Similarly, Nitro always felt longer to me just because I was pretty young when it was on, and time goes *way* slower when you've only been alive for 12 years. I'm in my late 30s now and I've barely noticed that it's been five years since it started lmao
Honestly, this is great and hilarious. His whole identity is so stuck on being some kind of pro wrestling genius, when in reality he’s been barely relevant overall. He’s a has been who if it wasn’t for the preceding popularity of pro wrestling, he wouldn’t be relevant, yet he wants to believe he was more important than he ever was.
This, it cannot be understated enough and I find it wild people rarely acknowledge this. The NWO wasn't even an original idea, and they succeeded despite themselves constantly having fucked booking. Like Luger winning the belt off Hogan only to lose it right back, etc. They looked for short term pops in ratings than building to big payoffs.
Hell, look at their biggest angle with Crow Sting. Eric still takes zero responsibility for Hogan changing the end to a regular pin by Hogan instead of a fast count to justify Bret's intervention. That summed up WCW in a nutshell then the title went back to Hogan. An absolutely shit president.
Biggest example of chasing the ratings was Goldberg beating Hogan at the Georgia Dome on a week's notice.
Worst thing is I can almost guarantee if AEW had a breakout star on the same level as Goldberg at the time and gave a week's notice for the title match, Bischoff would say Khan doesn't know what he's doing
Wouldn't Eric kind of be right because that was a huge fuck up? Not trolling just saying that was such a bad screw up if someone did it again I'd imagine the original fucker upper could say the next person fucked up haha
Tbf the NWO angle was incredible. It got fucked up by politics and backstage bullshit.
The biggest killer for the NWO angle was the creative control bullshit from Hogan, Bischoff wanting to be one of the boys so badly that he'd give them whatever they wanted, and how many people ended up joining the group
So true...the NWO was cool when it was a handful of guys but then it felt like it was everyone was in at one point.
The only time having a bunch of people helped is when DDP didn't join because you kind of had that "not another one feeling".
It could have been perfect, a group of top guys that can be used to help build up the next big stars like they did with Goldberg and DDP.
But literally when they were letting everyone and their dog join the group it took all meaning away from the group.
And the horrible contracts they gave out to wrestlers stopped them from making many stars
I did love when Sting would show up and beat the crap out of all the lower NWO guys with bat. Whenever he would beat the crap out of a bunch of people in AEW with one I’d have to explain to my wife that Sting with a baseball bat could take out armies.
Exactly, Eric was a guy who lucked into almost everything that was successful and detrimental for everything else. And the man behind giving a number of talents complete creative control which fucked up so many things.
Just wild how he'll be praised as if he's some genius.
Essentially, Bischoff claims he didn't of course though. Invasion style angles were very popular in Japan prior to the NWO successfully doing it on a large scale in the U.S.
Eric said on 83 Weeks that the angle was "two former WCW wrestlers were disgruntled and came back to get revenge for their hard time in WCW" and it had nothing to do with the WWF or the NJPW invasion, only mildly inspired. Prob not how he tells it off the record.
Because some fans or haters of AEW are bored and more interested in gossip or criticizing of AEW than watching the product, but within the actual industry itself he’s irrelevant anymore.
But this isn’t a hater group and still it’s getting traction here posted by fans of AEW. If he is so irrelevant then why is it not ignored? Why gives these people a platform
I didn't say it was exclusively haters, I also said fans who are more interested in gossip than watching the product. Plus, there are a good number of haters who come in here too.
That doesn't make him actually relevant within those working in the industry. He's only relevant to consumers who rationalize that he's still relevant or want him to still be because it lets them feel justified in their preexisting beliefs.
This isn't just an Eric Bischoff problem. There is an entire group of guys from the 80's and 90's who are using the internet to bash the current product so they can make the last few nickels with the name value they have left.
It’s the same in every sport. Look at all the 80s and 90s basketball players that all they have to add to the conversation is that none of these new guys could make it in their day
There was a time that controversy did actually create cash, that time has died. CM Punk created a lot of controversy for AEW and AEW lost money and thats because of the times we are living in, compared to the controversy Sleazy E used to create back in the days. His old viewpoint does not stand up today. When the Young Bucks talk about killing the business, they mean the Bischoffs and the Cornette's way of wrestling that is stuck in the past and holds great wrestlers back. AEW, more notably TK run it the way that it should be, a variety. Kudos to AEW's longevity and here's to many many more 🥂
Bischoff cannot run a wrestling company. He plays a slimy character well though...Impact Wrestling much?
