Brian Terwilliger Interview: Returning To G4, WWE Partnership, Xavier Woods, More

What's the overlap in the gaming and pro wrestling audiences?

Terwilliger: It's a complete circle, to be quite honest with you. When I was at G4 from '08 to '11, hands down our best shows were when we would get a WWE Superstar on, whether it was “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and he would come do a silly green screen bit with us or Triple H would come in or The Miz who was on “Real World” or Chris Jericho would come on and play Emo Thor as a character. That audience is identical.

At the center of it, it's a passionate fandom, and that's obviously stayed true for gamers over the past several decades and wrestling fans are extremely passionate. You then look to what UpUpDownDown did. When I joined that squad and started working with Xavier really closely on it, I shared with him my background and said, “Well, let's bring G4 to WWE.” That is very much the DNA of what we tried to inspire: a whole lot of nonsense, a lot of showmanship, and just to have fun. It's silly that we have to remind ourselves that gaming should be fun, but gaming should be fun and that's obviously front of mind for everything we're doing here at G4.

Before you started with G4 and WWE, did you ever hope to be involved with gaming and wrestling over the course of your career?

Terwilliger: I'll be honest: I just got lucky. I followed my interest and I followed my passions. Make no mistake about it, working within either of these spheres is a lot of work, it's very hard. Having said that, when you really care about something and you're asked to go that extra mile, that's where the idea of “Do what you love and it never feels like work”... No, it's hard, it can be hard work, but if you do care, you're willing to go that extra care. If you do care, you're going to protect what you're doing and make sure not only the best version of it exists but that you inspire those around you to put in that extra effort.

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