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Prinze spoke about a TV writer who hatched his own plan to make some money from WWE.
WWE has a distribution deal through Walmart so they could make their movies for $5 million and make that money back, and then some through store sales.
Let’s let Prinze tell the story in his own words. Special thanks to Inside the Ropes for the following transcripts.
“There was one writer on the creative team who was a television writer and I won’t give his name, but it didn’t fit with what wrestlers had to say and the types of stories wrestlers had to pull through the stories we did.” pull through as a company while we had to have wrestling matches. Think of that philosophy, and that was that guy’s philosophy. “The matches affect the story.” Dawg, I want you to serve the matches. This is a wrestling show.
“Therefore Bruce [Prichard] Every week was like, ‘There’s a lot of talking.’ He was dead. This guy asked Vince if he could move from the creative team to the film department because he had film experience. He had television experience but not really film experience. I respect the man’s rush, but this was a rush.
“He started selling his own scripts to WWE under a pseudonym, produced his own film, and then paid himself to do it. I saw that right away. I know a Hollywood hype when I see one. I felt that an advantage was being taken advantage of. He should have said, “I wrote this great script, let’s do it,” and Vince would have said yes. I didn’t like the subversive element.”
lesson learned
Prinze knew he had to fill Vince in on what had happened, and that’s how the lesson on billionaires came about.
“We’re on the runway in White Plains, New York. We’re getting ready to fly to New Orleans. I see Vince’s limousine pulling up, which means you have to get on the plane because Vince won’t be waiting for anyone. I walk right up to Vince and I say, ‘Before we get on the plane, I have something to tell you.
“You guys do these $5 million movies, this guy sells you scripts that wouldn’t sell in Hollywood, which I’m sure he’s tried to sell a dozen times and they all passed, and you pay him to do that and pay him to make his own movie. That’s four movies a year at $5 million apiece.”
“He looks me straight in the face and says, ‘Freddie, it’s $20 million, get on the damn plane.’ My jaw dropped and I said, ‘Can I have this job?’ He started laughing, patted me on the back and I got on the plane. All the time I’m like, ‘This is a billionaire. That’s what a billionaire is.’”
Just being able to shake off $20 million is something most of us might never know, and it’s definitely a lesson, all right. In the end, we’re sure Vince wasn’t happy and will never hire the guy again.
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