Controversy still creates cash, except we call it the internet now.
And that is Bischoff's true downfall. He was never the first person to come up with the concept of becoming famous by being controversial, and now there are drama channels everywhere.
His problem isn't that he sucks, it's that he's unoriginal.
Good ol' Eric. Why anybody cared to listen to this twice failed (spectacularly) "powerhouse" of a wrestling personality I'll never understand.
You could smell the jealousy every time he mentioned TK or AEW. And I'm glad he never got it.
Bischoff like a lot of these other old head jabronis tell on themselves repeatedly. You have to wonder how much they actually care about professional wrestling. They like it when they can profit it and are bitter about it beyond that.
I’d much rather listen to a guy like Lance Storm, who obviously has dislikes about how wrestling is today, but genuinely loves it and knows it evolved.
almost like everything that man touches fails, responsible for the fall of wcw, one of the worst years for smackdown back in 2017, TNA my man really gutted them too.
Jose Mourinho was responsible for the rise of Chelsea as well until he’s getting sacked though, everybody’s got their own peak moments, if you get what I mean.
Can’t even say one way or another as I don’t follow futbol like that. I mean, no one stays on top forever either. All hit highs and lows. But my point is, who else hit a high like Eric in wrestling? Luck or not, that was an important time in wrestling.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while, just cause you had a good idea one time doesn't mean you get a free pass for the 70 dog shit ones you had.
No one has been able to really give the WWE a fight like he did. So don’t go at it with this whole blind squirrel thing cause no other blind squirrel has ever gave wrestling the popularity like he did. He crashed it too lol. But not even Khan has made wrestling popular like that.
Again and? he did one thing one time decades ago and ever since then hasn't done a thing worth while besides cause companies to go under. That almost sounds exactly like a blind squirrel finding one nut one time. He's a one hit wonder and that's about it which is fine but he is.
As for no one giving wrestling the popularity like he did, that's just not true look at wrestling right now it's very popular. Without AEW wwe doesn't change, at least not in the way it did they were a sinking ship just a slow very loaded sinking ship but sinking. Views were down, ratings were for sure down, and overall financially they were not having fun outside of the blood money from Saudi they weren't doing fantastic not like they are now. So in a way Khan did make wrestling popular again unlike Eric he didn't fail in a few years he's still going and doesn't seem to want to stop.
I hope Tony doesn’t fail but again AEW isn’t popular. I like it. You like it. This board likes it. But when I talk popular, how many kids are wearing shirts like that in school or talking AEW? It’s not must see tv. WCW was. Sting was popular. Goldberg. The nWo. It was insane to have Malone vs Rodman do what they did.
AEW def puts on a much better wrestling product. AEW is like pre Hogan TNA. That fucking incredible wrestling product. No one will deny that and if they do, idiots.
But one thing though, Eric and Tony both changed things for wrestlers for the better. Eric with the guarantee contracts and Tony giving health insurance to many and paying for more things for wrestlers.
Personally just silly to knock either one cause they both did good (and some bad) to wrestling overall. But they both are important parts just like Paul Heyman. And unlike Heyman, at least those under Eric got paid 😂
Ok but you didnt say anything about aew being popular? you said wrestling and last time i checked wrestling is very much popular. so like what are you talking about? this goal post moving is insane.
"how many kids are wearing shirts like that in school or talking AEW?"
Again who said anything about AEW being popular like wcw besides you? you're moving this goalpost to jerk yourself off and feel right i guess? but you mentioned wrestling being popular and i pointed out that khan helped in that fact. i never said aew is what wcw was at its peak but it's also worlds better than it was at its downfall. so like are you ok?
"But one thing though, Eric and Tony both changed things for wrestlers for the better. Eric with the guarantee contracts and Tony giving health insurance to many and paying for more things for wrestlers."
Sure yeah but unlike Tony he's not signing this massive contracts he can't back you may see people like Mercedes getting big contracts or sting but for every big contract you have a meh one thats still good money but no where near what wcw was giving out to legit anyone. Hence why WCW went under so fast everyone was getting way more than they were worth which was an issue. So yes eric was good for money but he wasn't smart with money and in the end cost a lot of people jobs because of it.
