Freddie Prinze Jr. Recalls Confronting Vince McMahon Over WWE Studios
On this week's Wrestling with Freddie podcast from iHeart Media's My Cultra Network, former WWE creative team member Freddie Prinze Jr. was riding solo to discuss his time with the company.
Freddie discussed WWE's involvement in making films through WWE Studios, claiming that WWE had a budget of $5 million to make each movie, and had an exclusive distribution channel with Walmart which paid in advance. However, despite the venture, Prinze Jr. claims that a fellow creative team member was taking advantage of the situation.
"There was a writer on the creative team, who's a television writer, and I'm not gonna say his name," Prinze Jr. explained. "But he was getting, it wasn't clicking with what wrestlers needed to say and the types of stories that wrestlers could pull off and the types of stories we could pull off as a company while having to have wrestling matches. Think about that philosophy and that was this guy's philosophy, 'Yeah, but these matches are really affecting the stories' it's like, 'Nah dog, you're supposed to service the matches. It's a wrestling show.'
"So this guy asked Vince if he could transition from the creative team to the film division because he had experience in film. Now he had experience in television, but not really experience in film, this gentleman. Now, I respect the man's hustle, but this was a hustle just the same. He started selling his own scripts, under a different name, a pen name, which you're allowed to do to the WWE, and then was producing his own movie himself, and paying himself to do it. And I saw this right away. I know a Hollywood hustle when I see one."
Freddie believes that the particular writer in question should have been honest from to get-go with Vince McMahon . Freddie then revealed he brought up the issue with the WWE Chairman just as they were about to board the WWE jet, which divulged a surprising revelation.
"I said, 'You guys are making these $5 million dollar movies. This guy is selling you scripts that would not sell in Hollywood, that I'm sure he's tried to sell a dozen times and everyone passed on, and you're paying him for something like that and then paying him to make his own movie.' I said, 'That's five movies a year at $5 million dollars a piece' or maybe it was four movies, 'At four movies a year and $5 million dollars apiece, Vince.' He looks at me dead in the face and he goes 'Freddie, it's $20 million dollars, get on the f****** plane.' And I literally. My jaw must have hit the ground. I looked at him and said 'Can I have that job?' and he started laughing, slapped me on the back and I got my a** on the plane."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Wrestling with Freddie with an h/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.