Bruce Prichard comments on the intangibles that help determine how over a wrestler on the rise may be.
Bruce Prichard is currently the Executive Director of WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown. Through the decades, Prichard has had a number of stints behind the scenes at WWE, helping create content including the likes of Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, John Cena, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret Hart, and more.
On the most recent episode of his Something to Wrestle podcast, Prichard gave insight into the intangibles he considers when determining how over a Superstar may be.
"Consistency, man. It's a feel," he began. "I will talk to new talent a lot of times in developmental or at a school or what have you and try to explain to them, man, don't ever think about what you're going to do. Feel it, feel what's right to do next. Don't think about what you should do. Feel it and know what to do.
"Without a doubt, merchandise sales, that's a big indicator, but you have to look at those merchandise sales over time," he continued. "If you do something hot or it's a cool piece of merchandise that just came out, and it blows off the shelves, you're going to take notice and go, 'Okay, what's different here?', but then you're also listening to the audience reactions. Are they sustained? Are they consistent? Are the reactions genuine, or is it due to something there that the talent is trying to do and overcompensate for? It's just a lot of factors, and so much of it is just feel."
Prichard again indicated that there are indicators such as seeing rating spikes when a particular star is advertised as opposed to when they are not, but again hammered home that it's all about consistency and sustainability.
"Yes, there are indicators, man. If you advertise something and you have somebody on top that hasn't been there before you see a distinct uptick, then okay, you're gonna take notice, do it again. Alright, there's a trend, there's a pattern now that you can look at. Take them off, does it drop? There's so many different factors. It's not just oh, 'Hey, man, so and so on Twitter says that I had the best match of the night, so I'm over. It doesn't work like that," Prichard said.
Bruce Prichard has held the title of Executive Director since 2020. Since then, numerous new WWE Superstars have made a name for themselves.
One name in particular, Dominik Mysterio, draws such a strong reaction from a crowd that Logan Paul has consistently said he is jealous of the second-generation Superstar. Read more here.
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