-- Lucha Libre Online recently conducted an interview with Eric Bischoff. Below are notable highlights:
1- Eric Bischoff revealed in an interview with Lucha Libre Online's Michael Morales Torres which are the wrestlers that can be the next marquee names and work as the ambassadors of the whole pro wrestling industry. He added that no talent will reach the status of a marquee name in pro wrestling due to WWE's current business model.
Eric Bischoff: "Oh sure. I think there's quite a few. I think certainly Drew McIntyre falls into that category. Roman Reigns without a doubt falls into that category. I've always been a very strong supporter of Dolph Ziggler as an example. Cody Rhodes is certainly a very articulate individual that presents the industry in a very positive way. He could probably feel comfortable in a boardroom, a corporate environment or in a locker room. So I think Cody is probably one of the younger talents out there now that can certainly grow into that that position. In fact, he's already in that position. So I think he's going to continue to grow in the position that he's in. But it's not about if the talent has the ability, it's whether or not the company is going to give them that ability or that opportunity. In my opinion and this is going to sound like I'm being critical and I'm really not, it's my opinion that WWE made a decision a long time ago that no talent is going to become a bigger star than the company itself. Meaning no name is going to be more valuable to the wrestling audience than the WWE name or the WWE brand in the past. You've had wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin, for example. They built the entire company around you and when things didn't go well, and there were personal issues, and legal issues, and contractual issues, Steve took his ball on one home. That's a very tough position to put the company into. So it wouldn't surprise me that at some point, Vince McMahon made up his mind that he would never allow anyone talent to become so powerful that he or she would put WWE in a secondary position. I think that's one of the reasons why you see a lot of top talent. Drew McIntyre is a great example. Roman Reigns is another great example. Either one or both of them could be that talent could be 'the face of the company' as people like to refer to as. Do I think either one of them will get there? I don't. Not because they don't have the ability, but because I don't think the business model for WWE wants it".
2- Eric Bischoff revealed in an interview with Lucha Libre Online's Michael Morales Torres his opinion on the current way to book the Latin American wrestlers by main companies like WWE and AEW compared to what he and WCW were doing.
Eric Bischoff: "Look that's hard for me to say because unless you are working in creative behind the scenes on a full-time basis, it's really hard to understand. What are the goals of the company? What are the goals of the television network? What are the goals of the audience? What are the goals of the advertiser? Those are all really important things that one needs to know before one can judge how talent is being used or what's the right way or the wrong way. I can tell you that I think one of the things that Nitro was known for, WCW and myself was the fact that we put a lot of emphasis on luchadores and talent from Mexico. We brought them in and allowed them to wrestle their styles and not ask them to wrestle in the American Style. We let them bring a lot of the culture from Lucha Libre into the American product and put it on national television on prime time. Nobody had ever seen that before. Not on an American Network to that extent. I think because we were the first ones to do it that we enjoyed a certain privilege of being able to experiment and do a lot of different things because it was new and the audience really enjoyed it. They hadn't seen it before. Now the audience has seen over the last 20 years more Lucha Libre in the United States and more wrestlers from Mexico wrestling in WWE and other organizations. It's not as new anymore. It doesn't feel as exciting anymore as when we first did it. It's like being the first man on the moon. You can only be the first man on the moon. The second man on the moon... Meh! That's pretty cool. But it is really not that big a deal because he wasn't the first. So we were the first man on the moon speaking in terms of really presenting Lucha Libre to the American audience on a national platform. I think if anything's missing now... I would like to see more of this Spanish culture presented along with the wrestler and the wrestling. More discussion about wrestlers, where they're from, where they trained in Mexico and their families in Mexico. It's important. I think in any television show, and it doesn't matter which show, the audience has to feel like they know the star or know about the star. I think just presenting the Hispanic wrestlers or Mexican wrestlers and just letting them go out there. I want to know more about them. So I think when any wrestling company uses someone from Mexico or someone from Puerto Rico be sure to bring with them a lot of background packages and a lot of Storytelling devices that allow the audience to get to know that talent. I think that would go a long way to making people appreciate the Mexican culture and the Puerto Rican culture, as well as make the talent more interesting to the audience".
3- Eric Bischoff revealed in an interview with Lucha Libre Online's Michael Morales Torres if AEW's current creative process is good enough to take the company to the next level and what does the company needs to change and recognize to improve their product.
Eric Bischoff: "I mean, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. I think time will tell. What I do know is there's a lot of smart people in aw. A lot of very talented people in AEW. They are new company. They're still a brand new company really. With any company you're going to learn better ways and different ways of doing things as you go. I think the creative process will be one that will remain fluid in AEW. Because I think above all else they value the creative process and they value the flexibility that some talent have the opportunity to enjoy but I think it's some point. Yeah, they may have to rethink the way they approach creative. But that would be true for any company. Whether you're in the movie industry or the music industry, you know that the entertainment business changes on a daily basis. And part of the longevity and being successful in the long term is recognizing the changes in the talent or changes in the audience or changes in the industry and being able to modify or adapt what you do to that changing Market. And I think AEW like any other company will face challenges and they will overcome those challenges and I'm very certain they're going to be successful in the long term. But it's not going to come without some challenges along the way and hurdles that you have to you know, get over but no doubt they'll be successful".
4- Eric Bischoff revealed during an interview with Lucha Libre Online's Michael Morales Torres if Vince McMahon still has "it".
