Brother Love

Today's post is on a bit of a relic wrestler from 90's (maybe 80's?) known as "Brother Love". Brother Love was one of WWE's stock characters, a "typical" southern baptist preacher, out to preach the word of love.

He came up recently in conversation wherein a friend quoted his famous catch-phrase "I LOOOOOOVE YEWWW". It was quite hilarious but at least one in our group looked on in a blank-stare obviously oblivious to the catch-phrase's origin. I dedicate this wiki explanation to that friend who shall remain nameless... LOL

"Bruce Prichard (born March 7, 1963) is a producer for the World Wrestling Entertainment's WWE SmackDown! brand. He is the brother of professional wrestler Tom Prichard.
Bruce Prichard is best known to television audiences as Brother Love, a red-faced smarmy, overly-charismatic "preacher" who claimed to preach not the word of God, but "the word of love." He was best known for his cheesy catchphrase of "I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YEWWWWWWWWWWW!"

"Brother Love hosted a segment on World Wrestling Federation's syndicated and cable television programs (called "The Brother Love Show"), in which he would interview wrestlers. The segment debuted June 19, 1988 on Wrestling Challenge, and would be "promoted" to the WWF's "A-show," Superstars of Wrestling, by early that fall.

The segment was patterned largely after the legendary "Piper's Pit," where Love — dressed in a white suit and tie with a red shirt — would berate face wrestlers (especially Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior) and openly support such heels as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. In fact, DiBiase was Brother Love's main "benefactor." More than once, a wrestling feud was set up because of what occurred on "The Brother Love Show" (including the Earthquake-Hulk Hogan feud of 1990 and the Jake "The Snake" Roberts-Rick Martel feuds).

Brother Love also featured prominently in WrestleMania V in 1989 where Roddy Piper "de-skirted" Brother Love of his "kilt" after taking over Piper's Pit. A year later, Sgt. Slaughter bestowed a medal upon Brother Love during SummerSlam 1990 for being the "greatest American." Brother Love was thrilled. The character of Brother Love was controversial, since he was introduced around the time of the late 1980s scandals involving televangelists including Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart (upon both of whom Prichard's character was based). Several of his segments also bordered on the lines of taste; one particular segment involved Love playing the part of a charlatan "faith healer" (where he induced an actor, pretending to be blind and crippled, to "see" and "walk" on command). The actor would proclaim, "I can see!" and "I can walk!" after obeying Love's commands.

Prichard was released from the WWF shortly after the "I Can See!" segment aired (he was "offed" when the Ultimate Warrior attacked him and beat him nearly unconscious in March 1991), although his departure was due to personal problems Prichard was having at the time. Prichard eventually went to Dallas as a manager for the Global Wrestling Federation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Prichard