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Other News: Bring back the Cruiserweights? - Eric Bischoff provides his vision for what's missing from WWE's product Nov 14, 2008 - 11:33:09 AM
In part two of the interview, Bischoff went into detail on what he would change about WWE's current product, specifically what's missing as it relates to what he saw happen in WCW that led to the demise of the company.
Bischoff admitted to not watching WWE's product as often as he would like because he's on the road traveling and in meetings for his entertainment company. But, he knows WWE's writers have a tough task of trying to create new storylines using the same cast of characters when everything that possibly could have been done in the current TV wrestling format has been done.
"What's really hard though is sitting down every single day of the year and creating new ideas with the same cast of characters that people have seen in the same combinations hundreds of different times in storylines," Bischoff said.
"There's been a lot of stuff in the last ten years. The wrestling industry has seen such a tremendous growth beginning in the Monday Night Wars and between what I did and what Vince did - competing against each other - I think we've probably pulled every rabbit out of every hat that anybody could possibly think of. And what that does is it makes it very hard for people creating programming."
Bischoff points to reality-based storylines as something he sees missing from pro wrestling when there is a "19-year-old executive" named Vince McMahon trying to present low-brow, potty humor that rubs certain audience members the wrong way, but that McMahon loves.
"If there was one thing that I would do, it would be to try to find that sweet spot that blurs the line between reality and fiction," Bischoff said. "The other thing that I think is that I like the cruiserweight division. That's why I created it. The cruiserweight division needs to be a distinctive style. They should be so different in the way that their art form is presented."
Bischoff detailed what went wrong in WCW - from his perspective - of the cruiserweights having their own style in complete contrast to the heavyweights to offer two distinct forms of pro wrestling. However, Bischoff believes the cruiserweights wanted to become heavyweights and the heavyweights wanted to start flying around the ring.
"What happened is that the cruiserweights started looking at the bigger guys and wanted to be them," Bischoff said. "They wanted to work like them in some cases. They wanted to be bigger. They didn't want to be limited in their minds by being cruiserweights."
Bischoff says cruiserweights who came in the door weighing 165 pounds, were suddenly "getting themselves jacked up and beefed up in every way possible they could get away with" to reach 210, 215 pounds. They forgot what their role in WCW was, Bischoff said.
"The style contrast that we should have had between the cruiserweight division and the heavyweight division - the lines slowly began to be blurred," he said. "Conversely, our bigger guys, because they didn't want to look less athletic and they didn't want to have to follow a cruiserweight match, tried to do all kinds of aerial, acrobatic stuff that they shouldn't have been doing."
Bischoff says WWE creating a distinct cruiserweight division with guys who aren't trying to wrestle a heavyweight style, but their own distinct style, is key for WWE to create balance in the product.
Caldwell's Analysis: Later today, I'll provide a deeper look into Bischoff's comments and how his vision could be applied with a talent roster that includes Evan Bourne, Rey Mysterio, and Jamie Noble.
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