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Eric Bischoff

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Eric Bischoff
File:190px-EricBischoffBaldPortrait.jpg
BornMay 27 1957
Detroit, Michigan
Professional wrestling career
Ring nameEric Bischoff
Billed height5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Billed weight195 lb (88 kg)
Debut1987

Eric Bischoff (born May 27 1957 in Detroit, Michigan), is a former professional wrestling promoter and on-screen personality, most known for serving as President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and later "on-air" General Manager of World Wrestling Entertainment's RAW brand.

Life before wrestling

Bischoff was a wrestling fan growing up in a rough Detroit neighborhood. He relocated to Pittsburgh just before high school, which is where he began studying martial arts. He held a 1st degree black belt in karate. Bischoff moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota for his senior year of high school. He briefly attended the University of Minnesota.

Before getting into professional wrestling Bischoff had a number of occupations. He owned a successful construction company, worked as a veterinary assistant, and, for a time, ran a butcher's shop where he would sell the meat by van delivery. Hulk Hogan would famously refer to this time in his life during a promo saying: If it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff would still be selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis. [1]

American Wrestling Association

Bischoff started his wrestling career in 1987 for the American Wrestling Association (AWA). Eric was a telecaster and syndicator for the company (Verne Gagne is quoted as saying he thought Eric "had a face that was meant for television," but his announcing at this point was, even according to Bischoff himself, admittedly mediocre). Contrary to popular belief, Eric claims he never had any creative input in the company, and denies ever being a "gopher".

World Championship Wrestling

In 1991, Bischoff joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as an announcer, debuting at The Great American Bash.

As an announcer, Bischoff reported to producer Tony Schiavone and WCW's Vice President of Broadcasting, Jim Ross. After WCW head Bill Watts was fired by TBS executive Bill Shaw in 1993, Bischoff went to Shaw and WCW Vice President Bob Dhue to ask for the job of executive producer. Although Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone seemed to be the two top candidates, Shaw and Dhue went with Bischoff. Schiavone remained a producer until the company's demise, but Ross was soon fired by Bischoff and ended up in the rival World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

In 1994, Bischoff became a Vice President, and cleared house within the WCW front office. He famously fired event manager Don Sandefeur, junior Vice President Jim Barnett, and his old boss Bob Dhue, all on the same day (in a 10/14 blog entry on his website, Bischoff denied this, stating that Sandefeur and Dhue never reported to him). In 1996, Bill Shaw was reassigned from WCW, leaving Eric with the title of Executive Vice President/General Manager, and by 1997, Bischoff was promoted to President of World Championship Wrestling by the head of TBS Sports, Dr. Harvey Schiller.

Bischoff convinced Turner executives to better finance WCW in order to compete with the WWF. Almost immediatley he used the money alloted him to sign big names such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and others away from the WWF. He also invested money in production values and increased the number of WCW pay-per-views (first 7 a year, then 10, and then once a month). The plans paid off, and in 1995 WCW turned a profit for the first time.

Monday Nitro

Main article: WCW Monday Nitro

During one WCW meeting in 1995, Ted Turner asked Bischoff how the company could possibly compete with the WWF. Bischoff, taken aback by the question, told Turner to put WCW on prime time television against the WWF's Monday Night RAW. At the time, the flagship show for WCW was WCW Saturday Night, which ran on Saturday Nights at 6:05, and as such there was no direct competition between WCW and (the more popular) WWF for viewers. To the surprise of many within the wrestling industry, Turner agreed, and gave Bischoff a 1 hour prime time slot every Monday on TNT (in 1996, due to high ratings, it would expand to 2 hours, and eventually 3 hours in 1998).

Bischoff designed and produced the new show, WCW Monday Nitro, and showcased the company as a fresh alternative to the WWF. While new episodes of RAW were taped weeks in advance, Nitro was live each week, with Bischoff often giving away RAW results to encourage viewers to watch his show instead. Because WCW and TNT were both part of Turner, Bischoff was able to start Nitro several minutes earlier than RAW, as well as provide a late-night rebroadcast so viewers who still opted to watch RAW could still see the show. With the influx of new money Bischoff also began signing wrestlers from around the world, including All Japan and New Japan, to fill the undercard with quicker paced, more action-packed matches.

The plan worked as Nitro beat RAW in their first head-to-head week and ran neck-and-neck with the WWF for the remainder of the year.

nWo

Main article: New World Order (professional wrestling)

In 1996, Bischoff revealed that WWF superstar Scott Hall, better known to audiences as "Razor Ramon", was defecting from the WWF to join WCW. Hall was soon be joined by Kevin Nash, better known as "Diesel", to become "The Outsiders". The duo was depicted as invading WCW on behalf of the WWF to start a "war" between the two companies (though Bischoff was later forced to clarify that Hall and Nash did not represent and were not under contract to the WWF).

