Backstage Drama, Wrestler’s Court & Getting Hired by Vince | Reading the Ring Ep. 1

Welcome to the first-ever episode of Reading the Ring, where wrestling is real — and books are too.
This week, we crack open There's Just One Problem by Brian Gewirtz, the one-time 7th most powerful person in WWE (his words, not ours). In this debut installment, Xavier takes you on a deep dive through the first four chapters, including:

• 🧑‍⚖️ A real-life “Wrestler’s Court” session — featuring Kane as bailiff, JBL as prosecutor, and the Undertaker literally judging people.
• 🪪 How Brian got hired by Vince McMahon (spoiler: it involved nepotism, fast food, and one extremely awkward meeting).
• 📺 His first day at WWE, featuring chaos, no introductions, and a DX burn line that made air.
• 👑 Why TV time — not the championship — is the real gold in wrestling.

📚 Plus: fan stories, writing gigs gone wrong, and the moment Gewirtz almost became a secret shopper for Jack in the Box instead of changing wrestling forever.

Whether you’re a longtime fan or just stepping into the squared circle, we’re breaking down this book chapter by chapter every Monday — so grab a snack, hit play, and let’s get literary about body slams.

👉 Watch now or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
📖 Next week: Chapters 5–9 a.k.a. The Golden (and Unhinged) Era.

#ReadingTheRing #BrianGewirtz #WrestlingBookClub #NewToWrestling #WrestlingHistory #WWEBackstage #WrestlersCourt #VinceMcMahon #AttitudeEra #WWEBooks #ProWrestlingPodcast

The New To Wrestling Podcast follows two friends who enjoy wrestling but are in different stages of their fandom. Xavier Cruz serves as your guide through generations of professional wrestling while Kelsey Silva experiences these matches for the first time. Climb into the ring weekly to relive the famous matches beginning with the Attitude Era!

