Bruce Prichard Recalls Emotional Story From King Of The Ring 1998

Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson decided to dedicate an episode of their podcast to King of the Ring 1998. On the 20-year anniversary of the event, Prichard revealed an emotional backstage story which took place during the event.

Prichard also revealed that contrary to popular belief, the second big bump taken by Mick Foley was planned. “I knew the two big bumps and I knew the finish but I didn’t know what they were gonna do immediately after the bump into the ring. I’m screaming backstage for Pat Patterson,” Prichard said.

“I’m going f–king nuts and I’m angry at this point because Pat’s the agent for the match and he’s not there at Gorilla to talk me through the thing. And Jerry Briscoe comes to me and sits down and says, ‘what do you want?’ I said, ‘I’ve gotta know what the hell what we’re doing here, what was planned here, what can we cut out? What can we do? What’s going on? Where the f–k is Pat?'”

Unfortunately, the reason Pat Patterson was absent was his long-time partner had died.

“Jerry just looks at me and says, ‘he got a call about Louis.’ Louis was Pat’s partner for many many years, 35 plus years. It shut me down I looked at him and said, ‘oh my god, is Louis okay?’ Jerry just looks at me and said, ‘he’s dead.'”

Prichard continues to say the events had an impact on him. “I’m screaming like an asshole and a lunatic for Pat not knowing what had happened,” he continued.

“I think Jerry knew I don’t even know if Vince [McMahon] knew at that point. Just that calm comes over ya and it’s a surreal feeling because all this other s–t that you think is so important becomes really unimportant.”