What do you think of Eric Bischoff?

[Marc the Smark]

We all know WCW was the hottest ticket in town for 18 months.

My question is, do you think it was Eric Bischoff's natural talent and skills that lured Hogan, Nash, Hall etc. into the company, or do you think he was just lucky to have Ted's check book? Oh, and do you think Biscoff should have some say as to what happens in the WWE?

[BobBitchen]

Ted's check book.Bitchoff can suck a cock and eat a bowl of assholes.:foc:

[The MAC]

The man who took Vince to the limit.I always thought of him as being more slimey than Vince.

[Jeritron]

It was the perfect example of a quick fix on top. It was building a palacial mansion with no foundation or support beams. And daring to build it in the face of a tornado. It was doomed to fail.
Taking money, and using it to sign other peoples stars is not talent. Especially when you just use greed to lure them out, and give them anythign they want. Including creative control which becomes a cancer. But that didn't matter at the time. It was just about getting them for the moment and not thinking ahead.
Then it was about luring star after star and not pushing their own.

Bischoffs talents were that he was ruthless. He did clever things, that some would call dirty. Nonetheless, they were creative. He came strong and knocked the WWE in the dirt. But he got off early with his one big sucker punch, he wasn't close to being qualified for the long fight. Neither was the company. It has everything to do with Ted Turners checkbook and control over multiple network television stations.

[The One]

What's this doomed to fail shit? WCW was still making money in it's dying day. AOL didn't want to touch pro wrestling, so when they bought up Turner's empire, they decided to ditch WCW. It wasn't doomed to fail. God Jeritron, get over whatever this hatred you have towards WCW is...

As for Bischoff, he was a fantastic president. He did what he needed to do to take a company that was hemmoraging money, and turned it around to make the most of it. Bischoff took the nWo storyline, which is the hottest angle in professional wrestling history, and used that as drawing idea. He then backed up what brought the crowd in with what would keep them there (the Jerichos, Benoits, Guerreros, Mysterios, Malenkos, etc.). Dethroning WWE as the dpominate promotion for over a year isn't some lucky sucker punch. It was a damn well pulled off scheme. But even before nWo, Bisch had visions of what he wanted to do. He took WCW, which was pathedically unorganised, and made it into a nationally touring company. Remember that while some people bitch about how terrible everything was backstage, there product didn't slip much because of it. I truly think that had Bischoff been able to secure a TV deal for Nitro, he could have taken the company and made it a strong thriving promotion today.

I think Bischoff should be working on the business side of WWE, but have little to no creative input. That's my two cents.

[PullMyFinger]

Jeritron, your posts really annoy me. You come off as a complete WWE mark. You always trash WCW and TNA...now granted I'm not saying that people should always praise the two companies...but you're so quick to always point out their negatives and act like WWE has done no wrong. Like for example your idea that TNA should fold and the NWA belt and prestige should be sold to WWE? Sorry - but even if someone doesnt like TNA or the NWA, that's piss poor mentality in my book.

[Jeritron]

I always trash WWE too. Dude, don't even bring up TNA.

[Jeritron]

I also said that NWA's belt would be better retired and honored with a fucking dvd set than thrown on the ground in an 6side ring of a piss poor promotion.

[Jeritron]

Seriously, how am I a WWE mark. Because I over time have preffered them and find them to have been the greatest promotion? That's fine. I criticize the hell out of them, and I talk about their huge failings all the time.
I criticize WCW and TNA moresoe, because IMO they are more deserving. I watched/watch both of them and have always pointed out the high points and the good things. The good talent. Even when talking about Bischoff I gave credit where credit is due, but to think he was doing a good job is dependent on how you measure it. 2 year success, absolutely. But did he cause major problems that eventually hit the fan?

Seriously, its not about being a WWE mark as much as it is just my opinions on the good the bad and the ugly of all the promotions.
And besides, I'm not a WWE mark I'm a fuckin WWF mark.

[NeanderCarl]

Bischoff was a momentary genius. He knew what it took to beat the WWF at a time when WWF was very vulnerable. Two years later (assuming the variables remained the same and WWF got hot again, which is a big assumption) then Bischoff wouldn't have had half as much success.

Being on top for 18 months is just a drop in the ocean. Getting to the top is easy with an enormous chequebook. Staying there is the problem.

Still, to give him his dues, he managed the unthinkable for a time, and made all the right moves for about 2 years. Then the well run dry, and it was pretty messy....

[Jeritron]

I would agree with you since I feel that is a fact. But apparently its an opinion of a total WWE mark.

[NeanderCarl]

Not a WWE mark. I enjoyed WCW very much, until the last two years. You think only a "mark" would possibly think that Bischoff made some big mistakes?? Only a "mark" would realise that an 18 month advantage over the competition means fuck all when the battle raged for decades (if you include JCP/NWA)?