The Outsiders expanded and became The New World Order when perennial fan-favorite Hulk Hogan aligned himself with the Outsiders. Led by the nWo storyline, WCW overtook the WWF as the number one wrestling promotion in America with Monday Nitro's rating defeating Monday Night RAW's by a wide margin for 84 consecutive weeks. Through this Bischoff moved from a commentator to a manager type role in the nWo and enjoyed a lot of screen time. He also enjoyed some mainstream exposure in his own right at the time, appearing on the HBO series Arli$$ as well as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Downfall

By January 1999, however, the WWF had begun catching up to WCW in the ratings. On January 4, 1999, a live Nitro was scheduled to air alongside a taped edition of RAW. The night of the taping -- a week earlier, former WCW wrestler Mick Foley won the WWF Championship. On 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. Huh! 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 the announcement, nearly 300,000 Nitro viewers switched the channel to RAW so they could see the title change. However, both shows broke quarter-hour ratings records that night, and Nitro beat five of RAW's quarter hours. It proved to be a turning point in the "Wars". Even though Nitro ratings were still very solid, in the 4.5-5.0 range, Nitro never beat RAW in the ratings again.

Frustrated and burnt-out, Bischoff lost his cocky attitude. His TV presence disappeared, 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 quickly tanked. When Bischoff returned, the company was in terrible shape, and Bischoff's solution of throwing money at the problem created more problems. On top of this, he seemingly could not produce a follow-up to the nWo cash-cow that had been milked dry and was now being dragged on and on. Storylines were confusing and guest appearances by Master P, Chad Brock (himself a former WCW jobber), KISS, and Megadeth (reportedly paid between $200,000 - 500,000 each to perform one song) failed to garner the interest of the casual fan while losing the viewership of faithful fans.

Bischoff ousted/The Death of WCW

All plans were scrapped when, on September 10, 1999, Bischoff was sent home by President of TBS Sports, Dr. Harvey Schiller, although the decision was made by top executives on Time Warner's board of directors. In August, when WCW was projecting huge losses for the upcoming months, a meeting was held with WCW's accountants and TBS executives in the sports and programming divisions. Presiding over this was Dr. Schiller, who shot down the prospect of firing Bischoff. Hours after this meeting ended, WCW executives Gary Juster and James J. Dillon staged a coup, going over their boss's boss's head and meeting with members of Time Warner's board of directors directly to try getting Bischoff demoted, and to everyone's astonishment, it worked. Bischoff was replaced with WCW accountant Bill Busch (the title "President of WCW," which had been created specifically for Eric Bischoff, was eliminated, with Busch being named "Executive Vice President of business operations") and the parent company went so far as to ban Bischoff from the WCW offices. A month long promoted contest for one million dollars and a KISS concert/wrestling PPV scheduled for December 31, 1999 were cancelled as well as a planned Nitro animated series.

Many in the company were shocked to see Bischoff go. For all of his failings, he was seen as the only manager of a successful WCW, and less than a year prior was considered the kingpin of the entire wrestling business. On top of this, he had always been tight with Turner Broadcasting higher-ups and with Ted Turner himself, who considered Bischoff his wrestling visionary. When Turner's role within Time Warner was reduced to being a member of the board rather than acting chairman, Bischoff lost his favor. The management change went un-mentioned on WCW television. 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 removed from WCW programming.

Less than six months went by before Bill Busch was removed (under Busch's watch, WCW began bleeding money uncontrollably despite Busch's reputation as a numbers specialist, and ratings plummetted to embarrassing lows), and Brad Siegel, a Time Warner programming executive, officially assumed control of WCW. Siegel's first order of business was to ask Eric what could be done to save the company, and because of this, Bischoff briefly came back into power in April 2000, although not as president; instead, he was named event and television manager, and was to be partners-in-charge with creative director Vince Russo. Unhappy with Russo's booking (which Bischoff would later describe as "dark, mean-spirited, and creatively shallow"), Bischoff left the company after six weeks; Russo subsequently took control of all wrestling and television operations, while John Laurinaitis became event manager.

Attempted purchase Of WCW

In late 2000, with WCW facing major financial woes, the company 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 former WB Network executive Jamie Kellner, who wanted even less to do with the company. In the Turner era, WCW had always been classified as a sports division, yet under the new corporate umbrella it was overseen by television executives, many of whom hated the idea of wrestling on their station, seeing it as "low brow", and attempted to remove it entirely.

Bischoff and a group of investors, named Fusient Media Ventures, signed a letter of intent to buy the company, but later backed out when Kellner cancelled Nitro's timeslot, without which, as Bischoff had said, "WCW would only be worth...20 bucks." Without the Fusient interest WCW was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation for a substantially lower price (approximately US $2,000,000) than what had been offered in March 2001. Bischoff took some time off from wrestling to work on other TV projects. He produced several reality TV shows and signed on as president of Matrats, a youth-based wrestling company.

