On the latest edition of “Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard”, podcast host Bruce Prichard talks The Radicalz jumping ship from WCW to WWE. You can listen to the entire podcast at this link, and below are some quotes from Prichard.
On Hearing About the Radicalz Release from WCW:
I got a call from Perry Saturn, who contacted me and stepped outside of the production meeting, took the phone call. Perry had explained to me the night before of what happened at the (Souled Out WCW) ppv. I had not seen the ppv, where Benoit won the title and Sullivan was in charge; “they” being the talent in WCW. They faxed over a release very shortly. They faxed over their release to the Office. My assistant got it to us, and right down to the Lawyers and they looked at it, and we talked to them right afterwards. He explained that everybody has offered their release, and the guys were all best friends [Saturn, Malenko, Guerrero, Benoit]. They traveled together, ate together, did everything together, and all four wanted to come and he made it a point that if we didn’t have anything for him [Saturn], Eddie [Guerrero], or Dean [Malenko], if we could please take [Chris] Benoit, and as a matter of fact, every single guy made that same statement, except for Benoit of course. All three of the guys made it a point to say, hey, if you’re not interested in us, please do something for Chris. I guess they felt that Chris was in a rough situation there with Kevin and Nancy Sullivan, and Chris wanted out.
On Meeting the Radicalz In Person:
I talked to Vince about it and let him know that the four guys were available, and he just wanted to make sure that they were free and clear, and not to talk to any of them until they receive their release. We set up a meeting afterwards and to get those guys as soon as possible after they were officially released. In WCW, the group was called “Revolution,” which consisted of Shane Douglas, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, and Chris Benoit. With this set of group Eddie Guerrero was not part of the group. Shane was not included in any of the conversations when we spoke with the four guys. They didn’t bring his name up until after the fact when Shane heard that the guys were up there in Connecticut. No one had brought Shane up into the conversation until the rumblings were made, and they made it very clear that anybody else to say that they were part of the group, weren’t. It was just the four, and the four guys were reiterating that. The guys came in and met them at the Sheraton Hotel, I believe Jim Ross was with me, and brought them back into the Office after hours. We had dinner at the Sheraton, and we talked. The whole thing was to get them in front of Vince to get everybody talking.
On Vince Meeting Eddie Guerrero For the First Time:
They all made it clear that they would all like to come to WWE. From us, I can give you my vantage point that I wanted all four, Vince wanted all four, and JR wanted all four. The funniest comment that was made was when Vince finally met Eddie Guerrero and Vince said, “He’s so tiny!” I remember saying, yeah, but he’s the Mexican Shawn Michaels. Vince kind of shook his head the way he did and said again, “He’s so tiny!” I don’t think Vince was expecting that. Eddie wasn’t the tallest guy in the arena, he was a big boy, and had heart and looked like a million bucks. Eddie’s personality was 100 feet tall. His personality was huge.
