TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
Interviews
Torch Talk Daily with ERIC BISCHOFF: Could Bret Hart have been better utilized in WCW after strong initial PPV business? Nov 8, 2009 - 12:00:14 PM
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 four of the exclusive five-hour "Torch Talk" with former WCW President Eric Bischoff. This fourth part of the series picks up in the midst of a discussion about Bischoff's oft-criticized decision to put the first-ever Hulk Hogan vs. Goldberg match on free Nitro with just four day's notice. Part 4(a) of our daily Q&As will 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 4(a). Tune in tomorrow for the next series of Q&A's from part 4.
Wade Keller: Couldn't WCW have been a soft landing for him (Bret Hart)? Because he walked in, he did a good buyrate with Ric Flair. He did a Hogan-level buyrate on a pay-per-view Hogan was not on. And at that moment, he was sabotaged.
Eric Bischoff: In a feud he didn't really want to be in and Ric didn't really want to be in. You know, I can understand from the outside how people would look at that and go, "Oh my god, what a blown opportunity." And I understand from Bret's point of view how he felt like it wasn't what it could have possibly been to change the course of his life. But when a guy shows up five minutes before work and he's depressed and he's non-communicative and he's not really into what he's doing. Not that Bret was going through the motions, because Bret was doing the best he could under the circumstances that he was living under at that time. I'm not taking anything away from Bret. I'm not sure if I had been in Bret's shoes and my brother had just passed away the way Owen did and I had gone through everything I had gone through, I'm not sure I could have done it, either.
Keller: Surprisingly, his brother died later. That was months later. It was really the Montreal thing that set the tone.
Bischoff: But it was one right after another. Granted, Montreal was devastating for him. He showed up a shadow of his former self in terms of his desire to really get in there and do it. He was preoccupied and upset with Montreal.
MORE TO COME TOMORROW WITH KELLER PUSHING HARDER FOR BISCHOFF TO ADMIT WCW'S ERRORS IN HANDLING HART'S RUN...
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
