Former WWE superstar and trainer, Dr. Tom Pritchard recently took some time to participate in an exclusive interview with PWMania.com. Pritchard reveals his past training under The Iron Sheik, his relationships and thoughts on Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon among other things.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
Vince McMahon, Paul Heyman & Jim Cornette: They are all the same in sense that they had that passion and that drive for the business. I think Paul and Jim are very similar in their beliefs and they might be at the opposite spectrum at times. They both had a passion about them. I think that everybody says this and it’s true that the closest guy to Lorne Michaels on TV he just reminds you of Vince. That guy in control of everything that guy that has to know everything. I think that’s why he’s been so successful because he knows about everything going on and that’s why he will not be beat in sports entertainment by anybody. Paul is a mad genius too and some of the last promos he’s done for Brock and the build up to Wrestlemania 31 was just so great and that was all Paul Heyman. I have a ton of respect for Paul. I have a ton of respect for Jim Cornette too. Jim knows he gets passionate. He knows he gets carried away at times but that’s what makes him Jim. It’s what makes Cornette, Cornette. Not everyone is going to love him and he’s okay with that.
Training Under The Iron Sheik: What happened was I was working in the wrestling office and when I was a kid during Silver Stern high school and there was this football player wanted to try wrestling and every Friday before the matches, Gary Hart, he was the booker at the time and would bring one of the boys in with him from Dallas and talk with Paul that Friday afternoon around his matches. One Friday afternoon Gary brought The Iron Sheik who was wrestling as Mohamed Farooq back then and the football player came in and I always brought workout gear with me anyway in my trunk. Paul told me if I wanted to call him and head over to the Coliseum with Cosgrow. We went after the first two weeks the football player said to hell with it and I stuck around for about two months. I worked out with him a little bit. I got to go down to the ring in the Coliseum a little bit before the show. I hung around and got beat up and got stretched. Once again everything was different back then. It was a different business and a different way to break in back then and it was a different way to jump into the business back then. It was a different atmosphere back then and culture in the business and the country. It was something I was glad I went through because you had to break in back then in the 1970’s or 1980’s you had to know someone who knew someone that would let you in. It was a pretty closed off business back then. For me, I learned that way because it was still such a cool business. It was really intriguing even back then.
Pritchard also talks about his previous tag teams The BodyDonnas and The Heavenly Bodies and thoughts of Kevin Owens prior to Elimination Chamber. He opens up about his early influences, and the purpose of ‘The Hour Broadway’ training regimen. You can read the interview in its entirety at this link.