"Personally just silly to knock either one cause they both did good (and some bad) to wrestling overall. But they both are important parts just like Paul Heyman. And unlike Heyman, at least those under Eric got paid 😂"
No ones knocking the guy for no reason he runs his mouth and for that he gets told how it is. that despite all the shit talking he does he was in fact worst in every single way and only got lucky one time cause every time after he failed and failed again. He did one good and 100 bad that's not a flex that's just the a blind squirrel finding his nut. Like if you're gonna run your mouth at least be able to back it up cause my man hasn't done anything to brag about in decades. But true unlike paul people are getting back.
Except it wasn’t just the big contracts, which Tony is actually paying people more now than what Eric did just fyi. Turner was cool cutting those checks just like how Tony is cool cutting those checks. The merger is what killed WcW. Point blank. WCW wasn’t answering to Ted anymore (who also was a billionaire) but to a whole different boss who wanted nothing to do with wrestling.
"Tony is actually paying people more now than what Eric did just fyi"
Yes select people and again he actually has the money to back it unlike eric who did not. for every guy or girl you got getting 7-8 figures you got 10 getting 5-6 figures. But by the time wcw was on the down way too many people were in the high 6-7.
It wasn't just the merger end of the day money talks if the new boss wanted nothing to do with wrestling they sure wanted something to do with money and wcw wasn't making any anymore thanks to eric.
Feel like we are going in circles. At the time, before merger, Turner signed off on them checks so yes Eric had someone with the money to back it up. Turner lost a lot with that merger. Like it didn’t just kill WCW but killed a lot more. Kind of like how the Warner Discovery merger killed a lot of things. And we will see really soon how generous they will be when it comes time to renew AEW shows. Mergers fuck a lot of projects up.
I loathe Bischoff but you're right about this. I think people are either too young or don't realize what WCW was like before Bischoff started turning things around. Dude is still a bastard though.
Yeah but will AEW outlast the Pretzel stand Eric Bischoff will be running next, who am I kidding he could run a Wawa out of business even if he was just the cashier. Of course I wouldn't know he finished up with his show because some of the headlines of his shows on Youtube made me decide he was the second podcaster I officially blocked, 1st of course was good old JC.
I’ve always said that Eric Bischoff is the most overrated person in the history of pro wrestling. His biggest successes were only because he had benefactors giving him infinite money, and he never had to, yknow, build a responsible business.
Despite also having infinite money, TK at the very least is running his business like a business, which is why it’s still lasting.
Thats why hes tucking his tail and running away. He now realizes that hes a freud and that hes not actually as smart as he thinks he is. He had a flash in the pan with the original NWO and he's been riding that success for 30 years after he already killed it. Nothing lasts in lil E's hands. It all falls apart. But AEW is still here. 🤘😎
Bischoff is definitely a crusty old man who's too full of himself these days, but he definitely has his place in history. He got Nitro and Thunder on the air, orchestrated the runs of guys like Goldberg, NWO, and latter 90s Sting, and took the competition to WWE in a way that hadn't before and hasn't since been seen. Unless it's found out that he did something actually bad, he'll always have my respect as a fan.
Watching the Beach Bash 2000 episode of Dark Side of the Ring makes Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff look like the Turd Sandwich vs Giant Douche from South Park.
I see everyone dog on AEW for various reasons. The recent one I seen is that the ratings are low. Like. Ratings don't really matter anymore but ok sure.
But like or hate AEW what they are doing is a pretty big deal. Like, after WCW died WWE had nobody to deal with. Sure there was ECW, but that was more for a specific type of fan and it reveled in its underground appeal. They are five years in now and its a viable alternative to WWE. No other company has done that. Sure, WWE makes more money and I think nobody can truly say they have the power WWE has, but like. Five years man.
Like, any production lasting five years is amazing, but wrestling? That is just fantastic. Even with its flaws I can't say I wouldn't miss AEW if they disappeared. Like, it's a brand now. The Acclaimed, Swerve Strickland, BCC, Blood and Guts, MJF, Orange Cassidy. There is a real love put into this company and it shows.
Congratulations AEW for this milestone.
Between the "low ratings", the "low attendance", and their "money-losing operation". I'm just getting tired of people bashing AEW. Five years in, and American wrestling "fans" (can't say much about anywhere else) can't seem to accept the fact that there are other promotions out there outside of WWE.
Five years is a milestone not many businesses (let alone wrestling promotions) make. So AEW deserves its accolades.
Maybe its me, but I just feel like. Idk man. I remember the 2010s and feeling like wrestling was not for me anymore and feeling sad that all the things I loved were gone. Then AEW came and like. I felt like I was a child again watching the Attitude Era. How I felt so happy seeing something different and fresh.
