand and his hand is just like it's like two of my hands, right, and I can't even see anything but my wrist. And I'm like, dang, bro, what's going on? And he's like, oh, I'm with him. And I was like, oh, okay, okay, okay, okay, let's let's work this out. So Brian has this high concept

there's this like line between genius and insanity. But if you're not willing to tie it, rope it or whatever the dialogue, if you're not willing to walk that line, if you're not willing to take that risk, then you'll never And it's and what he's saying is kind of true, but it's but it's kind of in an a whole

sort of way. And I don't know what to do with Rickland because every w W thing I've ever seen was just a big guy standing there, right, and they're intimidating and big and strong, but it's there's nothing there. So we're about to shoot, and I'm walking by and there's like a stack of books, just a random stack of books that like an employee who worked in the arena had left there, and one of them was Dr

SEUs is the Cat in the Hat. And something in my brain just went, dude, I'm gonna make him read that book in the background while Brian's cutting this promo, and that's gonna be the funniest ship that is on this whole show, and it's gonna look sick. So I get the book and I go to Rickland. I go, yo, man, what if you just read Dr Sue in the background so I can see it and nobody will know unless they're looking, and they have to don't, And go, yo, is that humongous dud reading a cat and a hat

while this guy is quoting son Sue? That's what it was. I had. I had Brian quoting Son Sue in the promo also, and uh And he's like, dude, that's really funny. I go, I don't know if it will get approved, but let's take a shot, and if they hate it, it's all on me. I'll say you didn't even want to do it. And he's like, okay, cool, thanks, So

we shoot it. We just shoot it one time. I have to get Stephanie McMahon or Bruce to approve it, and uh, Bruce comes by and he takes a look and he goes, damn, that's pretty good, and like, all right, cool, thanks man. He goes, you gotta get through Steph, and I go, okay. So Steph comes by and Steph like me, man.

I talked to you guys in the first episode about the meeting her and I had, and her wanting me to take chances and and really communicate my opinions to her father in a respectful way, but to communicate those things. So I showed it to her and she approved it. It's sixty seconds. It's not a big thing, but it's an opportunity for this guy to get a character over before you see him on his own for the first time.

So he does it. Vince sees it, and Vince really likes it, right, this little sixty second, one minute thing, and he books Brian the next week in a much bigger match in the second hour and he's gonna get a commercial break. And it all kind of clicked for me there with Michael, because Michael brought me in his office and he said, look, you did ah, you did a real good thing. You gotta remember, he goes, and

I wish more you bleepers would remember this. The writer's sole function is to help get the talent over and basically what he was saying is, don't have any ego, don't make it about you, because a lot of the writers, well not a lot of them, but a handful of the writers would make it. Did you see my promo? Did you see my promo? It's like you mean, did I see Kyne's promo? Yeah? Man, that guy can make anybody's writing look good. Get out of here and what

you want to cookie. So there was some of that. They're not as much on raw, but definitely on SmackDown, And so that hammered in my brain pretty quick. And I was raised a humble guy. I was raised by a bunch of psycho martial artists like Bob Wall, Gene LaBelle, Pat Johnson, Chuck Norris. Like anytime I thought, uh that I was hot stuff, trust me, they reminded me real quick where I was on the letter. So I appreciated that point of view, and I started working really hard

on this. And we weren't supposed to really connect with the talent because the promos would change so much. But that was one of the w W rules that I just threw in the trash. And I contacted Brian right away when we started talking about this promo in the ring. He's gonna get in ring promo before his match, and uh, we're setting all this up and I got the promo and he just starts reading it to me and he

makes it. He makes a few he had the confidence to make a few changes on it, and uh, it's so much better after he does that, and he's reading it to me again, and this is over the phone. I'm like, man, that sounds great. You just need to get off book. He's like, brother, I already am. He goes, I'm not reading. He goes, I've memorized, and I was like, oh, dude, you're the man. So we got this whole thing set for the week, and uh, the following week, we get

to the production meeting Monday night. Raw happens. I don't have much to do on that show yet. That happens later, um, and so uh so we get to our Tuesday, Vince hasn't read smacked down again and all the writers are just depressed because it felt like you were on a

