In a recent episode of his Wrestling With Freddie Podcast, actor Freddie Prinze Jr. provided an update on the status of his long-held plans for a wrestling promotion.
Warner Bros. and Discovery are two of the places he met with. Discovery and Vice TV were two of the places where he met. The meeting with WBD was not successful. Vice TV was unable to afford the show, despite the positive meeting.
“We went to Warner Discovery and it was the worst meeting I’ve ever had. Prinze said that they wanted me to do reality show at the end of their pitch. They knew nothing about wrestling, and seemed to not care much for it. “It was not a very good meeting.” I must have failed in my pitch at some point because they weren’t interested in what I said. I tried the same pitch with everyone else, but it didn’t work.
What was it that I also pitched? Vice? Vice TV? They wanted the show badly, but were going through some business restructuring – trying to stay on air – and couldn’t afford it at the end of day. It was a place that I wanted to go, because they had Dark Side of the Ring. I thought we would make a great pairing. So I was disappointed.”
Prinze said that there were other places where meetings had gone well, but that he wasn’t pitching his idea to people who were high enough up the totem pole to get it heard by top decision makers.
Prinze’s original concept was to have a show in which the first six episodes were a documentary on him as he tried to put together his new promotion. The next two episodes were to be two-hour promotions. Prinze met a new streaming service that was not interested the documentary, but only wanted to promote pro wrestling. Prinze has not revealed the name of the streaming service yet, as they are still working on this project.
“I sit down and talk to this company who wants to talk about wrestling, but they are not interested at all in the documentary. “They want a professional wrestler promotion,” he said. “This was about an hour-and-a-half meeting.” They’re asking me a lot of questions. How would you compete? How would you go about it? Do you want to compete or just exist? Do you want to exist or compete? Do you want your show to be the most popular? They said, “Please be honest.” We want you be honest with us. So I answer all their questions, and they are upfront about their finances, where their at, what their budget is, what they could afford, and what they could do. It was unorthodox for me, but it wasn’t for them. It was the first I’d heard of someone financing a show in this way, and doing things how they wanted to. But I do try to remain open-minded. I want a promotion. So I’m listening, I’m listening. After about 30 minutes of asking questions, they begin to explain their business philosophy and philosophies in greater detail.”
Prinze realized that it was “borderline impossible” to start a new show in Hollywood at this time. The streaming company came up with the idea to move this project forward by partnering Prinze with an independent promotion. They have met with the promotion that they want to work together with and had an excellent meeting.
Prinze said, “I’ve come to the cold realisation that I can’t start from scratch.” “It’s a very sad and humbling experience. “What do you mean?” I asked. He replied, “What if you worked within an existing brand?” And he said, “What if you presented your promotion within the existence and story of another one?” It’s like Ring of Honor and AEW.
“So, I sit down and think about it. I look at the lists of the places they brought me to and the infrastructure each one has or doesn’t have. I weigh the pros and cons. I ask my team members what they think. My main guy and my right-hand liked the exact same one I liked, for the exact reasons that I loved it.”
Prinze is confident that things will move forward but it’s still not done. There will be lawyers involved, and people may still have some things to consider. It’s possible that their plans might fall apart. Prinze wants to help find talent who need a new start, a new coat of paint, are young, and need work or veterans without a story.
Prinze is determined to make his dreams a reality, despite the long road ahead. He encouraged everyone to chase their dreams.
“I will do my damndest for this to work.” “I am doing my damndest for my dreams to come true,” said he. “I haven’t accepted a closed-door, as much they hurt. I keep finding new ones — or, they find me. It doesn’t matter. “But you must be ready to seize the opportunity when it comes.”
Prinze, a long-time wrestler fan, is a former WWE writer. He hosted the first three seasons on A&E of WWE Rivals.
Freddie Prinze Jr. updates plans to start a wrestling promotion in todays Wrestling news, Chatalong Chatbox, Results will be Hidden inside a spoiler Button so you will not bet spoiled about direct results.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~