The Brood is remembered as one of the Attitude Era’s most distinctive acts. Gangrel says the run lasted under eight months, and that WWE ending it that fast was the right call, because staying in it any longer would have cost Edge his career.
Speaking on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Gangrel said the faction was never really explained on television, and that he is not convinced WWE had a plan for it at all.
“I don’t know if they really had an idea for anything. They never explained the whole story,” Gangrel said. “I’m wrestling, and then all of a sudden there’s just Edge watching my matches, and then I’m angry at him for whatever reason, and I’m watching his matches, and then we just start fighting for whatever, and they’d be like, oh, maybe they’re from a village from far past.”
He said the company never even committed to what he was supposed to be.
“They never said he was a vampire. They just would say this gothic trio and this gothic lifestyle. I had fangs, and they never actually even called me a vampire,” Gangrel said. “And then one day I bring Christian. They don’t even explain that, besides, oh, it’s Edge’s brother. Okay, well, why? Nobody knows. Never said again.”
The concept in his own head was more specific.
“My idea of the brood was, I was a big fan of the Freebirds. That was my favorite trio faction. And my vampire character stemmed from the movie The Lost Boys,” Gangrel said. “So the Freebirds meet the Lost Boys was the brood. Now WWE, what they seen with it, I have no idea.”
What he does believe is that the group existed to get Edge ready.
“They didn’t know what to do with Adam. They would say, hey, our next star. They made that clear. They didn’t say so much about Christian, but they were like, no, Edge, Adam’s the future,” Gangrel said. “I think the brood and what they wanted was just a way to shuttle him in, keep him experienced, get him current, and then go on from there.”
Gangrel said the length of the run has surprised even the people in it.
“I know when I did their podcast, I talked to him, and the time came up. He goes, how long was the whole brood run? And I said, it was less than eight months. He goes, no. I go, yeah,” Gangrel said. “And he was like, I don’t get why they ended it so quick. And I said, yeah, sure, I do.”
His explanation to Edge came in the form of a question.
“I ask Edge, Adam, when you go to conventions, what’s the first thing people say to you? Oh, the brood thing. They bring the brood stuff up. I go, okay. Now, if it was only eight months, imagine three years of the brood. You would have never been an Edge,” Gangrel said. “They had to get you out of there before you were consumed in that thing, because it was just something that happened organically that people liked.”
Gangrel said he saw the end coming during the Ministry of Darkness angle, when the crowd would not play along.
“They tried to make us heels. They put us in the ministry. The whole ministry would line up on the stage, and they’d be like boos, and then the boos would go brood, brood, brood, brood,” Gangrel said. “And I remember looking at that and I said, oh, we’re done. That’s not good, because it’s the ministry’s moment, not Taker’s moment, not the brood’s moment.”
The confirmation came almost immediately.
“Sure enough, like a week later, they said, we don’t see you in the ministry, we see you feuding with the ministry. And I go, that’s never good,” Gangrel said. “You could see the incoming.”
He credited his late wife, Luna Vachon, with teaching him how to read those signs.
“Being with Luna for 18 years, and her growing up in wrestling, you were able to read the room, you were able to see the signs. You understood how the business worked,” Gangrel said.
As for why Edge and Christian went on to define the ladder match era while he did not, Gangrel has a simple answer.
“Everybody asks what happened to you. I go, well, my fear of heights is what held me back,” he said.
