Bruce Prichard recently looked back on one of the most valuable lessons he learned in the wrestling business while speaking with Cody Rhodes on his podcast. The longtime WWE executive was asked about the best advice he ever received from legendary Houston promoter Paul Bosch, and his answer focused on the importance of truly listening to the audience.

“Paul listened to the audience… You’re listening to the people that are buying the tickets, and that’s key. Listen to the folks that are buying tickets and watching the television show, not the ones that just want to critique it. They will tell you what’s working and what isn’t working. And you can either take the opinion of, ‘Well, I know better than them,’ or you can have that open mind and say, ‘Wow, I didn’t look at it like that.’ If you listen, the audience will always help you and tell you what’s working and what isn’t working. You just have to be honest enough and open enough to listen. I think that was an important thing that Paul did.

Paul loved to come out and talk to the people buying tickets, find out what they were into. ‘What do you like? Who’s your favorite? Really? Why? Who do you not like? Is there anybody out there you’d like to see?’ He would listen, and then he would say, ‘Okay, hey, Bruce, find this guy,’ or whatever. Then we would go in search of that. So you would bring the audience what they were clamoring for. And our job is to piss them off at times, too. If you piss them off, that’s good, you just don’t want to piss off the audience in the wrong way. Listening is the best advice I’ve ever gotten from the most successful people before me.”

Prichard explained that Bosch’s hands-on approach shaped the way he understood booking, as the promoter not only engaged with fans but also actively adjusted the product to give them what they wanted while keeping them invested.