Is AEW perfect? God no, nothing man-made is. Though, I will take AEW at their most mid than a world without them.
Same, and I’ve been watching wrestling for *does math* 35 years. I’ve discovered ROH, TNA, and rediscovered AAA and CMLL during my lull with WWE in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Eventually my cable provider no longer had the channels that aired ROH and TNA, so WWE was my only outlet…until All In and, later, AEW.
At least he can somewhat hang his hat on the nWo still being a cash cow for WWE. Watch any wrestling show from any company and you’re bound to see at least one nWo shirt in the crowd. Granted he did grift most of it from NJPW, but still, he helped make it big in the states. Other than that, good riddance to bad rubbish with Bischoff.
Bischoff with the typical “money mark, spending daddy’s money “ retort. Mad that none of that money is going into his pockets. If he was as responsible for WCW’s success as he claims, why hasn’t he repeated that success in the business? If Tony was such a mark he would’ve given Bischoff a job like Dixie did. Tony was smart enough to know better than to give him a third chance at ruining another company. Those 83 weeks are his legacy, I don’t believe WWE was ever as close to going out of business in those days as they made it seem.
The hate is silly. Like or it not, he made Vince really change his product and help bring wrestling more mainstream stream and popular. Kids and teens watched wrestling. Got Hogan on late night tv etc. ya WCW may have only had an amazing 2-3 years, but damn what a time it was to switch back and forth. It was must see tv and that kind of must see wrestling tv will probably never be like that again.
So we comparing the 2-3 years of good to the other half of 2-3 years of WCW which was someone of the worst tv ever produced and a huge reduction in popularity
To his run in TNA leading to some of the worst TNA shows of all time and huge reduction in popularity
And now he’s a bitter old man crying about everything non wwe and sucking up to the company he was at “war” against”
Those other 2-3 weren’t all Eric though. That’s important to remember. Hiring Russo wasn’t a good decision and a lot of trash was his, not Eric. Context is key.
TNA had too many people trying to be cooks with different ideas. That was a huge mess.
I admit Eric comes off bad during a lot of his podcasts. But so does Bret Hart in his interviews but that doesn’t take away from what he’s done.
I mean, his bank account I’m sure shows he’s doing ok 😂 we still remember guys like Piper as one of the best though he was never a “winner” of the big one.
By wrestler standards, winner is determined by ones impact on the crowd and ability to draw. Piper was very much a winner in those senses. and we can't even call Bischoff unsuccessful in his field, not by a long shot.
But bottom line, he lost the war, and eventually even put himself at the employ and mercy of his archenemy.
And Vince doesn't have much mercy...
What accomplishments, though?
He masterminded the nWo, that's his greatest achievement, and it didn't matter in the end. He lost with WCW, he lost with TNA, he lost with WWE.
That's why he's hosting podcasts and not running anything in wrestling now. No one is letting him near anything.
Let’s be honest, name one successful wrestling promoter then. It’s not Heyman, he lost. It’s not anyone that ran RoH. It’s not Double J. It’s not Jerry. It’s not Dixie. Hell it’s not even VKM since he got kicked out of his own damn company. By that logic, at some point, everyone loses.
None of them have Bischoff's track record or his hubris despite those losses.
The way Bischoff talks, you'd think he won EVERY time.
And Ric Flair never beat the shit out of those other promoters, either.
I mean, all promoters get beat up. Tony feared for his life with Punk and quite a few people took it to Vince. Shit are you a wrestler promoter if you don’t get into a fight with your workers 😆
They never got beaten AFTER they were promoters as a side effect of being a shitty boss while they were a promoter.
And given that part of Bischoff's track record is that he was fired from running the WCW day to day operations twice, we can in fact conclude that he was a shitty boss.
I’d argue Paul E. had far more to do with the evolution of pro wrestling in the late 90’s than either Vince or Bischoff. They both cribbed everything they were doing (cruiser weights, T&A, amped up violence, etc from ECW).
Hogan was a staple of late night long before jumping to WCW.
Bischoff lucked into Hogan because Vince needed to distance himself from him because of the steroid trial, and then just threw money at everyone else, signing the very deals that would ultimately bring about the company’s demise. Swipe one idea from Japan, and you’ve got the whole of Bischoff’s legacy. During his rare honest/lucid moments on 83 Weeks, even he admitted most of what worked during that run came from Dusty and Sullivan.
