Bruce Prichard Is Tired, Sleepy, & Stressing In Executive Director Position With WWE

Bruce Prichard’s plate is very full. He became the executive director of both RAW and SmackDown after Paul Heyman’s firing. That added responsibility comes with a lot of extra stress.

While speaking to Wrestling Inc, Conrad Thompson discussed Prichard’s current job situation. The two have worked together for years on their Something To Wrestle With podcast and live events.

Thompson said that Prichard is tired and stressed. He has even more to worry about with the current COVID-19 pandemic throwing so many issues at the company’s process.

“It’s not a little bit of stress, it’s a lot of stress. We don’t have specific conversations cause I don’t want him to ever think that I’m being the guy trying to dig for scoops, but yeah, every now and again, certainly I’ll get a call from Bruce and you can just hear it in his voice.”

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“He’s tired. He’s sleepy. He’s stressing. And I can only imagine the amount of curveballs that are coming his way, not just from running a show on FOX, which my goodness, what a huge undertaking that is. But now you’ve also got a show on USA, but as if that wasn’t enough, it’s also happening during a pandemic on a closed set.”

“It’s just remarkable when you think about all the particular challenges and how many times they must have to – and nobody’s told me this – but I just assume they’ve had to write and rewrite and write and rewrite because there’s so many moving parts. There’s so many variables with who can travel, who can’t, who has a fever, who doesn’t. These are things where maybe once upon a time it was just something you didn’t have to worry about.”

“Everybody’s here, everybody’s accounted for and everybody’s well. And if that’s not the case, I can only imagine that wreaks havoc on your plans. So, you have to adjust on the fly and again, I’m free-styling and all of that and nobody’s told me that, but I just can’t imagine.'”

“Cause in my day to day life, during the last three months, everything has not gone according to plan and I’m not writing five hours of TV every week. So, the idea that five hours of TV with hundreds of people comes off flawlessly and there’s no hiccups because of COVID? Yeah, that’s probably a little unrealistic.”

There is a lot going on backstage in WWE. Vince McMahon still has the final say-so about everything, but Bruce Prichard is right there alongside McMahon as they figure out how to keep a direction in the rocky waters of a pandemic and waning fan interest.