On Monday, September 14, PWTorch editor Wade Keller interviewed former WCW President Eric Bischoff an exclusive multi-hour "Torch Talk" interview covering a variety of controversial subjects from the Monday Night War period, his days on WWE TV, his 2006 autobiography, and the "Rise & Fall of WCW" DVD.

The following is the latest installment of Part 3 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 latest question and answer from Part 3. Tune in Tuesday for the next series of questions from Part 3.

Wade Keller: I think with the wrestlers who perform on the road, there's a guarantee that's a downside that's a worst-case scenario, but there are still are incentives if business goes well, and you stay healthy, you make quite a bit more. I think that's something top WCW guys might have been motivated by because everybody's motivated by their paycheck going up if business does well, and I think that total flat fee other than working for the next contract, I would have that in my top ten list of things that hurt WCW's long-term existence.

Eric Bischoff: And I agree with you. I don't disagree with that at all. In 1993, that company had never made any profit when I took it over. We went from never having made any profit, losing ten million dollar a year with 24 million dollars worth of revenue to generating 350 million dollars a year in gross revenues, depending on whose books you wanted to read, either 50 or 80 million dollars a year in profits. But that happened in, like, a blink of an eye from a corporate perspective. And the contracts were long-term contracts and there just never was that ability of, quite honestly, focus to hurry up and change that formula. When the guy's got three years left on his contract or two years left on his contract in 1995 or 1996 or 1997, we may have wanted to change that, but how do you do that while he's still got a contract. It's a long-term proposition.

Keller: I think some people look also at the money that was spent during good times on Rick Steiner, Stevie Ray, guys who were making well over $500,000, maybe just short of a million, who couldn't have come close to making that on the marketplace. What was the mentality? Was it just things were going so well and there was so much money you were able to give some nicer contracts than hard-bargaining would have resulted in?

Bischoff: You go back to look at it and things were relative. Every year when we sat down and had to come up with my budget, the budget had to be approved by the finance committee at Turner Broadcasting and Time-Warner. I had a budget to work with, and what in the eyes of wrestling fans - I will argue Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner were solid performers, especially Scott at the time. They were solid performers in WCW. They certainly weren't top dollar performers, but you take a look at the roster and be honest and kind of go back in time and say, Okay, where were Rick and Scott on the roster then for WCW and where would a similar tag team or couple of performers be in today's current WWE environment and if you look at those guys in WWE today, so you looked at the upper third of the card or half way through the card, how much are those guys making every year? I bet you they're making five, six, seven hundred grand a year. All-in.

MORE TO COME...

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