Man, for those of you who don’t know, me and RD Reynolds, the Founding Father of WrestleCrap, got our relationship off on a HORRIFFIC start. It all began when I brought RD on my podcast to talk about the ‘Death of WCW’ book, which you all know he co-authored.
Now let me first confess that I never read the book… still haven’t… but regardless, the fact the book was about the death of a company I worked for with a picture of ME on the cover—BRO, WE’RE ON!!!
Prior to the interview I had never met RD, I knew nothing about him aside from the fact that he insinuated that I KILLED THE VERY COMPANY I WORKED FOR!!! So, from the start I was in attack mode, and man, from jump—was I a DICK. Knowing RD now, I am absolutely embarrassed by my behavior towards him. But, in my defense, I can’t beat myself up too badly because what really set me off during our discussion was that the hotter I got… the more RD laughed. This was indeed the trigger.
But thankfully, today RD and I are great buddies. Him laughing at my anger? That’s just RD. That’s just who he is. I didn’t get that then, but I do get it now. The dude is just a great, great human being.
With that said…
You put THIS on the list? Bro—you are ABSOLUTELY, 100% OUT OF YOUR MIND!!!
D-Generation X invading WCW was a GREAT IDEA and yeah, MINE OF COURSE!!! You must remember at that time WCW was OBLIVIATING WWF in the ratings. Somehow, some way, we needed to bring some attention to ourselves. The whole idea behind the “invasion” was the thinking that those who were watching our show would say, “Man, I can’t believe these guys have the BALLS to do this.”
And, YEAH, WE DID!!!
The invasion was 100% a PUBLICITY STUNT!!! I make zero excuses for that. At the time, perhaps we were a bit desperate, but regardless—we needed people talking about us and not them.
Here’s some funny insight into this story. As I was mapping out the scene on my computer, I wrote—and I quote—“DX drive a rocket launcher to WCW’s building”. That’s exactly what I wrote. BUT—I wrote it simply for SHITS & GIGGLES. As great as the TV division was at WWF, there was no way they were going to be able to secure a freaking ROCKET LAUNCHER. I wrote it as a semi-joke.
As we got closer to the show, I didn’t hear anything from Executive Producer, Kevin Dunn, so I just figured—they must have come up with something else. Ah, whatever, we’ll make it work.
I’ll never forget the day of the show. As I drove up to the build with Vince McMahon, there it was in the parking lot… a FREAKIN’ ROCKET LAUNCHER! Man, I belly-laughed out loud, I couldn’t believe they pulled it off.
And here’s another note. From DAY ONE I have given Bruce Prichard 100% credit for producing the spots with DX. I couldn’t do it that day because I just had too much to do at the arena. So, Bruce laid all that out and did a TERRIFFIC JOB!!! Kudos.
BUT—I guess kudos wasn’t enough because over the years Bruce somehow, some way, began taking credit for the idea of the entire spectacle. HE came up with it! It was HIS IDEA!
I don’t know man, I know as we get older we forget, but if that is indeed the truth, I always ask this question… wait, a FREAKIN’ ROCKET LAUNCHER WAS JUST THERE? Sitting outside the arena WCW was playing?! Talk about luck? No, bro, “somebody” had to write “rocket launcher” on the script.
But, yeah, this is a BIG L for RD. The rocket launcher was MONEY. I guess he didn’t even know it.