Freddie Prinze Jr. Talks Pro Wrestling Not Being Popular Among Most TV Execs
Freddie Prinze Jr. spent some time in WWE from 2008 until 2009 where he worked as a writer and helped give acting lessons to talent. The day-to-day scheduled ended up being to crazy for the actor, but he still makes sporadic appearances for WWE since then.
On Twitter, Prinze gave props to Triple H and Cody Rhodes for normalizing the pro wrestling business as — according to Prinze — most TV executives are not big on having pro wrestling on their channel.
"If you knew how bad most TV execs did not want professional wrestling on their channels, you'd respect the hell out of WWE, NXT, & AEW for pulling off what they do each week," Prinze wrote. "They literally have every card in the deck stacked against them and they're still growing the business.
"This is why cats like HHH doing interviews and Cody being on other TNT programming is so important. They help normalize the business because they just get it. They come off chill and solid. Hope they both continue to stay out in the public eye. It's more important now than ever."
A number of fans questioned his comment about the business still growing, while ratings are down, WWE has still been able to pull in hundreds of millions annually from its TV deals, and reportedly over one billion (over five years) in its move to Peacock.
"You look at Neilson ratings for growth," Prinze responded to one individual. "Execs stopped that in the 90's when they saw Arsenio Hall's real numbers. It's just marketing. Execs look for advertisers and they're lined up for live TV. It's a question of simple taste and most execs don't enjoy it."