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")
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: If you look back at the roster of WCW during the Nitro era, there's so many wrestlers who are now dead. Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Curt Hennig, Bobby Duncum Jr., Big Bubba Rogers, Miss Elizabeth, Rocco Rock, Johnny Grunge, Chris Adams, Brian Pillman, Renegade, Davey Boy Smith, Rick Rude, Mike Awesome, Bryan Adams. What happened?
Eric Bischoff: It's a tough lifestyle. It gets interesting. I blogged about this way back when Senator Waxman and his band of thieves in Congress decided they were going to jump on the pedestal and investigate WWE and professional wrestling. They wasted a lot of time, they wasted a lot of money, and I don't think it was the Senate's investigation that prompted WWE to do what they did. I think they reacted to Eddie Guerrero. They knew it was time. They had to put their foot down. They had to go the extra mile. I don't know what the rationale was. But I clearly don't think it was Congress that had much to do with it. I read all the stuff that was going around. People say "wrestling and steroids." Well, it's not steroids. It's prescription pills. In our society, it's prescription pills and alcohol. Those are the things that are killing people.
Keller: Eric, I have a lot of circles of friends, some in wrestling and some elsewhere. Regarding prescription pills and alcohol are a problem in society, I agree with that. But I would say percentage-wise, I think you'd agree with this, the percentage of wrestlers who get in so deep that they die is exponentially higher in wrestling than it is in society in general.
Bischoff: I do not disagree with that.
MORE TO COME TOMORROW WITH BISCHOFF TALKING JEFF HARDY...