show he didn't care about. Right. That was why all the writers on Raw seemed to work a little harder, seemed to have a better attitude because they were getting notes during the week, you know what I mean, instead of in the production meeting telling them all how horrible they are and why did they go in this direction? And the writers are like, man, just you give us any direction, bro, we will go there. But every direction we choose, you hate. So they just they needed that

kind of a flow and they did not. They did not have it. So we get in there and uh and Bruce just tears my promo apart pretty my mentor. It just says, that's a lot of talk, Vince, That's what he said. And I see DJ's head go down. I don't know, that's the kiss of death. Okay, DJ's head goes down. I'm like what I'm I'm fighting for my idea. So I go, hang hang on a second, hang on a second. I go, look, we did really well with this guy last week. We all think he

can work. Please give me a chance with this promo. Give Brian a chance to execute this. I can't say he's already off book right, Otherwise I'm admitting that I'm breaking a rule. So I go, this guy gets off book crazy fast. Give him an opportunity with it. It's not too much for him. He's asking for this, he wants the opportunity. And he's read and I'm talking, I'm talking, I'm talking, and then Bruce just closes it with it's a lot of talk, and so they rewrite it. They

want me to rewrite it. So I rewrite it and I make it way shorter, and then DJ takes it to Vince and when he comes back, it's being rewritten again by Vince, by DJ v E Vince. So now I'm looking at it and it's a mess. It's just a mess, and there's like two words in that are mine and I have to go to talent. This is my second or third week in the company. I didn't know this happened every week. I would like sitting there going, oh, he's never heard this before. Meanwhile, he's heard it every

day of his life working for the company. So I knock on the door and uh, he invites me in and none of the old school guys are in there, which is why I think he did. And uh we sit down. I say, hey, man, I got bad news. And he goes, they killed it and I go, yeah, yeah. He goes, I don't get to say anything. I go, no, no, you do. But we gotta figure out a way to make this sound good and it and it has to be these words I was told. And he's like, all right, man,

let's just do it. And instead of just you know, complaining and moaning, he's a lot like me, and we just attack this thing right, and we're working at beat by beat. It's called moment to moment. It's how I learned in acting School's how a lot of actors learned. You don't want to blur moments. You want to make sure certain things hit otherwise you take the value away from those words if you just keep going right now,

in the wrestling business, it's hard. Thanks to stone Cold Steve Austin as anytime someone paused to remember a line, he would go what and the crowd loved that. He sort of broke the fourth wall there, Shame on you, stone Cold. The whole thing is rewritten. Brian and I are trying to learn this and it's gonna be live in the ring, and it's my segment. Even though I

didn't write a freaking word of it um. And I have to sit next to Vince in Guerrilla for the first time, and Brian goes out there and they what him through the whole promo, through the whole promo, and he's off book and that it's why I hate the what so much. And it's just personal because I know what Brian could have done right. So Vince's piste and he's like, oh, that's blape and watts A damn it this promo ship and he looks at me and he goes,

this is ship. And I look at him and I go, I agreed, and he we don't say anything, goes why, I go, I didn't write this. I told you what I wanted to do. We made this the best we could. I can make this show the best I can make it. But you have to let me. You gotta give me a chance. And he just kind of grunts the way he would grunt when he doesn't want to acknowledge the opinion and just kind of wants to move on. But he's letting you know, all right, this one's on me

without saying it. Right. It's the most accountability you'll get in the in the show. Moments after the show you can have talks and stuff like that. So the promo fails and Brian knows it fails, but they give Brian some more opportunities and it leads to the crazy Pat Patterson Scramble match. Or technically Brian was the champion for

a while. Within the construct of that match. Um, some shady stuff went down in that match, which we'll talk about in a later episode because they did arrest the rail wrong in that, but I can't get into that in this one. UM, So moving on. UM, I'm kind of learning the ropes at this point. I'm figuring out where I'm gonna fit in, and I'm already learning what my strengths are. And they begin or Vince says, Freddie, I want you to come on the plane. Andre to

come on a plane. We're gonna we're going to Cleveland. So we flat a lovely Cleveland. It's very cold and uh and I like California weather. So we go into the arena and Ben says, we're doing a promo class today. I'm gonna show you how we do promo class. Say all right, man, So I sit down and we're gonna finish with this story and then our next episode we will get deep into it, but this is one of my favorite moments of working at this company, so I want to end it with something that I think is

really awesome. So I sit down, and every single professional wrestler employed by the w w E on the roster is in the production meeting. Okay, before the production meeting would happened. We're in that room, all of them, all of the writers and agents are in the very back, and Vince is sitting like at the front of the room, off to the side, behind a table with like protein bars and whatever, like energy drinks. He drinks, and uh, I'm sitting there. I'm like, wow, this is crazy, man.

