Pat Patterson: Hall of Famer, first Intercontinental champion, and the man behind the Royal Rumble and Iron Man match. He may be the reason Shawn Michaels and Daniel Bryan were brought back to the WWE as well.
Patterson worked alongside Vince McMahon as his right hand man for decades. Often times, McMahon's temper and pride got the best of him, and prevented him from bringing back talents that could have been beneficial to the WWE. During a recent interview with The Rack Radio Show, Patterson recalled a few major talents that he had to nag Vince about for them to make rerturns.
"Vince and I would work very hard at getting talent back. Some of these guys would get fired over the years. They were talented, but they would do stupid things. One of them was Shawn Michaels and Vince (McMahon) didn't want to hear nothing about him, in fact he is dead, Shawn Michaels is not coming back. Once in awhile I would bring up his name. Shawn Michaels never called saying 'Pat could you get me in?', he never called, I just wanted to convince Vince and then Shawn Michaels back. Another one was Bret Hart and another was Daniel Bryan. I fought for them. I didn't tell them 'I did that for you', they found out on their own. I was fighting for these guys, everyone makes mistakes at one time or another, especially if you are talented. So most of these guys need advice, sometimes it goes in one ear and out the other and some of them get it," said Patterson.
Michaels, Hart and Bryan would all come back to the WWE and go on to play pivotal roles, with all three eventually having on-screen squabbles with McMahon himself. Patterson is known to have an eye for talent, and mentioned the current number-one contender to the WWE Title as someone with potential.
"Dolph Ziggler. Without a doubt," said Patterson. "I see it big time. He has come a long way this kid. My point of view is if you got guys like Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and all of these characters that are bigger than life, but those little guys, people love them. They are talented. That what makes feel that these can do nice things too."