World Wrestling Entertainment

In 2002, Bischoff was hired by World Wrestling Entertainment to be the general manager of RAW, a role he played until late 2005. His debut as RAW GM was very unexpected, especially in today's "Internet age", where behind the scenes deals and happenings are readily available before they transpire on television. Bischoff resurrected his characteristic brand of smarminess with the GM position, again playing the arrogant heel character he had perfected as the nWo boss in WCW.

Off-screen, many in the company were shocked that Bischoff was brought in, and some who did business with him in the past - most notably Ric Flair - were unhappy. Vince McMahon, however said "Bischoff is an excellent performer. And he was innovative, and he was unquestionably ruthless. Those are qualities that anyone can endear themselves to me." His reign as GM was longer than any other GM in WWE history, and included "innovations" like the "Raw Roulette" (a wheel with different match possibilities on it), and the Elimination Chamber, as well as feuds with Stone Cold Steve Austin, John Cena, SmackDown! GM Stephanie McMahon, and Extreme Championship Wrestling representative Paul Heyman.

Bischoff was (kayfabe) fired as General Manager in late 2005, when Vince McMahon tossed him into a garbage dumpster - following a "trial" where his history of unscrupulous actions were listed - and driven out of the arena. Bischoff then sat out the remainder of his contract, which expired in July of 2006, writing a book.

On September 25, 2006 Bischoff appeared on WWE TV for the first time in close to a year, being brought into the ring by Jonathan Coachman where he proceeded to promote his recently finished book, Controversy Creates Cash (ISBN 141652729X), and take several "cheap shots" at Vince McMahon and WWE. During his segment Bischoff stated "without Monday Nitro there would be no Monday Night RAW...without the nWo there would be no DX...and without Eric Bischoff there would be no Mr. McMahon". After the personal crack at McMahon at the end of his tirade, Bischoff's microphone was (kayfabe) turned off and he was escorted out of the building.

A few days later John Bradshaw Layfield conducted a four-part interview with Bischoff, further discussing his book, on WWE.com. During the interview Bischoff discussed various topics, such as his true feelings towards Lex Luger, his thoughts on ECW promoter Paul Heyman, his questionable decision of giving Kevin Nash booking power, and his overall reaction to the Monday Night Wars.

Controversy Creates Cash was reportedly sold out through the official WWE webstore as early as October 3, two weeks before its planned release. [2]

Bischoff will be one of three options for special guest referee in the tag-team match between D-Generation X and Edge and Randy Orton at Cyber Sunday 2006. Fans will vote on-line as to whom they want to want to be the special guest referee (also includes Vince McMahon and Jonathan Coachman).

Life outside wrestling

Bischoff, with Jason Hervey, runs his own production company, Bischoff-Hervey Productions, which co-produced the reality TV series I Want To Be a Hilton for NBC in 2005. They also produced a live Girls Gone Wild pay-per-view event from Florida in 2003 with the WWE and another pay-per-view about the popular Sturgis, South Dakota motorcycle rally in 2004. Currently, they are working on a reality series project with Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst.

Today, Bischoff lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife, Loree, and two children. He has completed a book about his time in World Championship Wrestling, entitled Controversy Creates Cash, which was released on October 17th, 2006.

Championships and accomplishments

  • Executive in Charge of Production (1993-1994)
  • Executive Vice President (1994-1995)
  • Senior Vice President of Wrestling Operations (1995-1997)
  • President of WCW (1997-1999)
  • 1-Time WCW Hardcore Champion
  • Mat Rats
  • President of business strategies (2001)
  • 2005 Best Non-Wrestler

Trivia

  • In 1989, Bischoff auditioned for an announcer's position with the World Wrestling Federation, but Vince McMahon turned him down. In a July 2003 interview, Vince McMahon said: "I regret not hiring Bischoff at the time. To be honest, I don't recall his audition, and I don't know why I wouldn't. He has a great look. He has a great on-camera presence. I don't know why we didn't grab him at the time."
  • Highest-paid Turner executive in the TBS Sports division (1998)
  • According to official WCW history, Bischoff defeated Vince McMahon via count-out at Slamboree 1998. Bischoff challenged McMahon to show up and fight him at the WCW PPV, but McMahon declined. Years later, on a February 2004 edition of WWE RAW, the two (kayfabe) fought to a no-contest.
  • Eric Bischoff's wife Loree posed in Playboy.
  • In spite of the fact that firing someone due to injury was considered taboo in wrestling, Bischoff did it frequently, with the most noteworthy people being Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ricky Steamboat,Davey Boy Smith, and Sean Waltman. He would handle such firings in very impersonable ways, such as by fax machine or FedEx.
  • Former WCW and WWE wrestler and "Points" style Karate Champion Ernest Miller was a Karate instructor for Eric Bischoff's son, Garrett.

References

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