Eric Bischoff: "Well, I think so. I think so. But I think the WWE business model has become so much more complex. And just the sheer volume of wrestling that WWE produces has changed the creative process dramatically. So, it's hard for me to comment. I certainly think at any given point Vince McMahon can pull a rabbit out of his hat and create something very spectacular. So I think Vince McMahon has clearly his demonstrated a tremendous amount of creative horsepower and intellect. I just think that the nature of the business has changed so much that for viewers. We just don't feel it anymore".
5- Eric Bischoff revealed in an interview with Michael Morales Torres from Lucha Libre Online the real reason why he was released from his WWE contact in 2019 and who took the decision that he no longer belonged in the company. He compared his latest run with WWE to dating someone you met on a dating app and there is just no chemistry.
Eric Bischoff: "It was Vince's decision. But again, it was one that I agreed with. It became apparent to me early on that the chemistry, the creative chemistry in WWE was not, in my opinion, it wasn't a healthy creative environment for me. It worked very well for WWE, I guess. But for me creative is as much about the energy, how well people get along, how well people can collaborate and because WWE is such a fast moving train, it was really hard to get on board and to get up to speed with their pace in the way they did things. So it wasn't a matter of... I mean, Vince and I are still friends. I'm still friends with a lot of people, including Bruce Prichard. He's one of my closest friends. Still friends with a lot of people in WWE, but the chemistry just wasn't right. I've been married for 38 years, so I've never experienced online dating. I can only imagine. My experience with WWE was a little bit like if you find a beautiful woman that you meet in an online dating app. You get along and you sending each other texts and you're very excited. When you finally meet for your first dinner date and you realize before the appetizers even come that the chemistry just isn't really that good. She's a beautiful one you, got along great on the dating app, but when you're finally face-to-face... Meh! And it was kind of like what it was like for me and WWE. I was excited about it for a lot of reasons and a lot of good reasons. I think Vince was excited about it for a lot of reasons. But once we started working together, we both realized that it really wasn't working. And Vince ultimately was the one that made the call".
6- Eric Bischoff revealed in an interview with Lucha Libre Online's Michael Morales Torres how was his experience working for TNA.
Eric Bischoff: "Yeah, there were a lot of things I enjoyed. I met a lot of good friends there and people who I still consider close friends. I had a lot of fun there. There were times when I had a great time. Working with my son was a great opportunity that I'll always be grateful for. So yeah, there were a lot of great things about it. There were some frustrating things about it. I think because the people in the company's management really knew nothing about the industry. That made it difficult and I think a lot of the big opportunities we got missed and could have made a big difference for TNA. But, you know, that's life. It wasn't my company. I wasn't in management".
7- Eric Bischoff revealed in an interview with Michael Morales Torres from Lucha Libre Online that TNA did not wanted to sign him and that it was Hulk Hogan who demanded that he'd be present or he was not going to sign with the company. He said that he was part of Hulk Hogan's contract with TNA, but he was not responsible for it.
Eric Bischoff: "No, not really. I was part of it, but TNA wasn't really interested in hiring me. They were interested in hiring Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan didn't want to go to work for TNA unless I was there. So more or less, TNA got stuck with me is the truth. But TNA was reaching out to Hulk. That was their initiative. I got involved in negotiating the deal at Hulk's request. We saw a lot of that process, but I was only there because Hulk wanted me there, not because TNA wanted me there".
8- Eric Bischoff revealed in an interview with Lucha Libre Online's Michael Morales Torres why WWE didn't offer him a new contract after his first run with the company.
Eric Bischoff: "It was time. My character as the General Manager had run its course. There was no real new stories to tell, no new ways of telling the same stories over again. It just got to the point where it was time. I recognized it and so did WWF. When they called me and said: 'Hey, we think we're going to let your contract expire and not renew you'. They explained why and I agreed with them a hundred percent. So I left on very good terms with WWE".
9- Eric Bischoff revealed in an interview with Lucha Libre Online's Michael Morales Torres how was his first meeting with Vince McMahon and the moment he knew he wanted to work for WWE.
Eric Bischoff: "Oh, I remember the first phone call that we had. It was a great phone call. We got along both very well. I knew almost instantly that I was going to look forward to working for Vince. So it was an easy phone call and it was an easy transition for me. Wrestling had been my life for a long time at that point in an opportunity to work in the WWF and work with a lot of people that I've never worked with before was very exciting for me".
10- Eric Bischoff revealed in an interview with Lucha Libre Online's Michael Morale Torres that there were a lot of ego problems backstage on WCW due to the star-power.
Eric Bischoff: "Yes, I mean that's always the case in WCW and WWE was the same. I think any time you're dealing with top-level talent, particularly when you have a lot of top level talent on the roster like we did. We had Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Sting, Lex Luger, Randy Savage, Roddy Piper and Ultimate Warrior as you mentioned. Bill Goldberg certainly became a top-level star during that period of time. So we had not just one or two major stars. We had 10 or 12 major stars. And when you have that much talent and that much star power along with it comes ego and difficulty working with them. But that was just that was the price I had to pay".
11- Eric Bischoff revealed during an interview with Lucha Libre Online's Michael Morales Torres that he didn't stole WWF's wrestlers to bring them to WCW as he's been accused of multiple times.
Eric Bischoff: "Well, Hulk Hogan had already left the WWF when I hired him. He resigned from WWF six months or a year before I started talking to him. So Hulk at that point thought he was done with the WWF. So I didn't really take him from WWF. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash came up because they were dissatisfied with the way things were in WWF and were looking for a different opportunity".
