The secrets of writing for WWE and a professional wrestling company: A conversation with Brian Gewirtz, senior vice president of development at Seven Bucks Productions and the former head writer for the WWE

Sports Media with Richard Deitsch

Audacy

News, Business News, Sports, Sports News

4.3 • 721 Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2022

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Episode 231 of the Sports Media Podcast features a conversation with Brian Gewirtz, a senior vice president of development at Seven Bucks Productions, which is a production company co-founded by Dwayne Johnson and his producing partner, Dany Garcia. Gewirtz is the author of the new book, “There’s Just One Problem: True Tales From The Former, One-Time Seventh Most Powerful Person In WWE.” In this podcast Gewirtz discusses his history working for the WWE as a writer from 1999 to 2015; the skills and temperament one needs to write for a professional wrestling company; the similarities between writing for a sitcom and for WWE; how one writes for someone who on face is so different than them; advice for getting a pro wrestling writing job; writing for The Rock and Kurt Angle; Vince McMahon’s departure from WWE over alleged sexual misconduct; how one should view McMahon today; why Gewirtz wanted to write this book and how he approached it; working on the original XFL product; whether what is happening with AEW's MJF is a shoot or work; returning to the WWE when Rock is part of that production; working with Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins; how the WWE might be different in a post-Vince era, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.8	But yeah, you know, you really need to put your ego aside because there are no credits on the front or the back.
0:36.1	You never hear, you know, when a segment goes well, it's like, oh, my God, that rock
0:42.2	segment was awesome or that, you know, Jericho segment was awesome.
0:46.0	They don't say like, oh, the blank name of the writer's segment really killed it.
0:50.5	When a segment goes south, you know, whether, I mean, there's the online reaction, of course,
0:55.5	but even internally, it's like Vince wants to see you at guerrilla position, you know, the backstage
1:01.3	area right before you go through the curtain.
1:03.6	You know, occasionally the talent too, but there's a lot of pressure on you to deliver because
1:08.6	you're only as good as your last show.
1:10.1	So you really don't have the ability to be like writing high.
1:13.5	There are so many times I could point out like the high of a previous show
1:18.5	and then failing spectacularly the next week.
1:46.4	Hey, everybody. This is Richard Dich, and welcome to the sports media podcast. My producer is Patrick Antonetti. I was very excited to have this guest on the podcast, and the conversation was terrific. I really enjoyed it. I hope you do as well. Brian Gowertz is a senior vice president of development at seven bucks productions.
1:54.1	That's the production company co-founded by Dwayne Johnson, obviously probably more well-known as The Rock, and his producing partner, Danny Garcia.
2:03.3	And Brian Gowertz was a WWE writer from 1999 to 2015 and a head writer at that company. He has written a new book.
2:09.8	There's just one problem. True Tales from the former one-time seventh most powerful person in WWE. And it gives great insight into what his job was. And it was a fascinating one for sure.
	...

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