On a recent edition of his “Something To Wrestle” podcast, WWE executive Bruce Prichard discussed the origin of the Punjabi Prison Match, which was introduced at the 2006 WWE Great American Bash pay-per-view event, and the King of the Mountain match in TNA.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the Punjabi Prison Match: “Okay, the Great Khali was a prison guard in India. He was a policeman, but he was also a prison guard in India. And so we couldn’t have another Big Boss Man, but you could play off of the fact that he was a prison guard and the nasty things that he used to do to the prisoners in the prison in India. And we got to thinking, ‘Oh, well, what would a Punjabi prison look like?’ People have different ideas and different things, and then somebody came up with ‘What if it were all bamboo?’ ‘That’s interesting, we’ve never had a bamboo cage match or anything like that. You want it to look like a prison.’
“So drawings were made, and they looked pretty cool. Then it gets down to, ‘Well, what is it? We got some cool f**king drawings of s**t to put around the ring, but what is the match?’ And then, I don’t know man. Vince or somebody came up with these cockamamie f**king ideas for what the match was, that like a gate opens. And then you got five minutes there, and you can get out, and all this other s**t. To this day, it is the second most confusing, s**ttiest stipulation match in the face of God’s green earth. The worst being that King in the Mountain bulls**t that they did in TNA that to this day, I still do not understand and I think it’s the silliest thing that has ever happened in the face of professional wrestling and God knows when. So King of the Mountain is the worst. Punjabi Prison, second worst.”
On the King of the Hill match: “Explain the f**king — no, what’s a reverse ladder match? That’s the stupidest f**king thing in the world. You’re trying to capture the prize. You don’t get the prize, and they go ‘Okay here. If I could just give the prize away, then I win.’ That’s the stupidest f**king concept ever for a match. A match is trying to accomplish something. The accomplishment in this is go give it away.
“And again, Punjabi Prison match, I can’t even f**king tell you the goddamn rules to it. It’s just as stupid, so you know, I’m living in a glass house here throwing stones. But I’m telling you right now that the f**king King of the Mountain thing is worse than stupid. It’s f**king illogical.”