Transcript

Xavier [0:00 - 32:00]: Hello everyone and welcome to the very first edition of Reading the Ring where wrestling is real and books are two. My name is Xavier Cruz. I am one of the hosts of the New to wrestling podcast which this book club is in association of where the goal is we are going to take you through one wrestling book a month and weekly on Mondays you will catch a chunk video of me kind of going through whatever has been assigned that week. So for our first book we are reading there's just one problem. True tales from the former one time seventh most powerful person in WWE Brian Go Wirtz. This is thus far has been super enjoyable and kind of a fascinating kind of background backstage look into what it is like to be a writer during one of the most act. Well yeah, one of the most popular times in the WW E. History. So let's get into it without further ado. All right guys. So chapter one is there is called there's just one problem and this is interesting because it drops us in to a kind of very discussed rumored about kind of event in wrestling lore which is the wrestler's court. It takes us to post WrestleMania 17. If you are not an avid wrestling fan that is widely considered one of if not the best WrestleManias to have ever been put on. Definitely one of the more populars based on the card that it had. And it is kind of a way. It's kind of like an HR run by the people for the people. Wrestlers court is lay a way to uphold violations of the wrestlers code which is like unwritten rules just in the workplace. We all have them, we all know them. It is a little bit kind of just interesting to hear about what the etiquette of being a WWE Superstar or those that that kind of work for the wwe like what that kind of entails because it's such a weird, weird job. I can't imagine that anybody that works in that company is. Has the most normal route in their fields, you know what I mean? Even like if you worked TV your entire life. I imagine working TV for WWE is different. Even if you've been a like television writer your entire life. Clearly we're finding out writing for WWE is different if you've been a performer, an actor, you know, like it's. It's the same thing. It's. The WWE is its own beast and professional wrestling is its own beast. So I'm thoroughly enjoying thus far this kind of like backstage look. So it takes us into Brian getting dragged into Wrestlers court and where he proudly owns I guess the the honor of being the first writer to ever have to face the court. Basically the crime is that a wrestler by the name of Bob Holly witnessed an exchange of a gift between Edge and Christian and Brian Gewirtz, our. Our trusted author. And he took that to be a kind of a bribe, a tit for tat. Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. A gift in exchange for TV time, which in the of television generally, but in professional wrestling specifically, is the real gold that everybody is vying after. We, we think and on television it is the WWE Championship or, you know, whatever championship in the wwe. But no, it's TV time. It's minutes and seconds because those are how you connect to audiences and make a name for yourself. So it is very, very. It's a hot commodity. And wrestlers vie over it just as much behind the scenes as they do in the ring for things. So there was an exchange of an action figure. Bob Holly saw it. Bob did not like Brian and had a confrontation in front of everyone. And the, basically the myth, the gist of this trial was that he was getting a little too chummy with the talent and he needed to kind of like take a step back. So he was forewarned by somebody to bring kind of like pizza and like alcohol as like an apology. So he shows up to this event where all, all of the wrestlers are as well as like production people. He shows up with pizza and beer. Clearly not enough for the room. He's embarrassed. He has no idea what's going on. He's walking into pretty much an assault, which is, you know, hey, baptism by fire, I think. But he did notice that there was another writer in the room and he took great offense to this and had him removed. Jamie Morri looked a little too pleased with the situation, so he had to be removed. So to paint the picture of the court, we have jbl, John Bradshaw, Layfield taking the. The position of the prosecutor. Kane is playing the bailiff, which seems fitting to me. Don't know why, but it just does. And the Undertaker, being the locker room leader that he has always known to be, is the judge and jury. So this poor writer is getting dragged to a tribunal in front of all of the people that he writes for and also writes like against. Because if we are putting this into context, he is writing for wrestlers to essentially incite a fight between other wrestlers, which usually entails taking shots at other wrestlers in the process. So you can imagine that sometimes in that process, some feelings are going to be hurt and some feelings are going to be held on to. And this is very much kind of one of those situations where you can kind of allow people to just kind of run up their grievances, especially in a group setting. We know how. I think the comedian George Carlin says it best. Like, he's like, I love. I love people individually. A person is great. People are dumb. And that's kind of just like, you know, people like to feed into each other. So this is kind of the situation that we're presented with. Of course, there is Edge and Christian, who is also a part of this, but you also have to take into account that they are wrestlers. They're a little bit more chummy with everybody else, so they're kind of getting the buy in this situation engine. Christian joked about getting a book deal, and they were like, of course, trying to ruffle feathers because they're newer on the scene at this point. And there's lots of people who've been there forever didn't get any book tea. Book deals titled Edge and Christian