Remarkably, Bruce Prichard started in the wrestling business at 10 years old. He and his brother, Dr. Tom helped out their neighborhood Territory - Paul Boesch’s Houston Wrestling. At 10, he was selling posters, he was helping to direct TV by 12 and 14. He was still almost ten years away from working for Vince.
While most fans now know Bruce Prichard more for being Vince’s right-hand man (and unfortunately, critics will call him the top sycophant) to his award-winning podcast (that helped to start an empire), he spent a few years as Brother Love. He pulled double duty for the first few years of his career until McMahon told him - choose being on the road with The Undertaker or being fully backstage with me creating content for everyone.
10 Million Dollar Man Was His Benefactor
Backstage, Prichard and Ted DiBiase were good buddies and even have a story or two where they had to find The Million Dollar Belt. Up in front of the camera, the two heels played of each other well several times on The Brother Love Show.
Brother Love had no problem telling the WWE Universe that it was Ted DiBiase that ponied up some of his never ending well of wealth to sponsor the show and help style Brother Love in all sorts of gold rings.
9 Had To Show The Gimmick To Vince McMahon
In an early discussion with Vince McMahon, both men jested that they were in the wrong business and those phony televangelist faith healers were the real Carnies. It gave Prichard the idea that a character like that would work in WWE and Brother Love was born.
There was just one problem - Prichard wanted to play the character himself, and after he pitched it to Vince, The Chairman asked who could fill that role and balked at Prichard playing the role. To sell the boss on him playing the gimmick, he inadvertently barged in on a meeting between Vince and The CFO. Rather than sheepishly walk away, he went for it and the rest is history.
8 Sister Love
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Every so often, ideas were pitched to put Brother Love back on television. One such idea involved The Queen Of Extreme, ECW alumni, Francine.
According to Francine, she was barely beginning her ECW run when Ed Cohen gave her a ring and wanted her to come in for a shot where she’d be painted red and become Sister Love. She had felt she was just starting to be accepted in ECW and decided against the idea. Obviously, the entire gimmick was scrapped.
7 The Sisters Of Love
Another attempt at bringing Brother Love back to TV was a manager for Mosh and Thrasher, The Headbangers. Only they had actually come in as The Sisters Of Love or The Flying Nuns.
The wrestled as the gimmick on early versions of Shotgun Saturday Night. The trio even filmed vignettes at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. But before the team could really get going they were repackaged as The Headbangers.
6 Returning To The WWE
Despite being gone from the company for a decade, Prichard's popularity was rising in the wrestling community, thanks in part to the Something To Wrestle podcast.
Heading into Raw 25, a poll was put on WWE.com asking fans which superstar they were most exciting for seeing - Brother Love had won the poll. While he only appeared in a backstage segment, Brother Love got the biggest pop of the night, except for Stone Cold Steve Austin.
5 Miracle Healing
One of the most charming things about the wrestling business is that it’s real. Or at least there was a time when plenty of die-hard fans believed it to be real. Which is what makes this one funny and a little sad for the person involved. On one segment of the show, Brother Love wanted to use the healing power of love to cure a man’s blindness. Nowadays, we’d all know it was a plant, and we’d all be in on the act.
But back then, not so much. He healed a man’s blindness and need for a wheelchair all in one fell swoop. Plenty of people on the internet claim that this is the reason he got fired in 1991. While that wasn’t the case, it still wasn’t a good day when months later, somehow the footage aired and one of the fan reactions that was cut to were people in the actual handicap section.
4 Richard Tilton Was Inspiration
While there were plenty of televangelists’ material to cull from when formulating the Brother Love character, Prichard had cited one in particular as being the inspiration.
When traveling the territories with Eddie Gilbert, the two found The Success-N-Life show hosted by Robert Tilton. The guy was a true huckster and actually convinced devotees to fork over their hard-earned cash.
3 Ric Flair Was Set To Debut At SummerSlam '88
During the first ever SummerSlam, The Brother Love Show was a big part of the proceedings. He had interviewed the returning Hacksaw Jim Duggan and got a few lumps from The Hall of Famer too. If you’re scratching your head as to why this was such a big deal - it wasn’t.
But it was supposed to be. Prior to the show, two guests were pitched. One of them was Jessica Hahn, who had accused televangelist Jim Baker of assault. The other guest would have been far cooler from a wrestling standpoint - a fed up Ric Flair, was possibly going to leave Crockett.
2 Had To Choose Between Bruce Prichard And Brother Love
When The Undertaker debuted at the 1990 Survivor Series, he had Brother Love in tow. The pairing was a stark contrast between the all-white wearing purveyor of love and the black-clad Deadman. The two ran down the roads together for a few months.
But behind the scenes, Bruce Prichard was still at Vince's right hand, crafting storylines for every character, not just Brother Love. The reason Paul Bearer was introduced was due to Vince forcing Prichard to make a choice between playing the character and staying on as one of the writers.
1 Back On The Road In 2003
When Rowdy Piper returned to the company in 2003, naturally Piper’s Pit did too. New editions of The Pit were advertised for House Shows all over.
But when Piper got let go, the WWE needed to have an equal or better replacement. Enter The Brother Love Show. To spice things up, Vince McMahon said that he would be the guest for these shows to further his feud with Zack Gowen.