Bruce Prichard On Brodie Lee's Passing, Kurt Angle's 2006 WWE Departure To TNA

WWE RAW and SmackDown Executive Director Bruce Prichard recently paid tribute to the late Brodie Lee on his Something to Wrestle podcast.

Speaking on Lee, Prichard reassured that while the great stories of who the former Luke Harper was can feel sensationalized, every kind word spoken about Lee was completely authentic.

"I think as you go through and read everything and sometimes when we lose someone that we really adore, that you feel a lot of the tributes are glamorized and what have you," Prichard said. "I think that everyone pretty much captured the essence of who Luke Harper was, and he was a down to earth guy. One of the nicest human beings that you would ever meet in your life, but in the very short time that I knew him and that I had the opportunity to interact with him, one thing that always rang true was the love of his family, his kids, his wife, and you hear that. You say that, but this was a guy that just was as genuine as genuine got and was a super nice guy.

"It's just sad and very tragic. Hearts go out to his family and wish them all the best and know it's going to be a tough road for everyone."

Prichard worked with WWE in a backstage capacity for 16 consecutive years before jumping to TNA (Impact Wrestling) in 2010. During his extensive WWE tenure, Prichard made the occasional on-screen appearance as his popular Brother Love character, a gimmick he portrayed in his first WWE run, but primarily worked as a backstage agent and producer.

At the tail-end of his second WWE stint, questions arose backstage about the condition of Shawn Michaels. At that point, Michaels had been wrestling for just about two decades, excluding his brief retirement from 1998 to 2002. Prichard revealed that there was chatter backstage about how much longer the Heartbreak Kid could continue.

"There were times throughout it from the second week of Shawn returning when he did," Prichard said. "We were thinking, 'Okay, how long is this going to be able to last? How long are we going to be able to do this?'

"So, everyday in many respects was a gift that, 'Okay, man he's going alright,' but the more that he worked, the more he felt like, 'Okay, I can do this a little longer.' It's when you stop working, you're not working as much and it's harder to get back into the swing of things and get back into the groove of things.

"So, you would periodically have these times where Shawn was hurt and he was. He had an awful lot of wear and tear on his body and his body was paying the price."

Around that time that there was backstage concern about Michaels's longevity, WWE lost a main event talent in Kurt Angle. The Olympic Gold Medalist jumped to TNA in 2006, and according to Prichard, WWE did not exactly make sure the door didn't hit him on the way out.

"Well, it also wasn't cool the way that Kurt left the company at the time either. So, I'm not saying two wrongs make a right, but the way that Kurt left was not cool as well and I'm not a big fan of that. I'm not a big fan of doing that, but sometimes, it happens," Prichard said. "I think that probably showing up on TNA fueled that fire."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Mehdy Labriny contributed to this article.

Mehdy Labriny contributed to this article.