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(b) 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(b). Tune in Tuesday for the next series of questions from Part 3(b).

Wade Keller: Depending on the day you ask me and the last thing that I remembered and thought about, but the top one, the top two, top three things that happened that hurt WCW and sent it on the wrong course was Thunder and Nitro expanding to three hours. I've read and heard the arguments for it, which is it's crazy to not do it because the ad revenue increase was great for whoever ended up with the money in their pocket, whether it was WCW as a division or the parent company, it was a smart move to make, you're crazy to say not. I say, you wore out the creative process and the talent depth at that exact moment probably wasn't where it needed to be, but creatively I just don't know how WCW - it was just obvious WCW wasn't prepared to handle the additional TV time, say what you will about the budget, the production values, or the timing - it just creatively watered down the product where Nitro wasn't a must-see show anymore; it felt like one of many hours that were watered down.

Eric Bischoff: Some of these moment I don't remember. Your listeners, your fans, you, whatever, you probably remember a lot more about the details and the timing than I do because I don't think about it. It was ten years ago and I lived through so much of it that it all sort of runs together like a movie that I've seen, but there were a couple seminal moments, if you will, that I knew were the real pivot points in what was going on. One of them was the addition of Thunder. Brad Seigel was president of TNT, he really was a smart guy. He didn't know anything about wrestling, he was in over his head in a lot of ways, fairly or unfairly got a lot of criticism because of the position he was thrust into. He didn't campaign for it, he didn't want it, he was forced into it.

But all that being said, when the whole TBS Thunder discussion came up, he came to me and said, "Eric, don't do this. You're going to kill yourself and you're going to kill your product. You don't have the resources to do this as well as you need to do it. I agreed with it. I didn't want to do it. One night I remember there was a lot of debate internally over would we, wouldn't we and one guy wanted it. Ted Turner wanted it for the same reason that Ted Turner believed in WCW at the beginning and bought the company from Crockett Promotions. For the same reason that he gave me two hours on TNT when nobody thought that would ever happen including me and Scott Sassa. For all of the reasons Ted wanted it, everybody around Ted including me probably not to the extent that I should have in retrospect, because I probably could have, if I really would have played my cards, again 20/20 hindsight, knowing what I know how, if I really would have just said, "Absolutely not, we can't do it," I probably would have won the argument, if you will, call it an argument.

But at the time Ted wanted to do it, and when Ted wanted something to happen, it happened. And we knew going in that we're killing the talent, we're working them to death, we're creating injuries, we're taking away from our house show opportunities. There was a lot of reasons why that move was one of the moves that hurt us. But going back to one of the comments you made earlier, going to three hours on TNT, whoever made that decision, and who got the money, you know who got the money? Turner Ad Sales. WCW didn't even enjoy the benefit of that revenue. That was a decision that forced upon us because the division of the company knew they had a hot property and wanted more product for them to sell for their division to show up on their bottom line so they got their bonuses. We never saw a nickel, the way that company was structured, of ad sales.

MORE TO COME...

CLICK HERE FOR THE MOST RECENT BISCHOFF Q&A SNIPPET

We suggest these recent related articles...

EXCLUSIVE: Stone Cold goes inside the Royal Rumble process, plus does he want someone to break his record?

EXCLUSIVE: Jim Ross details working agreement with Global Force Wrestling, how the deal with Jarrett was arranged, gameplan calling Tokyo Dome Show, what does he think of Striker as co-announcer?, what Tanahashi vs. Okada reminds him of, more

PWTORCH EXCLUSIVE: Steve Austin on potential in-ring return, what would it take for Mania return match to happen?