WWE often strives to put its best efforts towards its biggest events of the year, such as WrestleMania or SummerSlam, but its major productions are usually followed by a smaller show that either marks the beginning of new stories, or puts an ending to ongoing feuds. That said, a lower-level show doesn’t always equal to it being easy, and according to WWE Executive Director Bruce Prichard in season 2 of “WWE Unreal,” there’s one Premium Live Event that he finds extremely frustrating to prepare for.
“Coming off of WrestleMania, so many huge attractions. Then you’re looking at a few weeks later, Backlash, and it is a pain in the a** to come up with a Backlash after you spend as much time as you have to spend to create a WrestleMania, to create the mega event of the year. But I think everything was either just getting started, or we had seen a lot of and to try to freshen things up, you have at your disposal other characters, and one of those characters being Pat McAfee.”
McAfee, who has been one of WWE’s color commentators for several years, would fight GUNTHER at Backlash after “The Ring General” tried to attack Michael Cole at ringside weeks before the event. The story resulted in GUNTHER furthering his character as one of the most unforgiving villains on the roster, but it was later revealed in “WWE Unreal” that Prichard floated the idea of McAfee winning at Backlash to pull off an unpredictable outcome. Ultimately, the creative team shut down the pitch after arguing that a commentator defeating one of the best wrestlers in the company would be too unrealistic.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “WWE Unreal” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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