Freddie Prinze Jr Wants To Start An Indie Promotion, Has Talked To TV Networks
Freddie Prinze Jr wants to really get back in the wrestling game.
With WWE releasing wrestlers nearly every month in 2021, the talent pool outside of WWE and AEW is larger than ever. For actor and former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr, he sees this as an opportunity.
“It makes me want to start a wrestling brand is what it makes me want to do,” Prinze Jr said to Ariel Helwani when asked if all the WWE releases have made him sad. “Everybody sees that and they get sad. I see it and I get hungry. I was in Karrion Kross’ DMs, for real, the day it [his release] happened. I was like, ‘Hey man, I didn’t go back to work for fun. I went back to work to invest in things.’ Imagine having Keith Lee and Karrion Kross on the same roster and making people wait to watch them fight, keeping their stories connected but separate. Even if it was just Indie shows, which is what it would have to be, I’m not trying to go in for $50 million on something, but there is so much talent out there now, that I think people would love to watch. They literally had evil Macho (Man Randy Savage) and evil Elizabeth with Karrion and Scarlett. I loved them. Then they separate them, bring him up, destroy his entire look. That kind of stuff makes me want to take my finances from one idea and put them into a brand new one, which I’ve flirted with before and maybe one day I’ll do, but when I see those releases, it makes me think about it more seriously.”
FPJ continued to discuss his displeasure of how WWE treated Kross once he hit the main roster. Kross was released by WWE on November 4.
Asked more about his desire to run a wrestling program, Prinze Jr said, “Yeah, in an independent fashion, never on a huge main scale thing. I’ve flirted with Brian Kendrick’s wrestling pro wrestling, which is basically cosplay wrestling like Kids in the Hall and Vince McMahon had a baby and if it wanted to start its own wrestling brand, it would be this. I’ve flirted with that a bit, talked to networks and TV rights and do things the Jim Cornette way, as far as the business model goes. I can’t book, so maybe I’d need help with that, but I can give a crap about the person I want you to give a crap about. It’s something I think about, often. Before I took the Netflix movie, I spoke with my accountant about, ‘Hey, if I wanted to screw around with an Indie wrestling league, what would I need to do?’ He said, ‘You need to do A, B, and C.’ I did A. I’m getting ready to do B and C. If I had like a local LA Indie show with a small TV deal, there are a thousand TV channels, I don’t care which one it is on, if I’m financing the thing they don’t have to worry about anything but getting content. It’s definitely something I’ve invested time and energy in, just no money yet.”
He finished by saying that launching the promotion in 2022 could depend on what his filming schedule looks like.
Prinze Jr. was hired by WWE in 2008 to be a writer for the company. You can read about why he left WWE by clicking here.
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