how to Kiss Ass. And of course, that got, you know, like a. A laugh from the boys, a buy. And then, of course, Brian had to get his time in the hot seats and just. It was brutal. We have. He had to, like, essentially take shots from, uh, people like Triple H, Bob Holly, obviously, also Paul Heyman, who kind of threw him under the bus a little bit. So I thought this chapter was great. I thought it was, like, really, really fantastic. Of course, it kind of ends with him being adjudicated by. By the Undertaker. And it was kind of just. Again, it was more for him to learn the lesson that there are lines that he probably shouldn't cross being a writer. And he has to play fair for everybody. But he also took it as a sign that they wouldn't show the tough love if they didn't care. They want him to be better, which is why they kind of put him through this, which is, I guess, kind of a weird mentality to kind of, like, look at especially. And I can also see how it could be definitely go too far, how it could be taken too far. But, I mean, I guess in this instance, it was kind of like a, hey, we would like to bring you along, but you up at work. So we're gonna tell you that you up at work. So then that takes us into chapter two, which is called I am the Mountie, which is a reference to, of course, the wrestler of the Mountie. Like, bigger, not bigger. In the late 80s, early 90s, you know, just. Just your classic bad guy from a place it drops U.S. writers room with Bill Goldberg and the Rock in 2003. And it's kind of just like them spitballing ideas about what their first confrontation is going to be like. And this is great. I love this. If we know in WWE today, they are literally, like, days away from releasing WWE Unreal, which is essentially just. And a television version of what I'm assuming this book is going to be a kind of inside the writers room look at these moments that we as wrestling fans kind of eat up. So it's cool to kind of hear the back and forth of them exchanging the ideas of what they kind of, like, settle on. Of course, it seems like it's just kind of Bill being unreasonable as far as going back and forth with ideas until he settles on something he kind of likes. And then it kind of like drops us into. Be like a. One of those, like, Emperor's New Groove moments where it's like, Like, I bet you're wondering, like, how I got here. And it was essentially kind of just the plot or like the. The. The. The writing device to kind of take us into a flashback, into, like, okay, we got the story of him doing the wrestler's court, but, like, how does this dude end up in the wwe? So of course, we have to take. He quotes Vince McMahon and he says, you often, to go forward, you have to take a giant step back. So he takes us all the way back to 1985, to his formative years of becoming a wrestling fan, which, of course, if you are a fan of the New to Wrestling podcast, is very in line with this. We, me, being the longtime wrestling fan, have experienced many of many a moment just like this, and I aim to bring as many people along that journey with me through things like this, the book club, as well as the show. So he goes back and talks about Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper and being like, 11 years old and developing into a Roddy fan, even though Roddy's the bad guy. And as a kid, you know, you're not supposed to root for the bad guy. And for the first time, this thing that kind of captured his attention, and it was the referee taking a bump, the referee, like, being knocked out of commission for the first time. And how that kind of just that little thing, that little nuanced moment in the wrestling match kind of wowed him and caught his attention and really kind of shows kind of the. The little things that he would end up, you know, utilizing later on in being a writer. So he talks about going to Syracuse University and how, of course, like, like most kind of. I feel like everybody has this kind of phase where we're, we're kids, we love wrestling, we're all about it. We grow up, we like, you know, we get busy, we get, we develop other interests as is healthy to do until somebody, we come across somebody just drags us right back in. And for Brian it was Mike Connor, his roommate who was a huge wrestling fan. And they end up going, getting back into wrestling because how could you not? It's just impossible not to. It drags you back in. He talks about the like Ric Flair winning the Royal Rumble in 92, how he enjoyed Bob Backlin's heel run and how meeting Bob Backlin later confirmed that he is actually a little wacky kooky and who's, who's shocked if you know about Backlin, if you've seen the show, the man is wild. Go. If not, just Google a Bob Backlin compilation. I know they exist. I know they're somewhere. I know. So you won't be disappointed. And he also goes into talking about becoming a huge Owen Hart fan and how he always kind of loved the secondary character characters more than the main characters because he always thought that there was more depth to them. And he's not, not wrong because you can always kind of do a little bit more with your secondary characters when you have a little bit more freedom to do a little bit more with them because there's not as many eyes on them necessarily. There's not as much pressure to get it right. So you kind of find that these, the kind of mid card people end up having a lot more diverse kind of story lines. So he ends up becoming a huge fan of Owen Hart and he catches him at a house show and there he's with a bunch of his friends, they're chanting for Owen. Owen kind of like acknowledges them in the crowd and then he talks about his friend like finding them like getting into their rental car and chasing after them and kind of gushing over Owen all the while Jeff Jared is in his car also. And, and I love that. That's kind of very fitting for again if you watch the show, it's just kind of funny. So