Bruce Prichard has revealed new details about the emotional conversation he shared with Vince McMahon just weeks before his unexpected return to WWE in 2019.
Speaking on his Something to Wrestle podcast, Prichard described what he believed would be a final, private goodbye to McMahon during a secret late-night meeting in Phoenix.
In January 2019, Prichard was in Phoenix for WWE live events, while McMahon was in town ahead of the Royal Rumble. Although hesitant to attend the show, Prichard agreed to meet McMahon discreetly at his hotel room late at night to avoid drawing attention.
“We sat up in his room and talked about everything under the sun, very little about business, other than really what I was doing,” Prichard said. “I look at my watch, it is five o’clock in the morning, oh God, my flight leaves in an hour and 15 minutes. I gotta go.”
Prichard explained that the five-hour conversation served as a moment of closure for him. At the time, his podcast was thriving, and he felt financially and professionally secure without returning to WWE. As the meeting came to an end, Prichard shared words he felt he needed to say after years of unresolved emotions.
“I gave him a big hug, shook his hand and thanked him for everything, and said, ‘I love that we had this whole conversation And we spent all this time together and caught up, and I’m not asking you for a job, and I am more comfortable and more confident now that I know that I will never ever work with you again,’” Prichard recalled. “And I’m good with it. Love you, love you, goodbye.”
When asked whether the meeting helped resolve lingering feelings from his earlier departure, Prichard confirmed that it was deeply therapeutic.
“It was closure, it was cathartic, and I think I owed, I owed. I owed him that, I owed him saying that to him and myself,” Prichard said.
Despite believing that chapter was closed, Prichard would return to WWE just months later. He has since resumed public appearances and, after a year-long hiatus, returned to the Something to Wrestle podcast in November 2025, continuing to offer behind-the-scenes insight into WWE’s creative history.