[Jeritron]

dude, calm yourself. Read three posts ahead. I wasn't directing that at you, I was referring to something thrown at me. And since you showed similar sentiments toward Bischoff, I said that.

[NeanderCarl]

Wasn't talking to you. :shifty:

[Jeritron]

good then, in that case I agree.

[Juan]

I have nothing personal against the guy. I can't say I wouldn't have done much of the same if I was him. Plus, he reminds of a good era in pro wrestling.

[NeanderCarl]

I respect him for what he DID achieve, but he needs to stop boasting about his comparably short run on top like it was a major case of the underdog gaining victory. Bischoff, with Ted Turner's giant chequebook, was never an underdog, and they lost the war. But the way Bischoff sometimes speaks, you'd be hard pressed to know.

[BigDaddyCool]

Bischoff is good. Also, calling any wrestling promoter slimy or sleazy is like callng a carny slimy or sleazy. It is pretty much a given.

[Russenmafia]

What's this doomed to fail shit? WCW was still making money in it's dying day. AOL didn't want to touch pro wrestling, so when they bought up Turner's empire, they decided to ditch WCW. It wasn't doomed to fail. God Jeritron, get over whatever this hatred you have towards WCW is...



Was WCW not losing millions of dollars in its last years though? Plus attendances were terrible and PPV buyrates were worse than ECW's at one time. Don't know how that company could have made much money.

[Jeritron]

The problems Russo faced were in large part left for him by Bischoff. Don't get me wrong, Russo did his fair share in the failure of WCW, but many of the huge obstacles and messes were left or created by Bischoff.

[Hanso Amore]

Was WCW not losing millions of dollars in its last years though? Plus attendances were terrible and PPV buyrates were worse than ECW's at one time. Don't know how that company could have made much money.

Yes, that is why AOL sold WCW after the Time Warner AOl Merger. WCW was losing something like 90 mill a year due to lack of income and paying out so many guanteed high price contracts.

In Erics defense, he had been fired, rehired and fired by that point.

[Jeritron]

Yea but who managed those contracts, and included within them creative control which created messes and diminished the product?

[The MAC]

blame hogan..try it, its fun!

[Hanso Amore]

Oh Bischoff doesnt get a freebie on the contracts, but the fact that Russio killed their income is where his loss comes from. Eric paid alot out, but made more coming in. When Russo killed the money, Biscoff took the fall for giving out so much cash.

[Kane Knight]

The thing is, for all of the "markism" for WWE that whateverhisname has given us, he's right.

Well, he is.

Most of the changes Eric Bischoff was respoinsible for were hardly creative, nad could have been done by a trained chimp. A lot of Bischoff's decisions set problems down the road (Creative control, giving away the results of Raw) not only eventually bit them all in the ass, but are great examples of short term solutions. 18 months at the top is great--If you're a movie. 18 months at the top isn't so great if you're looking at a history of a longer competition.

Bischoff offered short-term solutions, and it worked.

[Jeritron]

Thanks KK

[Jeritron]

Usually you come in and do the opposite

[Jeritron]

but honestly, if seeing Eric Bischoff and WCW as flashes in the pan, and doomed to fail along with having massive failing as a promotion and non existant future planning, all of which inferior to WWE; if that makes me a WWE mark then call me a WWE mark. But I'll tell you I have plenty of bones to pick with McMahon too. I just don't deny that overall through the years they were and have been the best, even if its a lesser of evils.

[Kane Knight]

Usually you come in and do the opposite

I calls 'em like I sees 'em.

Sometimes, by default, I have to agree with someone, because of that fact.

[Hanso Amore]

You guys fail to realize one thing. In TV, 18 months is a lifetime. How many shows get canceled because rating drop over a few weeks. Studio 60 just suffered this fate. To take the lead in a boom period for 18 months is EPIC. it changed the world of Wrestling. They fell on hard times later, but it just shows you how fast entertainment can change. Your riding high one day, in the gutter the next.

[NeanderCarl]

Studio 60 got axed?

[Kane Knight]

You guys fail to realize one thing. In TV, 18 months is a lifetime. How many shows get canceled because rating drop over a few weeks. Studio 60 just suffered this fate. To take the lead in a boom period for 18 months is EPIC. it changed the world of Wrestling. They fell on hard times later, but it just shows you how fast entertainment can change. Your riding high one day, in the gutter the next.

Except WWE, WWF, WCW, etc., are not just TV shows.

I doubt anyone's really forgotten it. It's just that it's not the crux of the issue.

[Kane Knight]

Studio 60 got axed?

Studio 60 got axed. Which is funny, because they wanted to do it since like episode 4.

Still, even if they did, it wouldn't be the shortest run on TV. :D