Bruce Prichard Was Willing To Be Arrested For Famous WWE Segment

For a legendary wrestling segment to still be talked about more than 27 years later, something truly special had to go down. In the case of the "DX Army" invading a WCW show in Norfolk, Virginia in April of 1998, that meant, more than anything else, that everyone had to be on board in terms of whatever consequence they might face for such a stunt. On "Something to Wrestle With," longtime WWE executive Bruce Prichard recalled how the event came about, and just how committed to the gig all the players involved were when it came time to pull it off.

"The idea of basically invading WCW," Prichard said, "was brought up in a meeting where the question posed to the room was, 'What [would we do back in the day] if somebody was trying to come into your territory?'" And while maybe "coming into WWE's territory" at this time was more figurative than literal, in terms of dipping into its overall marketshare, the comparison seemed to fit, and therefore the response was effectively the same on WWE's part. "We called them outlaw promotions and [if they invaded], the outlaw guys would send their shooters, their tough guys, to go sit in the front row of the opposing promotion, and challenge their guys."

Of course, a little luck has to factor into the equation for such an opportunity to present itself and when WWE and WCW were effectively running shows right down the road from each other, Prichard and company knew they had their shot. "We were in close proximity," he said, with WWE in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and WCW roughly 15 miles away. "And that was the genesis of the idea was yeah, go knock on their door and pick a fight and that's what we did."

Once there, however, any great idea or the planning thereof still has to be executed, and that took commitment from one and all, which Prichard said they absolutely had. "There wasn't a single person there," he explained, "that wasn't ready to fight, and that wasn't ready for whatever consequences. We were ready to be arrested. We were ready to get our asses kicked."

After explaining that he was specifically advised by WWE's legal department not to enter the building, maybe the chances of Prichard, or any and all of Triple H, X-Pac, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, and Chyna getting physically assaulted were less than probable, getting arrested was a distinct possibility as the events of the day wore on. "The little security guard at the WCW offices called 911 and said they were being attacked with military weapons," Prichard said. "And I mean, good God, the number of cop cars that came screeching up, guns drawn..."

Former WCW executive Mike Weber would eventually come out from the arena to face the fracas in person, and at first, actually pushed for arrests, according to Prichard, who met the insistence head-on. "[Weber] and them are like, 'Arrest them!'" to which Prichard says he responded, "Arrest us, please," Weber realized how poorly that could turn out for WCW. "[Weber's face] was all of a sudden like, 'Oh s***, Bruce wants to get arrested. We can't do that. We can't give them what they want.' Because if we had been arrested, we could have had access to that 911 phone call, which would have made them look so silly."

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