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 seven of the exclusive five-hour "Torch Talk" with former WCW President Eric Bischoff. Part 7 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 7. Tune in tomorrow for the next series of Q&A's from the Eric Bischoff Torch Talk.

Wade Keller: Dallas Page is a lightning rod. You wrote about him in your book and captured in a nice why he's somewhat insufferable but at the same time not someone you dislike, if you can be both at once, because he's so into talking about himself and promoting himself and so high-energy, it's tough to keep up. But I think he's underrated as a contributor to the hot run that Nitro had. I think that there was a shortage of babyfaces, especially the ones that hadn't been around like you talked about during the days when WCW was seen as kind of a Southern regional promotion or a minor league. I thought he, when Steve Austin was emerging, was right there with him emerging. I don't think he had as much of an upside as Austin, but he got really hot and was really valuable to the anti-NWO side of things, giving fans something they could get behind. As much as you could tell given that you were in the middle of it and your perception might be different, in retrospect he gets the credit he deserves for how much he meant to that boom period?

Eric Bischoff: Yeah, I do. That was one character that my fingerprints were all over when it became a babyface. Page at the time, he was like one walking, talking gimmick. There wasn't a gimmick that he didn't like. He was like a frickin' Christmas tree. He'd come to the ring. He had tattoos, and he had ear rings, and he had cowboy boots, and he had girls, and he had cigars, and he had sunglasses, and he talked like Dusty Rhodes but he acted like somebody else. He was trying to be every gimmick that was ever done in wrestling. And it sucked.

I remember when things started really rolling, and because he was a friend and I wanted to try to find a way to make it work, there was one point in particular - and of course Page sees it differently because he's lost in his own self-promotion and he can't help it, it's who he is - but there was one point when I saw him walking by my office when we were doing TV and he had gotten even more outrageous. If you can imagine Dusty Rhodes, "Superstar" Billy Graham, and ten other gimmick wrestlers you could think of, he looked just like that. And he had this big cigar in his mouth and these peacock looking cowboy boots.

I pulled him in and told him, "Page, lose all that shit. I want you to take everything you're wearing off. No jewelery. No gimmicks. No sunglasses. Just get rid of it all. Just be you, be every guy, be the guy who works in a factory. Just be normal. You get no more gimmicks. That's it. I don't want to see a piece of jewelery on you. You get no more girls, nothing. And when you're done, I want you to go up into the audience and be with them. You become one of those people who paid ten or fifteen dollars for a ticket. So when you win your match, jump over the rail and go be them."

And that's what flipped the switch for him, that's when he became a babyface, when he quit trying. That was Page's problem. He constantly tried so hard that you gagged on him. He tried to be so many different gimmicks at the same time, he was like a kaleidoscope of stupid shit and it wasn't until he shed all of that and became himself, really, in many different ways. He became himself because he is kind of a redneck - not a redneck, but a middle-America guy. He didn't grow up with a lot of money. He grew up in Jersey in a blue collar community. That's who he really is. And when he became who he really is, people went, "Wow, I dig him. I like him." And it worked for a long time.

Keller: I agree. I think he gets left off some lists by fans when they think back about what made WCW Nitro. If not top five, without a doubt top ten for that hot run. You needed to have that top babyface, and WCW didn't have a lot of them before Goldberg showed up.

Bischoff: Right.

MORE TO COME TOMORROW WITH BISCHOFF TALKING THE ORIGINAL ECW...

CLICK HERE FOR THE MOST RECENT BISCHOFF Q&A SNIPPET FROM PART 7 (Bischoff Talks Paul Heyman)

[Torch photo credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch.com]

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