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Speaker 1: I'm starting my own wrestling promotion, and I'm much closer

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Speaker 1: to the finish line than the start line, and I'm

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Speaker 1: much closer to a yes than I know, although a

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Speaker 1: note can still happen, and my dream can be crushed,

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Speaker 1: and if it doesn't work with this place, then that'll

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Speaker 1: be it for at least this year, and I'll have

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Speaker 1: to like reset and find another way to try and

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Speaker 1: make a work down the road. Ladies and gentlemen, are

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Speaker 1: you ready, It's about to hit the fan. Welcome to

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Speaker 1: on sanctioned Thursdays are Wrestling with Friday. What's up everybody?

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Speaker 1: And welcome to unsanctioned Thursdays. I'm your host, Freddy Brins Junior.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk wrestling. Okay, As you guys know, I've brought

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Speaker 1: you on the journey as much as I can. I'm

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Speaker 1: starting my own wrestling promotion, and I'm much closer to

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Speaker 1: the finish line than the start line, and I'm much

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Speaker 1: closer to a yes than a no, although a not

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Speaker 1: can still happen, and my dream can be crushed, and

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Speaker 1: if it doesn't work with this place, then that'll be

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Speaker 1: it for at least this year, and I'll have to

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Speaker 1: like reset and find another way to try and make

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Speaker 1: a work down the road. I already got a yes

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Speaker 1: from a wonderful place, from the head of their network,

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Speaker 1: so you're like, oh, yeah, it's done. Not quite. They

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Speaker 1: are a subsidiary of a much larger company studio, and

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Speaker 1: they need to get a yes from one of the

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Speaker 1: head honchos in their finance department to get the amount

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Speaker 1: of money that I need to pull this off. So

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Speaker 1: if that person says yes, then I have a wrestling

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Speaker 1: promotion and I should know by the end of the week.

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Speaker 1: So if you're listening to this on Thursday, by Friday,

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Speaker 1: I think I'm going to have a yes or a no.

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Speaker 1: So maybe next week I'll get to announce either great

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Speaker 1: success or tragic failure, and we'll see. I promised to

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Speaker 1: take you guys on the jury with it, and once

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Speaker 1: the process is over, I'm more than willing to talk

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Speaker 1: about all the places that I went to, how I

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Speaker 1: felt about it, and I'll be able to talk more

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Speaker 1: about the promotion and what it is and how we're

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Speaker 1: going to pull it off in what kind of light

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Speaker 1: and style. But anyway, that's your update. Wrestling's awesome, and

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Speaker 1: here we go. Here's the episode you, guys, A lot

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Speaker 1: of people have questions, A lot of fans of wrestling

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Speaker 1: have questions on how an actual episode of wrestling television

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Speaker 1: takes place from start to finish, And so I thought

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Speaker 1: we'd sort of break that down since I worked there

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Speaker 1: for a couple of years and give you my knowledge

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Speaker 1: of at least how it worked then. And I'm pretty

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Speaker 1: sure it's damn close to work in that way now.

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Speaker 1: It's a solid process when it isn't getting screwed up.

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Speaker 1: If they would just stay the course with the way

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Speaker 1: it was set up, I think a lot of storylines

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Speaker 1: back in the day would have been received much better

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Speaker 1: than they were because we change a lot of stuff

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Speaker 1: on the day. So here we go, guys, how does

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Speaker 1: the process begin? So there's a head of each show,

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Speaker 1: SmackDown and Raw. When I worked there, the head of

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Speaker 1: SmackDown was Michael ps Hayes Pure six and the head

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Speaker 1: of Monday Night Raw was Brian Gowertz, And they both

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Speaker 1: had a staff of writers underneath them, and Michael wasn't

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Speaker 1: a writer. He would just do the booking, give reasons why,

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Speaker 1: and have this dude named Chris to Joseph basically function

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Speaker 1: as the head writer and then Chris would delegate segments

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Speaker 1: and stories to all the other writers and send everyone

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Speaker 1: off to do their best. They would bring everything back

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Speaker 1: to him, he would rewrite what he felt needed rewriting.

