PWTorch is customized for your mobile phone such as your Blackberry. Just enter www.pwtorch.com on your phone's browser and choose the "Mobile" option. Samsung Omnia II users, download our free Widget. Apple iPhone users, download our free PWTorch App (search "pwtorch")
TORCH TALK DAILY with Eric Bischoff (Part 2, Question 4): WWE blew opportunities with the NWO in WWE and his debut hug with Vince McMahon
Oct 3, 2009 - 12:00:00 PM
On Monday, September 14 and Thursday, October 1, PWTorch editor Wade Keller interviewed former WCW President Eric Bischoff an exclusive "Torch Talk" interview spanning more than five hours covering a comprehensive variety of controversial subjects from the Monday Night War period, his days on WWE TV, his 2006 autobiography, the "Rise & Fall of WCW" DVD, his thoughts on today's WWE, today's TNA, today's MMA influence on pro wrestling, the deaths and broken lives from drugs in pro wrestling, and more.
The following is the first installment of Part 2 of our daily Q&As to be published here at PWTorch.com, which is unprecedented with our VIP-exclusive "Torch Talk" series.
To both READ and LISTEN to the entire interview, you'll want to become a VIP member, which also includes instant access to our newsmaking multi-hour in-depth hard-hitting "Torch Talks" with other top WCW players such as Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, X-Pac, Vince Russo, Ed Ferrara, Hulk Hogan, Goldberg, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and others (ALL AVAILABLE AT THIS LINK FOR VIP MEMBERS). To subscribe right now and be the first to read the entire Bischoff "Torch Talk" and have VIP-only access to the audio, click here. The first audio segment and transcript installment is now available for VIP members.
We present today's fourth question and answer from Part 2. Tune in later in the week for the next series of questions and answers.
Wade Keller: Had WWE asked you to get involved in the promoting or even the corporate side for whatever the circumstances were - and not that you were losing sleep over waiting for that phone call or that invite - but would you have entertained the idea or were you at a very different place at that point and it was on-air only?
Eric Bischoff: I could never do it again. I would not want to get sucked into the 18 hour a day intensity and drama and chaos of that business - unless I was in control. Now, if I was in control of it, it'd be a different deal. But to be part of that grind living in an area I didn't want to live in, being away from my family that much, there was no way I was going to do it.
Keller: Were you surprised with how McMahon utilized your on-air character given the relative large range of potential that a Bischoff-McMahon [as opposing forces] dynamic could have been? Do you think he utilized you the best way he could have out of the gate?
Bischoff: No, I think they made a mistake from the very beginning. I think the moment that we came out and hugged, that was the beginning of a really big blown opportunity. It made no sense to me. I mean, it was a cool moment and that was one of the things when I look at WWE creative and I'm critical of them - again, it's not personal, it's just my taste and, by the way, it doesn't mean that I'm right, but everybody's got a different perspective on things. And, you know, going into it, I kind of looked at what they did with the NWO and that thing was destined for failure for a couple of different reasons - partially because of the instability of some of the people who were participating in it. But for Vince McMahon to introduce the NOW into his own company, it was such a stupid idea and I looked at that and thought, oh my god. This was like more than six months before I went there. I saw that and thought they were just blowing a great opportunity. Then they pretty much did the same thing when they brought me in. I tried, one of those half a dozen or more times when I sat down and talked with Vince about it, to point that out, but I think there's still - there are people, not so much Vince McMahon necessarily, although I think he probably does have some deep-seeded resentment towards me and what happened to him because it was pretty frightening for him and his family and the people who worked there - but there are others who have Vince's ear who don't want to give any credibility, any support, they don't want to remind people that Vince McMahon was up against the ropes, he dropped his hands, the referee was about to stop the fight, and were it not for a couple bone-headed moves in AOL/Time-Warner, Vince McMahon would be, might have been history. That's still a very, very sore subject with certain people who have Vince's ear. I know it is.
Keller: Is there anything from your observation of WWE and the way operated, the way Vince operated, that you think would have been valuable to bring that knowledge from the 2000s back to 1998 and you might have done things a little differently or tweaked some approaches?
[Eric Bischoff photo credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch circa 1990 in the AWA] Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
Let your voice be heard. PWTorch.com readers are encouraged to participate in our regular polls where you can vote for the option of your choice and also see how other readers are voting. Be sure to vote in today's poll on the WWE SMACKDOWN MVP...
VOTE IN OR SEE RESULTS OF PREVIOUS POLLS
