Freddie Prinze Jr discusses his time in WWE.
The entertainment world was stunned in 2008 when famous actor Freddie Prinze Jr. decided to join WWE as a member of the creative team. Prinze Jr. is a lifelong wrestling fan, but after starring in films such as "I Know What You Did Last Summer," "Scooby-Doo," and "She's All That," writing for WWE wouldn't seem to be at the top of his priority list.
Appearing on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show, Prinze Jr. discussed how his WWE deal came together.
"I was at WrestleMania for Ric Flair's retirement match in Orlando. I was approached by some people who work there who knew I was familiar with the brand [wondering] if I would ever be willing to talk to Vince or Stephanie [McMahon] about storylines," recalled Prinze Jr. "I said, 'sure.' I took a meeting with Stephanie, and at the end of my meeting, she said, 'Would you consider writing for the shows? I think my dad would enjoy you. You don't just say it sucks. You say oh this a problem, but you have solutions.' I wasn't working at the time and wasn't wanting to work. It sounded crazy enough that it was cool and I said yes. I went on the road every single week to every single town for every single Raw and SmackDown."
Prinze Jr. continued, discussing how he started at the bottom of the totem pole as a writer before eventually working his way up and dealing with the bigger stars.
"They started me with what they considered low-level talent and asked me to write promos. [I started with] The Brian Kendrick and worked my way up to The Big Show and then I wrote a promo for The Undertaker. The Undertaker told Vince, 'This is the best promo I've had in like 10 years.' The juices got flowing, and I got better at it, my mentor, Michael 'Pure Sexy' Hayes, his dream was to put the belt on Jeff Hardy. But they always said 'no' due to outside stuff. So, I took a whole different spin on it and said, 'let's show the problems that Jeff has, have him discuss the fact that he can't live a black or white life. He is the gray area.' I got a lot of this just talking to the wrestlers. Shocker, if you talk to them, they can give you their voice. It was [2009] when Jeff became the champion and the whole 'Imagination' promos he was doing, that was all me writing for him."
Freddie's timeline might be off as he left WWE in February 2009. Jeff Hardy became WWE World Champion in June 2009 and his feud with CM Punk, which addressed his issues with alcohol and other substances, was a storyline in the summer of 2009.
Prinze Jr. seemingly got along with just about everyone backstage, though he did reveal that he and John Cena did not always see eye-to-eye. You can read why Prinze Jr. and Cena didn't along by clicking here.
You can view the entire interview with Prinze Jr. in the video above.
If you use any of the above quotes, please credit Ariel Helwani's MMA Show with a H/T to Fightful.