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Speaker 1: We would write the whole show and turn it in. However,

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Speaker 1: before all that happens, you'd have to have the story,

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Speaker 1: whether it be a TV story that ends on TV

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Speaker 1: or a TV story that ends at pay per view.

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Speaker 1: The ones that were ended on TV is where all

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Speaker 1: the young writers start. That's where they started me. You

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Speaker 1: didn't get to have pay per views, and you basically

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Speaker 1: write four weeks at TV and the story would be

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Speaker 1: over in a month. That would be like the basic

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Speaker 1: The short ones would be three weeks. If you didn't

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Speaker 1: want those, everybody wanted a long term one. If the

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Speaker 1: story worked, it would just keep going and going and going.

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Speaker 1: But the four week one was the standard one. So

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Speaker 1: you would say, the final match is going to be

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Speaker 1: Dolph Ziggler goes over who else was there back, then

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Speaker 1: goes over MVP on the Goal home show to SummerSlam,

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Speaker 1: and it's the main event. That's your pitch. I want

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Speaker 1: the main event to be Dolph Ziggler versus MVP with

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Speaker 1: Dolf Ziggler going over clean. So you would then work

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Speaker 1: backwards from that three weeks. How will we get there?

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Speaker 1: The most basic format would be Dolph zigglers in a match.

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Speaker 1: MVP interrupts the match, comes out to commentary, is talking trash,

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Speaker 1: distracts Ziggler. Ziggler gets pissed, smacks him. They get in

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Speaker 1: a fight. MVP costs him to match somehow, Right, the

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Speaker 1: next week, Ziggler wants a payback. He comes out, he

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Speaker 1: screws MVP over. MVP loses his match. Well, now they

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Speaker 1: got a fight in the third week, right, yeah, they do.

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Speaker 1: We get them in the ring, they start to match,

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Speaker 1: the match goes outside the ring. We don't get a

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Speaker 1: finished because these buttholes kept fighting out in the crowd

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Speaker 1: and it's a no decision. And now what are we

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Speaker 1: gonna do? We got to keep them contained. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: put them in a steel cage on Friday Night SmackDown,

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Speaker 1: right before Summer Slam. So there has to be a finish.

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Speaker 1: No one can get out. I can't go in the crowd.

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Speaker 1: There's no count out, none of that bull crap. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna get a finish. That's my big pitch. What do

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Speaker 1: you think, Michael, well, I think it sucks Freddie personally.

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Speaker 1: That's probably what he would say. He would be right.

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Speaker 1: But let's say he goes, well, I think we're gonna

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Speaker 1: take it to the script and then we'll take it

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Speaker 1: to the boss see what happens. And so that would

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Speaker 1: make the script, and you would write the promos. I

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Speaker 1: would write all the promos for my story. I was

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Speaker 1: good at that. I could write those quick. I would

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Speaker 1: write all my promos and the whole story basically in

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Speaker 1: my four week pitch, and so they were already done

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Speaker 1: and I was able to help other people out on

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Speaker 1: their shit. But once it's in the script Friday night's

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Speaker 1: back then, when I got there, never got read until

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Speaker 1: the morning of Man, it was so disrespectful to everyone

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Speaker 1: that put in the work on that, to the wrestlers,

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Speaker 1: to the writers, to Freebird, to everybody. Man, it was

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Speaker 1: just like, really, you didn't have thirty minutes to give

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Speaker 1: us notes When we turned it in on a Thursday.

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Speaker 1: We would record them on Tuesdays back then, so they

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Speaker 1: had Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday to pull it off.

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Speaker 1: Monday is a dead day because that's Monday night raw

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Speaker 1: but you got time right, No, never, So it would

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Speaker 1: get read on the plane on the way, and then

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Speaker 1: in the production meeting we would have to rewrite the

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Speaker 1: entire script basically every single week, which is why I

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Speaker 1: always wanted to work on Monday Night Raw, because it

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Speaker 1: was the only show that gave a shit about back then.

