The Trial Of Eric Bischoff (Podcast Question)

[Liam O'Rourke]

So, for this week's Squared Circle Gazette Radio, we're returning to our "Court Case" format that we did in the past for one of our most popular shows (The Trial of Triple H), and this time putting Eric Bischoff under the gun. 

 

We have a prosecution, a defence and judge in place - the charge against Bischoff is that he's the person most responsible for the death of WCW (via malpractice and negligence). So in terms of feedback it's simple - where do you stand on that specific question, and on what grounds? 

 

As always, the best feedback will be read on the show and become part of the debate. So whaddya think - is Bischoff most responsible?

[tiger_rick]

He's responsible for their decline in 1998/99. But when he left in 1999, WCW was alive and well. That they called him back in April 2000 speaks volumes.

 

WCW was mismanaged for years before and after Bischoff and that together with the politics surrounding wrestling in Time-Warner is what did for it.

 

Bischoff is culpable but that should be offset against the fact that without him there would be no success. No boom before the bust. Just bust.

[King Pitcos]

Bischoff is culpable but that should be offset against the fact that without him there would be no success. No boom before the bust. Just bust.

Agreed, although that is kind of the Fritzl defense. 

[Loki]

Yeah, Bischoff took over a failing wrestling business and when he left it was a successful wrestling business; in between it was even bigger, but that doesn't mean its death a few years later was his fault.

 

Shouldn't this topic be the Trial of Russo?

[LEGIT]

IMO, Bish deserves huge credit for what he did for WCW. However, he's got some amount of mileage out of it considering he's not done much since. He was an onscreen character in WWE when I thought WWE was at its worst; I didn't really like him in WWE. He was unwatchable during his TNA run IMO, too.

[Liam O'Rourke]

Trial of Russo would have no-one on the defence I feel.

 

Bischoff to me is more interesting because a lot of the real issues that killed it (big contracts/company loss in popularity/locking midcarders is place/losing big money) stemmed from him, and others were just unable to turn things around, or made things worse.

[King Pitcos]

Yeah, it was Bischoff's system that laid all the foundations for WCW to die -- the very things that made it successful in the first place were the reasons it couldn't survive. Bischoff crashed the boat, then Russo drove it to the bottom of the ocean. 

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Looking back at the landscape then, I'd give Bischoff a lot of credit for taking advantage of an opening and surrounding himself with very smart people that just weren't there in 2010 when TNA tried to make a go of it. The WWF was on his arse in 1994/95. They were dragging themselves up from a few bad years (and bad decisions on Vince's part thinking Hogan, Flair and Savage weren't draws anymore). Just look at the team he had in place in the mid-90s. Ted Turner had millions in the bank and owned his own network. The thing stopping a start up in 2014 is the lack of anyone willing to put you on air and significant backing. And Bischoff had both. Not only that, he cherry picked anyone he liked. Hulk Hogan was still the biggest PPV draw in the business in 1994. Randy Savage was a massive star and had a major sponsor with him in Slim Jim. Ric Flair was still the man to that WCW audience. Not just that he had the likes of Okerlund and Heenan, who everyone associated as the top men on the mic. He had a lineup of major names on a major network. If you had all that now, you'd make a good go of it.

 

Also, in 1995 the audience was so ignorant to any other culture in the business. WCW brought in the best of the thriving AAA promotion, who had Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Konnan, La Parka, Juventud Guerrera and a load of others. WCW brought over Jushin Liger, Masa Chono, The Great Muta and mixed them up. Then you had Benoit and Malenko who were absolute darlings of the wrestling fanbase. Not only those, you had people like Sabu and The Public Enemy showing up on Saturday Night and Nitro. There was an open mindedness about him. He was on the phone with Meltzer, he was flying out to Japan every other week to have meetings with the New Japan office and/or Pena. The guy was so motivated and willing to learn, I honestly think by 99 he believed his own press. I think he started off as like captain of a ship and by the end of it thought he knew best. Bischoff's shoot interview and book really opened my eyes to him in a way that gave me a perspective on that period. He simply doesn't give Kevin Sullivan any credit, even though Sully was the head booker during the Pillman angle and the nWo boom (probably their two most creative peaks). He has this narrative that Meltzer was out to get him, when everyone knew at the time he was in contact with him regularly. He never talks about arena promoter Zane Bresloff, who is as responsible as Bischoff for the turnaround in business. All those tricks to get people into the arenas, like the on sale autograph sessions and the Nitro parties and the targetting of the college demos at places like Club La Vela was all Bresloff. So it really seems like if there is credit to be gobbled up, The Bisch will happily take it without sharing it out.

 

When he got in trouble in 98/99, it probably showed him up in a lot of ways. He threw money at his problems and it put them in a horrible position. Paying KISS, Megadeth, Dennis Rodman, Chuck Zito, Chad Brock and all those other celebs millions and getting zero back in return in the space of 6 weeks was a horrendous mistake. It was the midlife crisis era of Nitro. Riki Rachtman and DJ Ran were on it every week. Tony Schiavone began wearing a leather jacket (?) and jelling his hair. Hulk Hogan started dressing like Shifty Shellshock. Instead of removing the elements everyone was sick of, they tried polishing a turd by repackaging people who didn't fit. Look at Hogan dressed like Compo from Last of the Summerwine.

 

The thing that ultimately killed Bischoff is that he was the one who signed off on Goldberg getting beat. They sold out the Georgia Dome with only Goldberg announced in late 98. So they decided to beat him a week before. Not only that, at the Georgia Dome in front of Goldbergs home town fans, they had the nWo slap him about. Then strangely they paid for the Atlanta Falcons to come out after the show went off the air, instead of doing something on the show with their biggest star.

 

On the flip side, though, Bischoff worked extremely hard. The fucking bloke looked like hell in late 98/early 99. And I think seeing what happened with TNA, that Bischoffs ability to surround himself with smart people is commendable in itself. Look at Dixie Carter. She surrounds herself with people you know are out for themselves. That's always been her problem. I never blamed Bischoff for the TNA stuff. Its obvious he saw an opportunity like Hogan did, like Dusty did, like Jarrett did, like Russo did, like Prichard did. These are smart people who can sniff a money mark out from a mile off. If you cant make a difference in TNA, you might as well take what you can out of it.

 

For all Bischoffs faults, though, he'll always be the bloke who took on the mighty McMahon and beat him. Nobody else can say that.

[Arch Stanton]

You don't see much praise for on-topic posts these days, but that's a cracking contribution that Ian. I think it's a very fair assessment of Bischoff's influence on WCW's successes and failures. In terms of putting him on trial for the death of the company, a jury may well find him guilty to be honest, or at least to be the most culpable party. However, with no Eric WCW would probably have folded or faded into total insignificance in the same time frame without ever having reached the heights that they did from 95-98. Bischoff had a vision and ambition that matched McMahon's ten years earlier. It's hard to predict where the business (WWE) would be today if he had not been there to push Vince so hard during that time. 

[Liam O'Rourke]

Want to thank everybody for the responses - the podcast is now up and ready to check out, and can do so at this link:

 

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/pf2qd7/SCGRadio19-TheTrialOfEricBischoff.mp3

 

Ended up being a lot of fun, with the defence and prosecution teams trying to convince our neutral judge whether Eric Bischoff was the element most responsibile for the Death of WCW, talking Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, AOL Time Warner, Russo, ridiculous spending, awful booking, and a whole lot more. Am keen to know what everybody makes of the verdict after the impassioned empassioned debate, let us know what you think.