On the latest edition of his Wrestling With Freddie podcast actor and former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. speaks on his desire to launch his own wrestling promotion, which Prinze would run through the Screen Actors Guild so his talent could be covered under the union’s insurance. Check out his full thoughts on the subject below.
How wrestling has always been a passion of his:
“Wrestling has always been a passion of mine and I’ve always tried to find opportunities throughout my career to try and bring wrestling to mainstream Hollywood. It has always been like running into a brick wall. The disdain that this business has for it, I get it, but I don’t understand it. I get everyone has their taste, but we can talk about documented things like before the CW was the CW it was known as the WB. They had an executive there named Jamie Kellner, who I knew because he was the main executive on a little show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also happens to be the executive that hated professional wrestling when he went to TNT, and basically got rid of it. His perspective on the business was very, just sort of universally accepted than anyone else’s that I’ve seen, at least in a position of power.”
How he’s recommended wrestlers for TV roles because TV contracts are better than WWE contracts:
“So a lot of times when I’ve even mentioned wrestlers for ‘Hey, you need to meet wrestler X, Y, or Z just for a general casting meeting because they can really act and here’s some clips.’ I’ve done this for wrestlers in the past. I’ve literally gotten hit back with ‘Yeah, but they work for WWE.’ I’m like, ‘So what? They’ll quit.’ A TV contract is better than a WWE contract, I assure you, and SAG is better insurance than having to go in there with your own.”
How he’s tried to pitch networks his own wrestling show:
“I tried to pitch two wrestling shows last year to friendly faces only, no strangers. One of them I pitched to three networks, and the other one I pitched to four. Again, friendly faces and people that I’ve known over a decade, who I said ‘Listen, I know you guys aren’t necessarily looking for this, but here’s something different. One was sort of around the world of women’s wrestling, and one was in the world of comedy wrestling, or more theatrical wrestling. So both times in all seven rooms, four for one, three for the other, every single question was, ‘How do we sell this?’ I’m like, ‘Like any other show. What are you talking about?’ They said, ‘You know people know it’s fake?’ I said, ‘Yeah, but people know that Green Arrow is fake, that no one can shoot an arrow that nice in real life. Like, what are we talking about here?’ and everything was always about that.”
What he would want his wrestling show to be:
“Then a lot of times they talked about the level of acting, the quality of acting, or the lack thereof that they found. That was an argument that I wasn’t always able to match, because not every great wrestler is great on the mic because they don’t have to be. You’re not there to watch acting and a match. You’re there to watch wrestling. If someone can talk, you want to get them either fired up with you or fired up against you. That’s a wrestling show. I know it’s evolved and changed over the years, but in the heart of a wrestling show, that’s what it is. So not everyone has to talk. By the way, not every actor on every network is a great actor, okay. I look at the movies I did when I first started compared to when I stopped. My work got a lot better near the end than it was at the beginning. So maybe that’s where their argument falls flat, but it’s their perspective, so it’s not going to change with me just saying, ‘No, you’re wrong, and here’s why.’ Nobody’s trying to hear that.”
Says he’d love to have a smaller SAG show so all the wrestlers are protected by the SAG union:
“I don’t want to compete with WWE or AEW. I just want to kind of have my own thing and have it on smaller channels, smaller networks, have it be a SAG show, so that they’re all Screen Actors Guild. That’s what SAG stands for. Then they can have some insurance for as long as that union lasts. I’m sure there’s some scheme to bust that one up if it’s still there. I went back to work. I’m excited for it. I’m putting together my little wrestling piggy bank. I’m putting some money in there for the next year and a half, a little over a year and a half, and then I’m going in on my indie wrestling brand.”
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