Macaulay Culkin Blasts The Current State Of WWE Product
On this week's Wrestling with Freddie podcast from iHeart Media's My Cultra Network, Freddie Prinze Jr. was joined by actor Macaulay Culkin as they delved into the world of pro wrestling.
Culkin was keen to stress that he's tired of seeing the same WWE matches over and over again, including Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar.
"Especially the product now, f*** dude," Culkin answered Freddie Prinze Jr.'s question about today's product lacking. "If I have to see one more f******, don't get me wrong I'm looking forward to seeing what will be different this time, but if I have to see Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns one more frickin' time, you know?
"That's the thing. They'll do the same pay-per-view back to back. It's always like New Day/Usos like every frickin' card. Like, I understand that their roster isn't as deep as it was a year ago. They've cut I think 86 wrestlers from their roster this past calendar year. So yeah, you don't have this rich variety that you might have had before, but even then, man, it's like how many times can we watch the same match over again?"
Prinze Jr. revealed that the company "fear change" within. Macaulay Culkin also detailed that he has had some conversations with WWE in the past about their product, and WWE called him up as a consultant from time to time to help with their product.
"I came up with some great Bray Wyatt story angles all alone in my room in Paris, man [when he was on tour]. They called me up for consultation kind of stuff, you know," Culkin explained. "'What do you think will make the brand better?' I think they might have done one or two things and I'm like 'hey!' I'm not saying I came up with it or nothing, but at the same time I was like 'oh, there you go!' I'm just like 'hey, why don't we make the show slightly different, because, just one's blue and one's red' God bless, Kevin Dunn, but you know 'no, no, no, this is our product.' He's really good at what he does, far be it for me to be criticizing anything that he's saying, I'm just saying 'well, can we do something that's just visually different?' things like that."
Freddie Prinze Jr. disclosed that many people ask him all the time as to why he didn't get Macaulay to write for WWE. Culkin explained the reasons why he did not.
"There were times when I wanted to. Like, kind of just, you know, find six months of my life at the very least to kind of go in there and stuff. You know, I will say I do kind of regret not doing that. Now that I'm a Dad and stuff like that, I ain't got time. Man, I've barely got time to pee at this point. Do you know what I mean?" Culkin revealed. "I never just got round to it, there was always something. Next thing I know I'm on the road being in a pizza band or something!"
In an interesting twist, Freddie Prinze Jr. revealed that with the current state of the WWE product and their recent mass releases, he wanted to start his own independent promotion. Prinze Jr. noted that he wanted to start an "indy league" on the West Coast, something similar to GCW or as a comedy brand.
"Granted, I am a year and a half away from this coming to fruition," Prinze Jr. said. "When I'm ready to go, I just want to have a two-year plan, where if it makes money, cool, but it's probably not, which is what my accountant said!"
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Wrestling with Freddie with an h/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.