It's like full on auditorium in here. And he starts, he gets up and he starts talking about what he's wanting, what he's lacking or what they're lacking, and what he's not seeing from them. And he's literally says the words, you gotta give me a little razzle dazzle, and the writer to my left, who was a younger guy, whispers, what the hell does razzle dazzled me? And so I know none of the wrestlers really know. He's like yeah,

because Vince looks at it like, it's vaudeville. And he's even made this comparison to me, says, we give him some comedy, we give him some music, we give him some drama and suspense. It's vaudeville, Freddy, it's vaudeville. Um. I was highly educated on vaudeville because my dad, who was a straight boss stand up comic and comedic actor back in the day, worked with Jack Albertson, who was the man on Chico and the Man. You guys would know him his uncle Joe from Bully Wonka and a

chocolate factory. But he was an old vaudeville guy. That's how he got his start. So I kind of learned about the history of vaudeville when I was learning about my father, And all of a sudden, Vince and I click, okay. So we have this moment right before promo class and now he's given him the speech of the razzle dazzle and all that. He goes, so, now you're gonna show me what you've got. Let me get some volunteers and

a few people put their hands up. But Shamus, who you guys all know, he gets up and he walks to the front. He takes initiative. He didn't wait for someone to say yes, and Vince likes that. That's an alpha move, right. Wade Barrett, who used to be there now he does commentary, I think for n x T. He uh, he gets up next. So we got the Irishman and the Englishman up there. This should be a real easy promo for these guys to cut. If you don't know, why, check out your European history so or

just google Protestants versus guy flix Um. Anyway, so they get up there and they're ready to do their thing, and Vince says, hold on, hold on, I'm gonna give you a premise. You're a dog, and you're a dog now make me want to watch you fight. And my heart stops. I'm not even the one doing it, but you could feel the panic, like since everyone got tight, man, there was so much tension, and you just see sweat beads form all over Wade Barrett's forehead right, just all

over him. And Shamus is stone quiet like, he doesn't move. He looks like one of the English soldiers outside the palace. They're frozen. Thirty seconds go by, not a sound, seconds go by, nothing, I'm dying man like I want to just jump up and yell stop. It's like a murder. It's like watching a murder. A minute goes by, Shamus says on accident out loud, is it on accident or by accident? Which chevery one? On accident out loud says,

I think I'm having an out the body experience. And no one laughs, no one says anything because they can't believe it just came out of his mouth. Now, Wade, he takes the first step, because Shamus is like in a different zone right now, right like he's in this place where he was a kid and wanted to be a wrestler, and what is going on? I'm a dog? Why did I step forward? Why did I raise my hand? Why I should just do my own like you could just see it right and way. It's like, I'm gonna

go for it. He said, you're a dog. You're a dog, all right. You can see him prepping and he growls. And as soon as he growls, Vince gets up and goes not an actual plate and dog, and he storms out of the room right comes back in. He goes, let's try again. So now Shamuses go He's not gonna let Wade go out like that twice in a row, Like these dudes look out for each other and these chicks look out for each other. So Shamus is going to be the baby faced dog and he starts talking

and he's saying, hey, I'm a good old dog. You know I'm loyal on this. I'm that, and Vince goes, just forget the hall damn thing and he storms off. Promo class is canceled. So I, he just told me how great it was gonna be. So I go to Vince's office within like five minutes, knock on the door and uh come in and go in Vince's office and uh, I say, hey, let me talk to you about promo class.