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Speaker 1: So eventually you get pay per view stories. I had

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Speaker 1: written some stuff that people liked. I had written a

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Speaker 1: promo for the Undertaker that people liked, and Freebird came

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Speaker 1: to me and he said, Freddy, Freddy, I want you

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Speaker 1: and Data to try and make Jeff Hardy champion. I

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Speaker 1: think now's the time. His merch is selling higher than

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Speaker 1: anyone in the company. Merch was a big deciding factor

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Speaker 1: in this idea getting over and so DJ said, I'll

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Speaker 1: do the matches, you do the promos, and let's knock

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Speaker 1: this shit out. DJ Love Jeff I said, Okay, I

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Speaker 1: got you, man, And so I had talked on the

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Speaker 1: Wednesday show about the cmpunk promo being very black and white.

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Speaker 1: The straight edge lifestyle is a black and white lifestyle.

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Speaker 1: There's not much room for gray. Unfortunately, in life, the

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Speaker 1: gray area is much larger than the black or white.

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Speaker 1: With Jeff, I thought a great representation of his promo

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Speaker 1: would be only the gray area. He would be vulnerable,

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Speaker 1: he would be open, he would be honest, and he

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Speaker 1: would be ashamed and proud at the same time. And

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Speaker 1: so each promo was about his struggle with addiction, the

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Speaker 1: struggle of being an artist, the struggle of being misunderstood,

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Speaker 1: the struggle of being labeled. The struggle was story for

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Speaker 1: Jeff Hardy and I wrote this in every promo for

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Speaker 1: him all the way. And this was I think two months,

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Speaker 1: I think was the build up that we got. I

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Speaker 1: would write this out, you know, weeks in advance, so

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Speaker 1: that talent had time with the promos. The more time

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Speaker 1: you have, the better you can be because you can

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Speaker 1: get more confident with the material. And Jeff would rewrite

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Speaker 1: things and fix things so that it sounded more natural

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Speaker 1: for him. He would throw in those things like the

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Speaker 1: imagi nation and stuff like that. So it's whatever he

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Speaker 1: needs to get the promo over. It's not like, hey,

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Speaker 1: you have to say it the way I say it.

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Speaker 1: TV writers are like that in Hollywood, and sometimes you're like, dude,

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Speaker 1: I can help you, Like, let me say my way.

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Speaker 1: It's gonna come off better. It makes you look better.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes you win the fight and sometimes it's a fight.

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Speaker 1: In wrestling, you want the talent to have their own

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Speaker 1: spin on it. So he did great with it. He

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Speaker 1: kicked ass and I think it was like two months,

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Speaker 1: a lot of arguments, man, a lot of are we

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Speaker 1: really doing this? And then Vince saying yes we are,

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Speaker 1: and then sort of seeing this through and the fact

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Speaker 1: that they saw it through and didn't rewrite us every

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Speaker 1: week was one of the reasons that that was probably

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Speaker 1: the best storyline. A lot of people remember the Jeff

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Speaker 1: Hardy storyline. It had to have been one of the

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Speaker 1: best ones in my two year stint there, just because

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Speaker 1: it connected and resonated with so many people, because Jeff

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Speaker 1: was able to connect and resonate with so many people.

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Speaker 1: We've said this before, I'll say it again. The sole

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Speaker 1: responsibility of getting over is on the talent. We're just

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Speaker 1: there to help. Were a safety net, were an asset

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Speaker 1: or a tool that they can use that's there at

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Speaker 1: their disposal ift they need it if they don't party on.

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Speaker 1: But it's their responsibility to get over. They're the only

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Speaker 1: one that can do it, no matter who rites for them.

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Speaker 1: So for Jeff to pull that off was just such

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Speaker 1: high level stuff and he had to be there for it,

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Speaker 1: and he was so hopefully that explains. That's the long

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Speaker 1: winded version to question number one. Moving on, how many

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Speaker 1: people are involved in the process of writing a single

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Speaker 1: episode of our smack noow Well, I guess it depends

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Speaker 1: on the size of the writer's room. Probably anywhere for

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Speaker 1: from five to fifteen people are responsible for for a

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Speaker 1: single episode, again, depending on the size of the room.

