Tag: Freddie Prinze Jr.

In a new episode of his Wrestling With Freddie podcast, actor Freddie Prinze Jr. gave an update on his long-held plans to start a wrestling promotion and where things currently stand.

Prinze shared that he’s had several meetings regarding the project, naming Warner Bros. Discovery and Vice TV as two of the places he met with. The meeting with WBD did not go well. The Vice meeting was positive, but Vice TV could not afford the show.

“We went to Warner Discovery, which was like the worst meeting that I had out of all of them. They basically just wanted me to do a reality show by the end of the pitch and knew nothing about wrestling and didn’t seem to care for wrestling at all,” Prinze said. “So it was not a good meeting. I must have failed at some point in the pitch because they were not interested in what I was saying. I gave the same pitch to everyone else — it was the only place that didn’t work.

“I also pitched to — what was it? Vice? Yeah, Vice TV. And they wanted the show bad, but they were going under some business restructuring — trying to basically stay on the air — and they couldn’t afford the show at the end of the day. That was a place I really wanted to go because they have Dark Side of the Ring and I thought we could be a cool pairing with them. So I was disappointed there.”

Prinze said there were a couple of other places where meetings went well, but he was not pitching to people high enough on the totem pole who could get his idea heard by the top decision-makers.

The original concept Prinze had was a show where the first six episodes would be a documentary about him trying to put his new promotion together. The next two episodes would then be two-hour specials from the promotion. But Prinze met with a new streaming company that was not interested in the documentary and instead just wanted a pro wrestling promotion. Prinze did not reveal the name of the streaming company yet as they are still working together to make this project happen.

“So I sit and I talk to this new company that wants to talk to me about wrestling and they’re not interested in the documentary at all. They want a professional wrestling promotion,” he said. “This was like an hour and a half meeting. And they’re asking me all kinds of questions. ‘How would you compete? How would you do this? Do you want to compete? Do you just want to exist? Do you want to be the highest-rated show? Do you want to be the second-highest?’ And they were like, ‘Please, be honest. We want you to be real with us.’ So I’m answering all their questions and they’re real upfront on their finances, where they’re at, what they can afford, what they can pull off, and how they would pull it off. And it was unorthodox to me, but not to them. Because it was the first time I had ever heard of financing shows this way and doing things the way they were wanting to do it. But I try to stay open-minded, right? I want to have a promotion. So I’m listening, I’m listening. Then I start asking them questions for about 30 minutes, and they start explaining their philosophies, their business philosophies more and more clearly.”

Over the course of trying to get this show made, Prinze has realized that starting anything new in Hollywood right now is “borderline impossible.” The streaming company has come up with the idea for this project to move forward with Prinze partnering with an existing independent promotion. They have identified the promotion they want to work with and had a really good meeting with them.

“I come to the cold realization that I can’t start it from scratch,” Prinze said. “And it’s a humbling moment and it’s a sad moment. And then the dude that I’m talking to calls me up and he says, ‘Hey, what if we grab someone else and brought them in as a partner?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He says, ‘What if you work within an existing brand?’ And he says, ‘Here’s some independent promotions that are looking for TV deals.’ They want to offer me the opportunity to tell my story and to present my promotion within the existence of another one. Sort of like how Ring of Honor exists with AEW.

“So I start sitting down and thinking about that and I start looking at the rosters of the places that they brought me and the infrastructure that each one already has or does not have. And I start weighing the pros and cons. I talk to my guys that are a part of my team and say, ‘Hey, these are the ones that I’m interested in, but what do you think?’ My main guy, my right-hand happened to like the exact same one that I liked for the exact same reasons that I liked it.”

Prinze believes things are going to move forward, but it’s not a done deal yet. Lawyers are going to get involved, people still have things to think about, and it’s possible their plans could fall apart. If the project does happen, part of Prinze’s idea is that he would help find talent that need a fresh coat of paint, need a fresh start, are young and need work, or are veterans that do not currently have a story.

While there’s still a long road ahead, Prinze is committed to making his dreams come true. He encouraged everyone listening to keep chasing their dreams too.

“I am doing my damndest to make this work. I am doing my damndest to make my dreams come true,” he said. “I have not accepted a closed door, as much as they hurt. I keep finding other ones — or they find me. One way or the other. But you have to be ready when opportunity comes.”

A long-time wrestling fan, Prinze is a former writer for WWE. He recently hosted the first three seasons of WWE Rivals on A&E.