And he goes, well, what did you think? I go, well, I think you're using terminology that they don't quite understand, and I think they get crazy nervous at the fear of failure in front of not only their peers, but in front of the people who make decisions on their careers. And I don't think it's an environment. I remember this word for word, and I don't think it's an environment that's conducive to success. That's what I hit him with. And I'm like working on this my way into his office.

I said, listen, this is gonna sound off the wall. But what if I did what my acting coach did for our class. You give me one of these like rooms that don't have anybody in him that's not being used, and I'll teach them the same way all these young actors were taught. And I started hitting him with all the actors that were in my acting class, not realizing he wouldn't know who Kirsten Dunst is. He didn't know

who the hell I was. He didn't know who any of these people were, right, And we had a we had a deep class, all crazy successful actors, all of us were working. So I hit him with this and he goes, uh, yeah, I go find a stage manager let him know. And so I'm like in my head, I'm like, wow, I would just set this up were they're gonna believe me? Like, I don't understand. So I have the email Evince's guy Jimmy, who's like the guy that sits on his desk. This us his ex army

dude had to be ex military, and uh. I hit him up and I say, hey man, I'm gonna start a acting class. I got Vince's approval, but I don't know who the hell to go to to get this thing going. Can you help me out? And he writes me back, I got it. That's it. The next week I show up and all the stage managers who had avoided me like the plague, none of them liked me. Now, like the main dude is right there. He goes, uh, Freddie, I've got a room ready for you. Um, we're ready

to start your acting classes. We're calling a promo class that's gonna be labeled outside there, and everything's gonna be taken care for you. And I was like, oh, dude, thank you man. I appreciate that they're being like so nice. So the promo class is gonna happen before the production meeting. So now I've just given myself more work. I have to do both. I get an hour with talent and then I get to go sit through a thirteen hour production meeting for a live show and give everyone sixteen

seconds to prepare for it. So, uh so I go and I see the sign and it's glorious. Man. It says promo class, and they digitally they did all the digital stuff on the printer made it look professional. And it's right on the door. And I opened the door and I get inside and I'm not joking. It's a utility closet. There's no chairs, and it's about the size of a prison cell in Alcatraz. Okay. One wrestler shows up, okay, and he's a e W now Sean Spears and I sit with him and I go, man, this one hurt.

And he goes, that's a pretty good rib. And I go, what's a rib? He goes, and they're just pranking you see it? How much you can take? I said, all right? I said all right. He goes, well, what do you want to do. I go, well, let's just work on some stuff. He goes, well, I'm not on TV this week. I go, well, then, what's your favorite movie? And he tells me, are alright, so what movie do you like right now? I think, I said, and he said Bad Boys?

And I said, well, I'm gonna take a scene from Bad Boys, and I'm gonna show you how I think these two gentlemen broke it down based on my experience, and you and I are going to do this scene together. He goes, okay, and so for an hour we did the scene from Bad Boys where Martin Lawrence is driving and Will Smith's is you know, you drive almost low enough to drive Miss Daisy, and He's like, drive like a bit. He's like, wow, I got to be all that. And we're doing this back and forth and just kind

of like playing right. Next week comes and this is this I promised to the end the story. And I'm in another utility closet, only now I got six wrestlers, and I bring in six chairs that I'm just finding from other rooms and putting them in there. And we just sat down and we talked about the process of what we were gonna do and how we're gonna do it. And I basically told them, you're gonna bring me scenes from your favorite movies. I'm gonna show you how I

believe they were broken down by these actors. I'm gonna give you four weeks to get off book. Each week, we're gonna want to be further down the road with these scenes. And then when you're done with it and it's performance quality, I expect you to be off book and ready to kick ass with choices that you didn't just see in the movie, but choices that we've been experiencing with and everybody was crazy because I said, you don't have to do any of the work. I said,

I'm gonna print up all the pages for you. I'm gonna email you everything you need to do. You you you just need to be committed to the class. That's all for this week, and I appreciate you guys for listening. And remember, if you want to support what we do, then please share. You guys, hit it up on social media. You can tag me in it. I'll always talk some trash back and forth with you guys, or send love. If you send love, I will see you on the

next episode of Wrestling with Freddy. Until then, this has been a production of I Heart Radio is Michael Tour podcast Network. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H