X-Pac 1, 2, 360 Recap w/ Tom Prichard – Evolution Recap, Training Vince & Shane McMahon, Surprises from WWE Developmental, More!

X-Pac opens today’s show by speaking about last weekend’s Evolution PPV. He says it was an amazing show, noting that all the women delivered on that night.
X-Pac speaks about the opening tag team match between Lita/Trish Stratus & Mickie James/Alicia Fox. He points out that Mickie James was the workhorse in that match, and as far as value in that match goes, she was the MVP. He notes that she might be the MVP of the entire night for that matter, because she really brought it in that opening match.

Some fans were actually upset that WWE announced 50 women for the battle royal and there were only 38 entrants. X-Pac thinks those complaints are so petty, and thinks it’s ridiculous that people would actually sit there and count the entrants in the hopes of catching something like that. He notes that if you’re focusing on the negative stuff all the time you’re going to miss the positive stuff.
He points out that the battle royal was actually really good, which was somewhat of a surprise because for the most part battle royals have historically been throw away matches. This match was good and Ivory really stood out to him.
X-Pac thinks Io Shirai is a star, noting that she knows what she’s doing in the ring. He points out that being a great professional wrestler is all about the stuff you do between the moves, and Shari has that figured out. He thinks we’re going to be seeing a lot more from her in the future.

Shayna Baszler had another successful night, reclaiming the NXT Woman’s Title, and X-Pac thinks there’s big money to be made down the road in a match between Baszler and Ronda Rousey.
In X-Pac’s opinion, Becky Lynch and Charlotte had obviously the best match of the night. Between both of their skillsets and the “Last Woman Standing” stipulation, they had all the tools to tell a great story and they didn’t disappoint. He points out that a lot of people were mad that this match didn’t go on last, but he thought the right match went on last.

He points out that if the goal is to get Rousey to main event WrestleMania, she needs to main event other PPVs first, especially the first ever all-women PPV. Rousey is the main female star in WWE right now, ahead of women like Lynch and Charlotte, and she’s the mainstream star that’s going to bring more eyes to the product. He thought Rousey and Nikki Bella managed to follow the Lynch/Charlotte match well, which was an incredible feat, and they held the audience’s attention throughout.
X-Pac thinks it’s “stupid”, and a “waste” for WWE to book Becky Lynch versus Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series because that is a massive match that could have been saved for WrestleMania.

X-Pac welcomes Doctor Tom Prichard to the show.
Prichard talks about working at Smoky Mountain Wrestling with Jim Cornette. He says he always got a long with Cornette because Cornette was always good to him. There’s no doubt that Cornette can be excitable at times and can say things that make some people angry, but he judges people on how they treated him, and Cornette always treated him well.

Prichard began working some shows for WWE in 1993. Coming from smaller promotions, he’d get a cheque for $900 from WWE and be thrilled with it. He started with WWE full time in 1994 and business wasn’t great during that time. Compared to any other promotions they were still making decent money but there’s no doubt that the business wasn’t in a good place at that time.
Prichard talks about working with and being trained by the Iron Sheik. He was only 16 at that time and the veteran performers were still trying to protect the business back then. Shiek would stretch them in the gym and would get angry when he tried to show them how to lock up. He dealt with about 4 weeks of physicality, getting slapped around by Shiek, and this resulted in other trainees simply quitting.

Prichard informs that he helped train Shane McMahon to wrestle back in the day. X-Pac points out that one of Shane’s first matches was against him at WrestleMania and they had 25 minutes. He points out that Shane really brought it in that match. Prichard points out that it was a lot of fun training Shane, and he also helped train Vince for his first match with Steve Austin as well and that was also a cool experience.
Prichard informs that Sometimes Vince would want to train at 11PM in the night. McMahon caught him with a few stiff punches but it was very cool to be able to help train the boss for his very first match.

Prichard is asked about his stance on inter gender wrestling. He says he doesn’t really have a problem with it today. The women today are very tough and if you put them in a match with the right guy, and if you tell the right story that makes sense, it can be done.
X-Pac asks Prichard about his time training wrestlers at WWE developmental, and if he’s surprised by any of his trainee’s success. Prichard says he’s really happy for Tyler Breeze. Breeze came into WWE developmental as a really nice kid and sometimes nice doesn’t always work out in the wrestling business. He knew that guys like Rollins, Ambrose, and Reigns would be stars, but Big E’s breakout has been a surprise as well since he spent 4 years in developmental.
That sums up today’s episode of X-Pac 1, 2,360. You can listen to the show here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!