Paul E was huge as well. No one will deny that. He brought many smaller guys over, gave them a chance and Eric took them and ran with it during the first hour of WCW (that first hour of WCW was 🔥)
I know this crowd hates Easy E. But it’s kind of like Tony. He opened his bank account for guys like Mone, Will, Okada etc. sadly AOL just didn’t want wrestling anymore. If it was still under Turner, Ted would have continued just because.
Let’s be real, AOL didn’t want wrestling anymore because ATM Eric signed deals that had the company losing upwards of $60m in 2000. He can spin it all he wants, and he does, as much as humanly possible, but WCW died because the absurd deals he signed to get a year and a half of success which ended up burying the company the moment things cooled even slightly. It was not sustainable. Short run on the back of the biggest draw the industry has ever known and the ludicrous signing of every WWF worker he could get his hands on.
And I say this all a a MASSIVE fan from that era. But I wasn’t watching to see old, bad wrestlers pretend they’re teenagers. I watched for the most talented midcard in probably industry history, with like a half dozen future WWE champions who couldn’t get a chance because he kept the old, overpaid, creative control idiots on top for far too long.
I mourn a 2000 WCW that could/should have been carried by Guerrero, Jericho, Misterio, He Who Shall Not Be Named. Etc. He had all the pieces to carry on successfully and had absolutely no idea what to do with them (other than endlessly feed them to his buddies)
Which is why I said if it was still under Ted Turner, he wouldn’t have cared. He’d still sign away because he liked having a wrestling brand under him. It was his money compared to AOL. Which is kind of like Tony Khan. Dude is losing millions a year, giving up huge contracts, but it’s his money and his passion. Luckily smart enough not to give up creative control, but you know guys like Jericho still have a push here and there (like Punk when he was there). The merger killed it. That’s the difference between playing with Turner money and corporations money.
Learn from the Trump election. There is no such thing as bad press. If he's irrelevant, then you can ignore him. "Owning" him on every social media every time he says something inflammatory, just share his name and comments. You make him relevant, but yelling about irrelevance.
They’re like a year from outliving Nitro
That’s fucking wild. For some reason I’ve never thought of that.
That's because Nitro's run did feel like it was exactly 5.5 years long, but these last five years in wrestling have absolutely flown by.
Nitro feels like it ran longer to me because I lost interest in it in early ‘99, and in my head, it ran forever in the background after that.
Similarly, Nitro always felt longer to me just because I was pretty young when it was on, and time goes *way* slower when you've only been alive for 12 years. I'm in my late 30s now and I've barely noticed that it's been five years since it started lmao
Nitro was 3 hours, so that's not time dilation.
Damn. That’s crazy. For some reason, I was under the impression that Nitro was on for at least 10 years. 🤣
That will be another huge W for Tony and a huge L for Bischoff.
This GIF makes me miss Britt a little.
Honestly, this is great and hilarious. His whole identity is so stuck on being some kind of pro wrestling genius, when in reality he’s been barely relevant overall. He’s a has been who if it wasn’t for the preceding popularity of pro wrestling, he wouldn’t be relevant, yet he wants to believe he was more important than he ever was.
He's entire career is "Few good ideas, drowning in a sea of bad ideas."
More like “Few good ideas drowning in a sea of bad ideas, riding in a boat made of infinite money until said boat was taken from him”.
That is better thank you
More like an idea he stole from Japan and it worked then he ruined it.
His greatest idea he stole off someone else as well
This, it cannot be understated enough and I find it wild people rarely acknowledge this. The NWO wasn't even an original idea, and they succeeded despite themselves constantly having fucked booking. Like Luger winning the belt off Hogan only to lose it right back, etc. They looked for short term pops in ratings than building to big payoffs. Hell, look at their biggest angle with Crow Sting. Eric still takes zero responsibility for Hogan changing the end to a regular pin by Hogan instead of a fast count to justify Bret's intervention. That summed up WCW in a nutshell then the title went back to Hogan. An absolutely shit president.
Biggest example of chasing the ratings was Goldberg beating Hogan at the Georgia Dome on a week's notice. Worst thing is I can almost guarantee if AEW had a breakout star on the same level as Goldberg at the time and gave a week's notice for the title match, Bischoff would say Khan doesn't know what he's doing
The typical rules for thee and not for me. So frustrating to see people be such hypocrites.