then that takes us into him going to the, the following couple WrestleManias and that those kind of formative fan experience. So your WrestleMania 10, that's your Owen versus Brett. So your WrestleMania 11, that's he talks about Diesel and all of the celebrities involved and then talks about getting into writing for sitcoms, getting out of college and how he being related to Hollywood writer Howard Gowards opened the nepotism doors. Hey, I'm not surprised. But hey, I'd use it also. So cool. Glad. So we see how that goes. He ends up becoming a staff writer on Jenny, which is starring Jenny McCarthy, which didn't really last very long, but hey, you know, writing credits are writing credits. During that show, though, he talks about the life lesson that his uncle kind of imparted on him that ended up being the most useful in terms of the wwe. And that is like the need to be more vocal in presenting your ideas and being able to present your ideas confidently and in a way that is able to be like digested by a room. You know, you just gotta kind of have to get in there, sink or swim. Because like my choir teacher used to say, like, you can't fix what you can't hear. You don't know it's a good idea. Nobody can hear you. So then he goes on to talk about how like Vince can like sniff weakness and inev. In every instance we've talked about Vince McMahon, we've known, it's kind of the machismo bravado thing is he's just kind of leads with that. And that is kind of what he takes from the wrestling world and applies in his everyday kind of life. So he said that he can kind of like smell weakness or like hesitation. Just not confident audience. So he talks about kind of Jenny getting canceled and then being an out of work writer and then kind of stumbling into a fortuitous WWE week that was happening in June of 1999 on MTV. They were doing a bunch of specials leading up to SummerSlam 99. And that takes us into chapter three, which is MTV fasts and fast food espionage. So this is the summer of 1999. MTV is, is trying to promote SummerSlam on the behalf of the WWE. They're doing a little partnership deal. You know how it goes. And at this point, of course, nepotism works his way again, gets him the job. But he talks about how at this, before this opportunity presented itself, he was about to essentially be a secret shopper for Jack in the Box. And before he could even start that job, he quits and takes this kind of writing gig doing these kind of specials on MTV for the wwe. So during that, he kind of meets Triple H, Mick Foley and the Rock. He does not have a very good interaction with Triple H because China is there and he doesn't have anything prepared for China, which of course Triple H notices. And then he has a better kind of instance with Mick Foley. And then the thing that kind of really sets his WWE career in motion is his working with the Rock. The Rock is impressed by him. They let. He enjoys working with him. He actually suggests for him to. To work for the WWE if he's ever thought about it. And of course, who wouldn't take that opportunity? So Brian kind of gets a call from the WWE HR based on that recommendation from the Rock, and he has to go through four interviews. The first one with hr the second with right head writers at the time, Vince Russo and ed Ferreira, the third interview being with Shane McMahon, and then the last interview being with Vince and Linda McMahon. Man. So basically he's like, not really, for some reason, not really like about taking this job maybe, because at this point he's really thought he was gonna like, be an A writer in Hollywood, and that was the goal. He wanted to be like his uncle. So this job, like, wasn't. He wasn't taking too seriously or wasn't taking the opportunity too seriously. So he kind of like fumbles his way through the H interview and the interview with Vince Russo and Shane McMahon, and they're none too impressed. He gets incredibly lucky in that Vince McMahon ends up being alone in this last interview, and they kind of just hit it off. They bond over wrestling. They talk about kind of the things that wrestling is as far as being the amalgamation of, you know, so many aspects of entertainment, being it. Like, it's theater, it's a stunt show, it's a concert. Sometimes it's, you know what I mean? It's also like, it's high drama, it's comedy, it's a sketch comedy. Like, it's a lot. It's a lot of things at any given point, and they kind of bond over that. And so he just kind of impresses Vince and it kind of shows Vince his passion for the business, which obviously is going to go a long way. And he goes and says, we'll make you an offer we can't refuse. So he's going to get an offer from the wwe. It's just a matter of what it ends up being an opportunity for WWE.com which he doesn't end up taking because that's not the goal at the moment. If he's not going to write for tv, then he's certainly not going to pack up his life in LA and move the way to the east coast to do, like, online stuff. So then that takes us to October of 99. Russo and Ferrero end up leaving for WCW, as we know. This is kind of right before Smackdown is about to become a thing and they are very, very frustrated or not. Let me backtrack that. That is not. It is like smackdown had recently, like just begun. They were kind of having a hard time with all the responsibilities and a lack of payment for the new responsibilities as far as a whole new show. So they leave for wcw, wwe. HR calls Brian to move out to Connecticut. Basically just, we will pick up your whole life, move out to WWE to write for us. And he talks about missing the east coast and he just goes, I'm in. And that takes us into chapter four, which is his first day on the job. He talks about his this kind of line from Vince about treating every day at the WWE like it's your first day on the job. As in, don't get too cocky, don't get too eager, don't think you know it all. Just be willing