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Speaker 1: It's ours. You got to give me a break because

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Speaker 1: it was a long time ago. I think ours was

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Speaker 1: like nine. I think there were about nine of us there,

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Speaker 1: maybe twelve something like that. On the SmackDown side, we're

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Speaker 1: all probably had like seven to nine something like that.

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Speaker 1: I can't remember one hundred percent. Brian wrote a lot

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Speaker 1: of raw, so they had a smaller writer's room than SmackDown.

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Speaker 1: Another question, do you automatically start writing the episode after

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Speaker 1: one ends or does it take a couple of days?

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Speaker 1: For me, I could write a whole episode of SmackDown

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Speaker 1: in one night. That wasn't hard for me. I would

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Speaker 1: try to write them as soon as the episode ended,

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Speaker 1: like we would get it outlined the next day, and

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Speaker 1: then Wednesday we would write the whole episode, DJ and

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Speaker 1: I and other people would contribute to and then DJ

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Speaker 1: would have me rewrite stuff, and then Thursday we would

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Speaker 1: turn in the draft. So basically from Tuesday night to

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Speaker 1: Thursday mornings, so you had two and a half days

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Speaker 1: to get the episode written and turned in. But if

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Speaker 1: you sat down, you could write the whole thing in

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Speaker 1: like two hours. Are the storylines handpicked from a bucket

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Speaker 1: of stories or are they made up on the spot.

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Speaker 1: It's different every time. Sometimes it's a wrestler's idea and

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Speaker 1: it gets stolen because the company does that all the time.

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Speaker 1: I think Elias just talked about his Monday Night Messiah

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Speaker 1: character getting hijacked and given to seth rollins. It happened

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Speaker 1: when I worked there, storylines that they liked. They killed

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Speaker 1: our Kofi Kingston Gauntlet match to the IC title when

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Speaker 1: I worked there, and then resurrected it years later and

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Speaker 1: had him become the ww Champion. But it was the

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Speaker 1: exact same story that we wrote back in the day.

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Speaker 1: So there's a million different ways that storylines get chosen.

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Speaker 1: How many rewrites happened lead up to the live show,

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Speaker 1: It's one rewrite and it sucks because it's usually the

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Speaker 1: day of That was the least creative part of the

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Speaker 1: process was the rewrite, if they just read the scripts.

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Speaker 1: At least when I work there, I'm sure it's different now.

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Speaker 1: Hunter's probably way more hands on. In the early steps

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Speaker 1: of the process, it was brutal because all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: you're given talent, sometimes as little as twenty minutes to

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Speaker 1: learn a two page promo. It was just too much,

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Speaker 1: too big an ask for anyone, even for professional improv

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Speaker 1: artists like you just can't. It's not how they did

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Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live, it's not how they do any other

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Speaker 1: form of television in the world. Reality TV is more

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Speaker 1: rehearsed than the rehearsal time given to professional wrestlers, So

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Speaker 1: that was the most challenging part. Who has the final

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Speaker 1: say on a storyline, the wrestler or the writer. Oh man,

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Speaker 1: that's a pretty good question. I guess when I worked there,

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Speaker 1: depending on where you were at in the company, the

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Speaker 1: wrestler had the final say. Vince had final say. Let

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Speaker 1: me start with that. Vince had final say, and Kevin Dunn.

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Speaker 1: But if a wrestler really didn't want to be in

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Speaker 1: a storyline, they could say yo, I don't want to

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Speaker 1: do this, and they wouldn't do it. Now, if the

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Speaker 1: company liked the story, they would give it to someone

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Speaker 1: else and they would remember that, and that wrestler, if

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Speaker 1: they weren't at a high level, may not get another

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Speaker 1: story for a while. I mean, there was pettiness in

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Speaker 1: the company, for sure. There's pettiness at every there's bankers

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Speaker 1: that are petty as fuck. But yeah, the wrestler had

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Speaker 1: the final say, at least when I worked there. Now,

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Speaker 1: those are the wrestlers at the high, high, high level

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Speaker 1: that wouldn't be sort of penalized for that. But if

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Speaker 1: you were like a mid car guy rejecting a storyline,

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Speaker 1: there was for sure a risk that the higher ups

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Speaker 1: would be like, who does he think he is doing that?

