In an exclusive for WrestlingNews.co, Steve Fall interviewed former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz. He is currently the SVP of Development at Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia’s “Seven Bucks Productions.” Gewirtz released a book last year called “There’s Just One Problem…: True Tales from the Former, One-Time, 7th Most Powerful Person in WWE.” It’s available on Amazon.com at this link.
Here are just a couple of highlights from the interview. Scroll down to watch the entire interview.
Brian Gewirtz on John Cena returning to WWE during the actors strike but The Rock staying home:
“Well, first of all, I would say even with the strikes going, I will have to go back for a second and say he is, despite not working on a film acting, he’s definitely working. We’ve got as I’m getting awake through the Zoa Energy Drink and the XFL and Teremana Tequila and Project Rock Underarm, there’s a lot of ventures of stuff going on. I was asked this before on another podcast. My mindset is, if you’re an actor, performer, typically doing TV and movies and that kind of thing, that it’s not a great look to then go on WWE and be performing while the strikes are going on. Everyone has their own mindset. If I know WWE, I’m thinking this deal with John Cena, especially if he’s booked to wrestle overseas or wherever Superstar Spectacular is, has been inked to paper a long time ago. Again, this is just my guess. I don’t know if that’s a contractual thing they agreed to.”
Brian Gewirtz on Edge possibly leaving WWE:
“If he wants to sign with WWE and be a semi-attraction as they used to call it and work a couple of dates when he sees fit, that’s cool. As a fan, if he were to go to AEW and team with Christian again and do a little run there, I think that would be cool, too. I have no idea, but I don’t think there are like, you know, ‘You’re dead to us, hard feelings’ between AEW and WWE talent. I don’t think there are.”
Brian Gewirtz pays tribute to Bray Wyatt:
“Bray Wyatt, from a behind-the-scenes standpoint, I didn’t really work with him in the Bray Wyatt phase outside of WrestleMania 32 which was really a special promo and time where I got to work with Bray/Windham because when I was on the road at WWE, he had been called up as part of whatever the new Nexus was. That was when they were going through their, I’ll call it their horrible name phase. I don’t know if it was Vince. Somebody really was into corny alliteration at the time. We had Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty and these other names that seemed like something out of like a 1940s movie.”
“I worked with his dad, obviously behind the scenes. Mike, a legendary wrestler, had been working as a backstage producer for years when I was there. I could tell from Bray’s standpoint, obviously, Husky Harris wasn’t something that he wanted to do, but at the same time, you get called up and you get an opportunity to perform on television, you’re really not in a position to say anything otherwise so, you know, he kind of paid his dues, I guess, but you could tell that there’s a lot more going on in the brain and then being part of a group. Yes, you’re on television and yes, you’re getting exposure, and you’re working with top talent, but you don’t have much opportunity to show your personality and show what you’re capable of.”
“So it was really like post Nexus 2.0, Bray coming back and him, him being Windham, putting in the work and the effort and the creativity to emerge as this brand new character, this hypnotic, mesmerizing character. I likened it to this. Imagine like a 1920s basketball where they’re all throwing it through a peach basket and doing all those old-timey moves and everything and then LeBron shows up. I can’t even compartmentalize what this is. Yes, we’re technically playing the same sport, but this person is on a completely different level than anything we’ve ever witnessed before and that was Bray Wyatt.”
“As a writer on the creative team, and this happens to everybody I think on the creative team, sometimes you get stuck in a funk, where you’re like, ‘Oh my God, this has been done before, and this has been done before. Everything’s been done before. How can we possibly do something new when literally every story, every iteration of wrestling, yes, that’s just like McMahon and Austin, or yes, that’s just like Hogan versus Andre’, or whatever, and here comes Bray doing stuff that had never been seen before and it’s all coming out of his brain. The promos, the first time you saw Firefly Fun House. My brain was like, ‘What is this? This is insane. This is hypnotic.’ When he’s doing like the dance and the song and the Vince puppet and the match with Cena at the COVID WrestleMania and all that stuff, it was truly mind bending and that all comes from Bray.
Brian Gewirtz on Shane McMahon helping him puke on a pile of snow:
“We had a show I think in either Rochester or Buffalo. This was so early. This was before WWE had a corporate jet, which they pretty much obtained in 2000. So this is probably late ’99. I had just started, and even though it was a very fast flight from Rochester to New York, I think I had a breakfast sandwich beforehand, and it was one of those landings, and so it was a really bumpy landing. I was really super queasy as we rode in a limo back to Stanford. It was me, Shane, Bruce Prichard, and J.R. Jr. and Bruce, even though I love them dearly today and loved that at the time too, liked them at the time, love them now. You know, they’re seeing the new kid looking green in the car. J.R. was like, ‘What did you have? Did you have one of them biscuits, one of them eggs, biscuits and bacon.’ Like, just really, really, you know, pouring it on where I had to just ask them to pull over and go out into a snowbank, and essentially, this is disgusting, but basically, I had to throw up. It was just a bad, bad scene. I’m like, wow, I was riding high riding on an NBC sitcom just a year and a half ago, and now I’m on a ditch somewhere in Connecticut throwing up into a bank of snow. Without even looking up, I felt a pat on my back, going like, ‘You Okay? Get it all out. You’re gonna be alright. It’s going to be okay. Don’t worry about them. It’s all good.’ I looked up and it was Shane. Being like that presence of like, hey, yes, we’re all alike, you know, it’s a rib, doggy eat dog world, but I’m here. You’re fine. It’s like a little moment. I mean, yes, Shane McMahon in his life of over 50 years, if you ask him his fondest memories, I’m sure patting me on the back on an embankment in Connecticut while I’m vomiting is probably not one of his top 100 memories, but it it meant a lot to me. I remember, like, hey, this guy’s all right.”
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
