Eric Bischoff

Eric Aaron Bischoff (born May 27, 1957 in Detroit, Michigan) is a performer for World Wrestling Entertainment. He is best remembered though for being the former president of World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

WCW

As an announcer, Bischoff reported to producer Tony Schiavone and WCW's Vice President of Broadcasting, Jim Ross. After WCW head-honcho Bill Watts was ousted by TBS executive Bill Shaw in 1993, Bischoff went to Shaw and interum WCW Vice President Bob Dhue to ask for the job of executive producer. Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone seemed to be the two top candidates, but Shaw and Dhue decided to go with Bischoff. Schiavone remained a producer until the company's demise, but Ross left WCW for the World Wrestling Federation. In 1994, Bischoff took Bob Dhue's VP job. In 1996, Bill Shaw was reassigned from WCW, and by 1997, Bischoff was the President of WCW.

Related Topics:
Tony Schiavone - Jim Ross - Bill Watts - Bill Shaw - 1993 - Bob Dhue - World Wrestling Federation - 1994 - 1996 - 1997

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bischoff was responsible for signing away many of the then-WWF's biggest names such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and others. He also introduced stars like The Giant, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, DDP, Dean Malenko, Rey Misterio Jr., Ultimo Dragon, and Goldberg to national wrestling audiences in North America.

Related Topics:
Hulk Hogan - Randy Savage - Kevin Nash - Scott Hall - The Giant - Eddie Guerrero - Chris Jericho - DDP - Dean Malenko - Rey Misterio Jr. - Ultimo Dragon - Goldberg - North America

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At first, Bischoff was mainly just a puppet for the bigger WTBS executives and ran the company by using as little money as possible. But Bischoff knew this would get them nowhere, and he soon convinced Ted Turner to better finance WCW in order to compete with the WWF.

Related Topics:
WTBS - Ted Turner

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bischoff's main goal was to turn WCW around and make it profitable for the first time under Turner Broadcasting's ownership. According to Bischoff, WCW had been a horribly mismanaged company from practically the moment that Turner bought it in 1988. Bischoff's predecessors included WCW Vice Presidents Jim Herd (1988-1991), Kip Allen Frey (1991-1992), and Bill Watts (1992-1993). Bischoff tried to solve WCW's initial financial woes by cutting costs as best as possible, becoming more efficient in television production, and producing more PPVs (first 7 a year, then 10, and then once a month).

Related Topics:
1988 - Jim Herd - 988 - 1991 - Kip Allen Frey - 1992 - Bill Watts - PPVs

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Monday Nitro

In 1995, the same year WCW returned a profit for the first time ever, Bischoff created Monday Nitro. During a meeting with Turner, Scott Sassa, and Nick Lambros, Turner asked Bischoff how could they possibly compete with WWF. Bischoff told Turner to put WCW on prime time TV to compete with the WWF's Monday Night Raw. At the time, the flagship show for WCW was WCW Saturday Night, which aired at 6:05 p.m. on the East Coast. Turner then turned to Sassa and told him to give Bischoff a prime time slot every Monday on TNT.

Related Topics:
1995 - Monday Nitro - Scott Sassa - Nick Lambros - Prime time - Monday Night Raw - East Coast - TNT

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

To showcase that WCW had a superior product, Bischoff signed lauded young wrestlers from All Japan, New Japan, and many others, filling the undercard with superb, action-packed matches. No matter what anyone said about the WWF vs. WCW war, WCW clearly had a superior stable of young high-fliers who had never been seen before a North American audience. Vince McMahon, generally speaking, had always been a bigger fan of heavyweight wrestling, while Bischoff preferred the high-flying style. Bischoff claims to have used the term cruiserweight before anyone else in wrestling.

Related Topics:
All Japan - New Japan - Cruiserweight

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Just like McMahon cast himself in the on-camera role of a play-by-play announcer, Bischoff did the same thing in the early days of Nitro. Since Nitro was broadcast live and McMahon's Monday Night Raw was taped, Bischoff jumped on the chance to give away Raw's results. Nitro beat Raw in their first head-to-head week. After this, Bischoff insisted on getting a leg up on Raw by starting Nitro at 7:57 p.m. Eastern Time and ending approximately five minutes after Raw went off the air for the night.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For the remainder of the year, Raw and Nitro were neck-and-neck. Considering that most industry insiders had expected Nitro to be cancelled within two months, this was a huge accomplishment for Bischoff and WCW.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

nWo

Bischoff was responsible for the groundbreaking WCW vs. nWo feud, making WCW the most-watched wrestling promotion in North America. The nWo made wrestling cool again, and is largely considered the greatest wrestling storyline of all time, arguably just as important as the famous WWF Austin vs. McMahon storyline. Because of this, in 1997, his parent company created the title of President of WCW just for him.