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Speaker 1: What advice do you give someone listening to this right

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Speaker 1: now who wants to become a writer in professional wrestling

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Speaker 1: or beyond? Okay, if you want to be a writer

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Speaker 1: in professional wrestling, you can submit a writing sample and

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Speaker 1: a resume to WWE to this day at their office

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Speaker 1: on their email, and they will take it. They will

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Speaker 1: read it, and if they like what you write, you

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Speaker 1: will get an opportunity and you will get a shot.

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Speaker 1: First thing I'll say is good luck. The second thing

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Speaker 1: I'll say is have a lot of shit written already.

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Speaker 1: The fifth script you write is going to be five

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Speaker 1: times better than the first script you write. I promise.

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Speaker 1: The first script you write, you're going to think it's great.

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Speaker 1: You're going to think it's the one, and no one's

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Speaker 1: going to buy it, and it's not going to be

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Speaker 1: as good as you think. And by the time you

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Speaker 1: write your fifth script and look back at that, you're

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Speaker 1: going to go, oh, man, there's so much I would change.

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Speaker 1: And maybe you do. Maybe you do go back and

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Speaker 1: change it. But every writer I know goes back and

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Speaker 1: looks at their old stuff and go, yeah, it was good,

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Speaker 1: But man, I know why it didn't sell because you

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Speaker 1: get experience. So to be a successful writer, I hear.

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Speaker 1: The first thing I would say is write your ass

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Speaker 1: off right right, right, right right. If you have an

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Speaker 1: idea for a TV series, write the whole series. I'm

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Speaker 1: not joking. Make it eight episodes. If that's too much

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Speaker 1: for you, eight episodes at fifty two pages an episode.

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Speaker 1: Every time you finish a one hour, or maybe you

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Speaker 1: one a half hour, but a fifty two page script

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Speaker 1: is usually an hour long show. Write out eight episodes,

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Speaker 1: plan it out, outline it. Once you outline your beginning, middle,

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Speaker 1: and end, then you start outlining each episode. What are

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Speaker 1: the scenes going to be. What's the obstacle that the

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Speaker 1: protagonist is going to face? And what kind of person

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Speaker 1: is the protagonist? Are they the kind of person that

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Speaker 1: goes over the obstacle? Do they crush through the obstacle?

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Speaker 1: Are they good with words? Do they work their way

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Speaker 1: around the obstacle? Or are they a coward? Are they

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Speaker 1: fal Staff? Are they Shaggy and Scooby? Do they run

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Speaker 1: away from the obstacle? All these types of things will

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Speaker 1: help you break down these scenes so that when it

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Speaker 1: comes time to script them, it's already there. All you're

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Speaker 1: doing is writing dialogue. All you're doing is coming up

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Speaker 1: with cool names for characters like Jeremiah, Jericho, whatever the

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Speaker 1: cool names exist that would be in writers scripts that

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Speaker 1: we would go God, I'd never never name my kid

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Speaker 1: that anyway. You see what I'm saying, So that would

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Speaker 1: be the advice I give. But you need a lot

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Speaker 1: of friggin luck, man, you need a lot of friggin luck.

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Speaker 1: And luck is My godfather used to say this, and

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Speaker 1: I don't agree with everything you said, but I agree

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Speaker 1: with this, he said. Luck is a combination. It's a

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Speaker 1: combination of being ready when opportunity comes. So that means preparedness.

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Speaker 1: That means practice. That means write a shitload of scripts

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Speaker 1: before you think you're ready, get experience, send them to people,

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Speaker 1: get their opinion, consider their opinion. Agreed, disagree if you agree,

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Speaker 1: make changes if you disagree, just think about it. But

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Speaker 1: be prepared when opportunity comes, and people will call you

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Speaker 1: lucky your entire life. You guys, thank you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate y'all. Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see

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Speaker 1: you next Wednesday on behalf of Jeff Di I'm Freddie Prens,

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Speaker 1: Junior Peer. This has been a production of Iheart'smichael Toura

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Speaker 1: podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.