Did Bruce Prichard enjoy working with Sting in Impact Wrestling?
Who better to ask than Prichard himself.
During the latest recording of Something To Wrestle with Bruce Prichard, Bruce and Conrad Thompson reminisced on Prichard's days in Impact Wrestling. Check out highlights from the podcast below.
On working with Sting:
“I was excited to work with Sting, yes. I’ve always liked Sting from day one in his time in Mid-South teaming with Hellwig — I always had a good relationship with him. I’ve been through a few different negotiations trying to bring him into the WWE over the years and thought very highly of him. Do I thunk that TNA needed Sting at this point? I don’t think they needed him, no. I think that when you looked at — I had no idea what the budget was, I had no idea what the contracts look like. But three months from now I had access to all that, and if you were to have asked me if I knew then what I know now type of situation I would have gone ‘Oh my God, no.’ In addition to that, I believe that this was during the time that Sting was negotiating with WWE. I thought, you what dude go make the money. Go do it. Go get that. Go get that moment in the sun and this will always be here if you want to come back and do it. I think there was a feeling, especially on Dixie’s part, Dixie wanted Sting. Dixie wants, Dixie gets.”
On Sting vs. Jeff Hardy at Victory Road 2011:
“It was horrible. We were at gorilla and it’s time for the match and we’re looking for Jeff. Where the hell is Jeff? Where the hell is Jeff? So, I ran out the studio and I see two guys carrying Jeff. I thought he was passed out and he actually may have been, but his arms are over their heads and they are dragging him and his feet are just dragging the ground behind him. What happened? Found him in his locker room. Is he awake? And he was (makes slurry sounds), just out of it. So, I’m like holy s***. So, I ran back and Eric was there, and Sting was there. I said ‘Dude, we can’t send him out there. We can’t. We can’t do this. He can’t walk. They’re carrying him right now.’ So, they get him through the door. They’re like throwing water in his face and just trying to get him to drink something and all this stuff. He’s out of it. Russo was in the truck and I want to say Dixie was in the truck, too. But, I’m not trying to talk to him and tell him what’s going on. Dixie doesn’t want to cancel the match. I wanted to cancel the match. I was like we need to come up with something else whether we send Anderson out or something. This is before anyone made an entrance. We are looking for Jeff right now. So, then Eric and I talked and I was like ‘Dude, I don’t think you should send him out’ and then Jeff comes walking up. Now, he’s swaying and they hit his music and he goes. I’m like ‘oh f*** this is going to be bad dude.’ Eric and I were talking and we talked to Sting. Sting was livid. Livid. We’re trying to figure out what we’re doing. Trying to talk to Dixie. Trying to talk to Russo and everybody on headsets. I will say this kind of pissed me off, but at the same time I also understand it. They sat in the truck. I mean nobody came to see it for themselves. Eric and I were the only ones that were there that actually looked in Jeff’s eyes and went ‘Oh God we’ve got an issue here.’ Dixie finally to her credit and to Russo’s credit they were like make the call. I’m there doing backstages, advising. I’m doing all this other s***. By this time I knew that I was going to be taking over talent relations, but nobody else did. I told Eric, I said ‘Man, we gotta Sting’s just got to go out and beat him.’ So, we talked just real quick and I mean you’re talking about all this happening in seconds. Feels like a slow motion. Feels like there was a lot more time than there was, but there really wasn’t. Eric went down and interrupted it and he went over and told Jeff it’s like ‘Hey man, you know, you’re gonna drop the title. He’s gonna hit one move and pin you.’ That’s it and walked over to Sting. I can’t remember ever seeing Sting pissed. Sting was pissed and he said maybe he’d get a match out of it. He’s like ‘nope, don’t get a match out of it. Just pin him.’ Sting did one move rolled him over and pinned him and Jeff tried to kick out. You can see Jeff does try to kick out, but Sting held him down. We told the referee to count to three I don’t give a f*** if he kicks out on one count to three."
