Bruce Prichard Names Major Angles No One Thought Would Work

With WWE Executive Director Bruce Prichard has seen countless angles and storylines during his 50-year career in pro wrestling. Naturally, certain concepts were more successful than others in how they were received by audiences, but there were also a handful of storylines that became much more successful than Prichard and WWE creative ever imagined they would.

"Kane and Undertaker, yeah, that was [supposed to be] a one-off," Prichard said on his "Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard" podcast. "'Hey, we need a match.' It became a career [for Kane]." Before debuting as the "hellfire and brimstone" version of his persona at Badd Blood: In Your House in October 1997, Glenn Jacobs had tried out several different characters such as Isaac Yankem, Unabomb, and Doomsday, but it was his gimmick as Undertaker's brother that finally made him as a star.

Another instance in which a storyline surpassed its expectations is possibly the most famous storyline in WWE history. No one internally expected the feud between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Vince McMahon to captivate audiences like it did. Prichard revealed it was supposed to be a brief rivalry to get to Austin's story with Mankind. "I didn't think that would take off the way that it did," Prichard said. "It wasn't written that way originally, really, so those two really stick out in my head more than anything of, 'Wow, didn't see that coming.'"

Austin versus McMahon was so popular that WWE has often recreated the storyline of an authority figure battling with an employee who is defying the rules. It's currently happening with Bobby Lashley and Adam Pearce after the latter "fired" Lashley at the conclusion of the December 12 episode "Raw," only to rescind his termination one day later.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Something to Wrestle" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.