Related Topics:
NWo - Feud

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1996, Bischoff revealed that WWF superstar Scott Hall, better known to audiences as "Razor Ramon", was defecting from the WWF to join WCW. It was the beginning of an storyline that would see wrestling hit its boom period. Hall would soon be joined in WCW by Kevin Nash, who was known best to wrestling fans as "Diesel" during his WWF tenure, in forming the New World Order (nWo). In an inspired storyline, the duo were depicted as "outsiders" invading the company. Indeed, the appearance of two such recognizable WWF superstars on a WCW program was thrilling for wrestling fans. Bischoff exploited this, and for a while the two men were never mentioned by name, implying that they really were Razor Ramon and Diesel, representing WCW's arch rival, the WWF. The wheels of the nWo were set in motion when perrennial fan-favorite and iconic wrestling hero Hulk Hogan shocked his adoring fanbase by aligning himself with the unscrupulous pair. Many more big name stars would join their ranks as their mission to "take over" WCW gathered pace. Bischoff himself would eventually join the nefarious faction.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The storyline was immediately successful, and secured WCW's spot as the new number one wrestling promotion in America. Monday Nitro defeated Monday Night Raw by a wide margin for 84 consecutive weeks in the ratings. It ultimately got to a point that Bischoff was so sure of a ratings victory, that he stopped checking the ratings. He even went as far as one week on Nitro, celebrating by sitting in the ring on a motorcycle with a crown on his head. At this time, he was the most powerful executive in the wrestling industry. Wade Keller claimed Bischoff had the Midas touch.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bischoff also enjoyed some mainstream exposure in his own right at the time. He appeared on the HBO series Arli$$ as well as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Related Topics:
HBO - Arli$$ - The Tonight Show - Jay Leno

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Downfall

Arguably, WCW's downfall began with the "Butts in the Seats" incident. On January 4, 1999, when both companies were absolutely exploding in popularity, Nitro was scheduled to air alongside a taped edition of Raw. As usual, Bischoff sent WCW employees to the Raw taping to find out the results of the night's matches and then report back to him. The night of the taping, former WCW wrestler Mick Foley won the WWF Champsionship. The night of January 4, Bischoff instructed Tony Schiavone to remark, "I hear that Mick Foley, who once wrestled for us as Cactus Jack, is going to win their title tonight. That should put some butts in the seats." Bischoff's intention was to "spoil" the main event, causing fans to lose interest in Raw and stay tuned in to Nitro. Instead, there was a significant backlash; Nielsen ratings showed that within minutes of Bischoff's announcement, over 600,000 Nitro viewers switched the channel to Raw so they could see the title change. However, it wasn't a total failure. Both shows broke ratings records that night, and Nitro beat five of Raw's quarter hours. For months afterwards, fans showed up to WWF shows holding signs reading "Mick Foley put my butt in a seat," signs which received prolonged attention from WWF cameras during pans of the crowd. It proved to be a turning point in the Monday Night Wars. Even though Nitro ratings were still very solid in the 4.5-5.0 range, Nitro never again beat Raw in the ratings.

Related Topics:
January 4 - 1999 - Mick Foley - WWF Champsionship - Tony Schiavone

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frustrated and burnt-out, Bischoff lost his cocky attitude. His TV presence dissappeared, and he began looking for an out from WCW, often missing shows so he could pitch ideas to TV executives in Hollywood, being introduced by his friend Jason Hervey as "The Golden Boy who saved wrestling." While wandering elsewhere, Bischoff left Kevin Nash and Nitro producer Craig Leathers in charge of WCW, and ratings tanked. When Bischoff finally returned, the company was in terrible shape, and Bischoff's sollution of throwing money at the problem created in itself more problems. On top of this, he seemingly could not produce a follow-up to the nWo cash-cow that had been milked dry. Storylines were utterly confusing. He decided to hold a ridiculous contest in which a lucky Nitro fan would be elligable to win a million dollars of Time Warner money. A new Year's Eve concert, performed by Kiss, was to be co-branded with WCW.

Related Topics:
Hollywood - Jason Hervey - Craig Leathers - Kiss

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

However, all plans were scrapped when, on September 10, 1999, Bischoff was sent home by President of TBS Sports Harvey Schiller, although the decision was made by top executives on Time Warner's board of directors. The parent company even went so far as to ban Bischoff from WCW offices. The management change, which lit the Internet on fire, went un-mentioned on Nitro. The WCW website claimed it would have more information on Bischoff's involvement in the coming weeks, yet the company seemed ready to quickly forget him. All images and references to Bischoff were banned from WCW programming. The former WCW savior had been exiled.

Related Topics:
September 10 - 1999 - Harvey Schiller - Internet - Website

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

But the grass isn't always greener. Bill Busch, a company bean-counter, became Vice President after Bischoff's departure, and WCW lost even more money. A power-struggle between longtime WCW booker Kevin Sullivan and former WWF creative director Vince Russo ensued, resulting in a terribly confusing and inconsistant product that made the last months of the Bischoff era seem watchable. Ratings dropped even lower. Eventually, this cost Busch his job, and Brad Siegel, a Time Warner programming executive, assumed control of WCW. Thanks to this, Bischoff brielfy came back into power as a writer in April 2000 to try to revitalize business, but it was to no avail. After six weeks of working with Russo, Bischoff left; Russo subsequently took control of all the bookings.

Related Topics:
Bill Busch - Kevin Sullivan - Vince Russo - Brad Siegel - April 2000

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In late 2000, WCW, facing financial peril following the events of the past two years, was put up for sale. Brad Siegel wanted little to do with the company, and his new boss in the AOL Time Warner merger was an AOL executive named Jamie Kellner, who wanted even less to do with the company. Bischoff and a group of investors called Fusient Media Ventures signed a letter of intent to buy WCW, but later backed out when Kellner cancelled Nitro's ever-valuable timeslot. After McMahon bought WCW for a substantially lower price than what Bischoff and Fusient Media Ventures offered in March 2001, Bischoff took some time off from wrestling to work on other TV projects. He produced several reality TV shows and even signed on as President of Matrats, a youth-based wrestling company.

Related Topics:
Brad Siegel - AOL Time Warner - Jamie Kellner - Fusient Media Ventures - March 2001 - Reality TV - Matrats

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~