to learn, be a sponge, be helpful and kind of be like a team first employee. Because especially at this time, they're in the thick of a battle with wcw. So they're very much a tight knit unit kind of making their way through business and competition from somebody, some other company with a lot of money behind it. So this takes us to his first day on the job, which is November 1, 1999. He gets stopped by security getting into the building, which is of course a promising start. And he sits in on our Raw production meeting where he ends up like sitting at like the head of the room. And he's so awkward and introverted that he doesn't introduce himself at all. And then Vince was running late with his entourage of people, the other McMahons and you know, slew of producers, and doesn't introduce him, doesn't introduce him to anybody. So he's just kind of sitting up there with this dick in his hand, just kind of like watching the room, watch him being like, who is that guy? And so he kind of got his first peek as to how like Raw was done. Like, Vince walks in with like a hastily written, like note, breaks down the show for everybody and then they like hop to. Shane versus Triple H is going to be like the main event. Stephanie luckily takes, I guess, pity on this man's and gives him like a backstage tour, kind of shows him where everything is, allows him to be kind of like patient. Someone asks him if they're like, if he's ready to go on to the next city because smackdown gets filmed the next day on Tuesday, and he's like, oh, I didn't realize that that was the case again, first Day on the job, so all his stuff is in his hotel room. He didn't think he was going to be leaving from work to a new city. So he, instead of asking Stephanie, who's been helpful to him the entire day, runs up to Vince McMahon, who's literally about to go be on like, multiple parts of the show. And it's like, hey, like, is it cool if I, like, go home, get my stuff? Like, that's crazy. Like, asking the CEO of like, a ridiculously huge wrestling company if you can, like, dip and get your stuff on the first day of the job is crazy. But hey, he survives it, I guess. So he finally figures out that, like, he's supposed, apparently supposed to be riding with the McMahons. So he rides in there, Shane's driving. Apparently Shane speeds, not surprised. And they're kind of just. He learns that, like, the life with the McMahons is like, go, go, go. So, like, they get to the next city that like, evening in the wee hours of the morning call time is 8am the next day, to start writing the next show. For some reason, he believed that they, they had written it already. I don't know what about the napkin gave him that impression. But hey, but hey, we'll, we'll give it to him. And then we cut to like, the show evening. And Vince is kind of like looking for a line that he can kind of throw out to counter the offer to join D Generation X and he can't like, really, like, think of one. And Brian sees his opportunity in the lesson that he learned from his uncle. And he says, oh, why don't you say you'd rather join WCW than join D Generation X? And he says, he talks about getting the reaction from the crowd for the first time and how that nothing that he has done since then has real in as far as like a writing goes, has kind of gives you that kind of live reaction. It's just kind of impossible to recreate. So then that takes us kind of like back to his like, hotel room for the evening. He gets a call from the Tommy Blanchett, which is the other, the only other writer essentially on the team at this point. And he says that the McMahons like him and to kind of keep this under the table. But Stone Cold Steve Austin has a broken neck, won't know if he'll be able to wrestle ever again, and they're gonna have to figure out how to write him off of television. Like, welcome to work. And that's kind of how we end chapter four. Just kind of leading us into how to navigate writing off wrestling's biggest star off of its television show. Guys, this was a lot of fun to read. If you are unaware or if you prefer an audiobook. If you have Spotify premium, it is available on there because I did it kind of two like in halvesies. I listened to half of it, I read half of it. But one of my jobs involves packing a lot of things so I have the time to, to give it a listen. So if you're looking for kind of a place to find it, if you wanted an audiobook that is one place available. I am enjoying it so far. I like, I have no complaints really about like the writing styles. He kind of just seems like a, a like a cheesy like middle aged white guy thus far. He just seems kind of like a nerdy wrestling fan. So again, like nothing, nothing too like out of the ordinary like just yet. I'm enjoying the kind of backs backstage peak like into everything. And I'm kind of excited to see kind of where this goes because I know it's not going to be all kind of peaches and rainbows thus far. So next week we are going into week two, which is the golden and completely unhinged era. So that's going to be chapters five through nine. It's about 80 pages. This week was about like 75. And then we're gonna get that gets into life on the road with WWE talent stories featuring Jericho Edge, Stephanie McMahon and then Big wins and flops. I'm excited to hear like some of the flops that were his, his ideas and kind of what wins were kind of attributed to him. I'm very curious to see like what he was kind of actually responsible for because I really don't know anything about him because why, no offense, no offense to the writers of television who really knows that much about y', all, which is probably by design, probably why you enjoy being behind the screen instead of telling it on it. But still very, very exciting stuff. Guys, thank you so much for joining the very first episode of Reading the Ring. I hope you'll join me on this journey. I'll catch you next Monday by.