10 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets Revealed By Former WWE Writers

7. "Triple H Wasn't Ready"

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Bruce Prichard's podcast chats with Conrad Thompson have somewhat understandably tapered off in quality over the last few years.

Prichard's remarkable return to the right hand of Vince McMahon has resulted in the former Brother Love perhaps being a little bit more careful with his tales, and that's if he's even got a moment to himself to sit down and chat about them. More's the pity - there were some fascinating insights that snuck out at the time, including this gem about Triple H's 1999 ascent;

“I don’t think that Steve and/or a lot of the agents at the time felt that Hunter was ready for the championship yet. But that wasn’t a Steve call, that was a Vince call, and that was a lot of the agents. When they heard that, they felt that he’ll be ready someday, he’s just not ready right now, not with Steve.”

SummerSlam's main event that year saw Steve Austin lose to Mankind so he could drop the WWE Championship to 'Cerebral Assassin' the next day. It's long been felt that this was exclusively a 'Rattlesnake' call, but Prichard's tidbit reveals a side of McMahon that wasn't quite ready to play 'The Game' either.

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett