When Eric Bischoff led WCW to unprecedented heights in the 1990s, he was coming at pro wrestling from a different background and perspective than most. Looking back now, he feels that was more of a blessing than a curse.
As this week’s guest on the Under the Ring podcast with Phil Strum, Bischoff said that WCW was looking for someone who wasn’t coming from a family steeped in wrestling tradition to head up the promotion, which helped him become the right person at the right time — particularly due to his TV experience.
“The truth is, had I come from a more traditional wrestling family or genealogy, I probably never would have had the opportunity that I did,” Bischoff said. “Turner Broadcasting was looking for someone who wasn’t a ‘wrestling guy.’ They had experimented with wrestling guys: Dusty Rhodes, Bill Watts, before me, Ole Anderson. … And Turner decided back in 1993 after the Bill Watts disaster that they wanted an executive to run WCW that had a television background and a business background, not necessarily a wrestling background.”
Check out the entire interview above, which also includes Bischoff discussing:
- Why he finds doing podcasts “cathartic” once he learned to have fun with them
- What one word would sum up WCW’s legacy
- How WCW helped integrate talent from NJPW better than ever before
- Whether the WCW fan is still out there
Under the Ring releases new episodes every Monday, with Strum using the connections he’s built up during his journalism career to speak with a different, always fascinating personality from the wrestling business. Recent guests have included Matt Cardona, WWE superstar Sonya Deville and AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa.
To make sure you don’t miss an episode, subscribe to Under the Ring on Apple Podcasts or your podcast provider of choice, or check out the Under the Ring YouTube channel to see all of the interviews in video form.