Eric Bischoff Appreciation Post

[Batsu]

After watching The Stone Cold Truth for the first time... I have to say, Eric Bischoff has earned my respect.

Not only has he been consistently entertaining on RAW as General Manager and almost made me forget about the excess of McMahon on the TV that was killing the product...

...but his job is to basically serve as the post-WCW-mortem punching bag for Vince, WWE, Stone Cold (at least there, it's somewhat justified), and most recently, ECW. You can't help to think that 90% of his positioning has got some personal edge behind it. And yet, the man eats dung and looks like a million dollars doing it. Hell, I think him just showing up on the ECW PPV made it what it was (seeing that Eric Bischoff was sort of the greatest ECW heel that never stepped foot in an ECW venue).

Even though he was part of the machine that allowed the things that really killed WCW to transpire (Hogan et al having their grubby fingers in the creative end, VINCE EFFIN' RUSSO PERIOD, reading the results of WWE programming as it aired), now, I can't be mad at him.

Anyone else feel this way?

--

Sidebar: 1997 Stone Cold >>>>>>> the rest of his career, even as WWE Champion. At least in the ring. His match with Owen at SummerSlam 97 was great until the piledriver. Because of the way he was booked (the ultra-brawl into an eventual Stunner, beers galore, etc) it's easy to forget that the guy could -go- with the best of them.

[SammyG]

Am i the only one wondering why smackdown spoilers havent been posted

[TerranRich]

No! Same here.

[LK]

I will say this about Bischoff. Got to give credit to him for doing the ONS stuff. I doubt he went into Vince's office demanding to appear at ONS. He was putting himself in a potentially dangerous situatuion and he did it well.

[Just John]

To be completely honest when bischoff first stepped up he completley entertained me and he continues to, to this day his music just fits him so well.....

[Fignuts]

Bischoff is made to look like a sleazebag on every wwe dvd he is in. Truthfully, he may deserve it as well, but he did bring a lot of great things to the wrestling world.

[Dorkchop]

Bischoff is great on the mic. I give him assloads of respect for allowing himself to look like a huge dick for the business.

[Chavo Classic]

Meh, he's no Heyman.

[tucsonspeed6]

I think his early years in the WCW were pure genius, but somewhere along the line he just gave up. If he had actually put some effort into the later years of the WCW, they'd still be alive today.

Then again, there are those who say that he let it rot to nothing on purpose so he could buy the company for himself, rebuild it to its former greatness, and destroy the WWE. If he were able to do that, then yes, he would be greater than Heyman.

Sharp guy either way.

[PullMyFinger]

The Bisch has always earned my respect. If it wasn't for him, the Monday Night Wars would've never happened.

If there ever is another company that makes it somewhat big, I'd want him to jump ship and be president there.

[The One]

I have always resepcted Eric. You know, he did a fucking shit load of down right dirty nasty things to alot of people, but because he sold out himself, he made a shit load of money. Eric is a multi-millionare. He doesn't need the money to appear on RAW and play bitch boy to McMahon, nor does he need to continue to take heat. The fact is, Eric has made alot of cold hearted decissions, but because of those he is one of the most successful people in the industry of professional wrestling. He did what he needed to do. McMahon couldn't have taken what was given to Bischoff and made what he made out of it. Could Haymen of? Who knows, probably not. Then again there is no way Bischoff could take what Heyman had and make something like ECW out of it. The two men are so different, and when you look at what they made, it's clear. Heyman made something to fall in love with, Bischoff made something to make huge dollars off. In my estimation, if Heyman and Bischoff could SOMEHOW put everything behind them, they could take any local indy fed and have it pumping out PPVs and pulling in better numbers then WWE in a year, but that's just me.

[srnrew]

If Turner ever does decide to reenter the "wrasslin" business, it would be interesting if he offers "the Bisch" a chance to redeem himself as a innovator as he claimed to be.

[Champion of Europa]

I'm one of the founding members of the Church of Bischoff.

[Londoner]

At first, Bischoff bored the hell out of me and i got sick of him when he was always getting the heels to beat down the faces on Raw, and it became painfully obvious what would happen. e.g the dudleys would lose a match or get beat down. But since then he has earnt my respect, a really good actor i think, with good mic skills. To pull that off at ONS was amazing, and was as good as rvd/heyman i think, Bischoff is the man you love to hate, but at the sametime respect.