If anyone has a sense of what Vince McMahon means to the WWE league he founded, it’s Brian Gewirtz.
Currently SVP of development at Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson-led prodco Seven Bucks Prods., Gewirtz spent 15 years working as a writer with McMahon to script the drama in and out of the ring at the wrestling empire. It’s a wild experience he recounts in his new memoir, “There’s Just One Problem: True Tales from the Former One-Time 7th Most Powerful Person in WWE.”
Now that McMahon has retired in the wake of a scandal that could impact the future of WWE, Gewirtz believes his former company is in good hands under the triumvirate of its current overseers, co-CEOs Nick Khan and Vince’s daughter, Stephanie McMahon, as well as her husband, chief creative officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
“I think they’ve been put in a position where it’s not like Vince is gone and all of a sudden it’s the scene from ‘Airplane!’ — ‘Does anyone know how to fly a plane?’ — and it’s just mass panic and they’re waving their arms and screaming,” said Gewirtz on the latest episode of PvNew’s “Strictly Business” podcast. “They’re put in a position to now show their worth. And I think if it is any indication of the past month or two, they’re doing just that.”
Gewirtz also dishes on what it’s been like to move from one larger-than-life wrestling legend to another: former grappler Johnson, who became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. At Seven Bucks, Gewirtz works on all TV projects associated with Johnson, including the NBC sitcom “Young Rock,” where he’s an executive producer, as well as a new documentary on early wrestling history that premieres this week on Vice TV, “Tales From the Territories.”
“He is not a movie-star-with-a-production-company, hands-off producer,” said Gewirtz. “Anything that comes out of Seven Bucks is going to be associated with him.”
“Strictly Business” isPvNew’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. A new episode debuts each Wednesday and can be downloaded on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