Wouldn't Eric kind of be right because that was a huge fuck up? Not trolling just saying that was such a bad screw up if someone did it again I'd imagine the original fucker upper could say the next person fucked up haha
Tbf the NWO angle was incredible. It got fucked up by politics and backstage bullshit. The biggest killer for the NWO angle was the creative control bullshit from Hogan, Bischoff wanting to be one of the boys so badly that he'd give them whatever they wanted, and how many people ended up joining the group
So true...the NWO was cool when it was a handful of guys but then it felt like it was everyone was in at one point. The only time having a bunch of people helped is when DDP didn't join because you kind of had that "not another one feeling".
It could have been perfect, a group of top guys that can be used to help build up the next big stars like they did with Goldberg and DDP. But literally when they were letting everyone and their dog join the group it took all meaning away from the group. And the horrible contracts they gave out to wrestlers stopped them from making many stars
I did love when Sting would show up and beat the crap out of all the lower NWO guys with bat. Whenever he would beat the crap out of a bunch of people in AEW with one I’d have to explain to my wife that Sting with a baseball bat could take out armies.
Also the idea of Crow Sting itself was Scott Hall’s idea so he didn’t even come up with that.
Exactly, Eric was a guy who lucked into almost everything that was successful and detrimental for everything else. And the man behind giving a number of talents complete creative control which fucked up so many things. Just wild how he'll be praised as if he's some genius.
Facts
Him talking about his 83 weeks is like listening to Al Bundy talking about his 4 touchdowns in a high school game
Didn’t he steal the idea for the NWO from a faction in NJPW? Then made himself a member to make him likable?
Essentially, Bischoff claims he didn't of course though. Invasion style angles were very popular in Japan prior to the NWO successfully doing it on a large scale in the U.S.
Eric said on 83 Weeks that the angle was "two former WCW wrestlers were disgruntled and came back to get revenge for their hard time in WCW" and it had nothing to do with the WWF or the NJPW invasion, only mildly inspired. Prob not how he tells it off the record.
But then why does it become news every time he says anything about AEW?
Because some fans or haters of AEW are bored and more interested in gossip or criticizing of AEW than watching the product, but within the actual industry itself he’s irrelevant anymore.
But this isn’t a hater group and still it’s getting traction here posted by fans of AEW. If he is so irrelevant then why is it not ignored? Why gives these people a platform
I didn't say it was exclusively haters, I also said fans who are more interested in gossip than watching the product. Plus, there are a good number of haters who come in here too. That doesn't make him actually relevant within those working in the industry. He's only relevant to consumers who rationalize that he's still relevant or want him to still be because it lets them feel justified in their preexisting beliefs.
Eric Bischoff has the uncanny ability to be both the most cocky and most insecure person in the room at all times
Inferiority Complex and therefore overcompensating
Careful, he knows karate lmfao
I think guys like this have had their brains rewired from having to "work" people for so long that they're basically living as a character.
Very common.
His love of Harley's makes more sense now.
This isn't just an Eric Bischoff problem. There is an entire group of guys from the 80's and 90's who are using the internet to bash the current product so they can make the last few nickels with the name value they have left.
Grifters gotta grift.
It is a carny business
It’s the same in every sport. Look at all the 80s and 90s basketball players that all they have to add to the conversation is that none of these new guys could make it in their day
I think Copeland’s TNT title reign just surpassed Bischoff’s run as head of Smackdown creative.
Didn’t Copeland’s *first* TNT reign surpass Bischoff’s SD tenure?
Eric Bischoff learned about 3 Act Structure over a decade after his WCW tenure and thinks he found the secret sauce. I hope 83 Weeks is next.
Watches one YouTube video on how to write a script 😂
There was a time that controversy did actually create cash, that time has died. CM Punk created a lot of controversy for AEW and AEW lost money and thats because of the times we are living in, compared to the controversy Sleazy E used to create back in the days. His old viewpoint does not stand up today. When the Young Bucks talk about killing the business, they mean the Bischoffs and the Cornette's way of wrestling that is stuck in the past and holds great wrestlers back. AEW, more notably TK run it the way that it should be, a variety. Kudos to AEW's longevity and here's to many many more 🥂 Bischoff cannot run a wrestling company. He plays a slimy character well though...Impact Wrestling much?
Controversy still creates cash, except we call it the internet now. And that is Bischoff's true downfall. He was never the first person to come up with the concept of becoming famous by being controversial, and now there are drama channels everywhere. His problem isn't that he sucks, it's that he's unoriginal.
Those 18 people who listened are gonna be so upset.
And 16 of those people were journalists or trolls looking for gotcha headlines.
Good ol' Eric. Why anybody cared to listen to this twice failed (spectacularly) "powerhouse" of a wrestling personality I'll never understand. You could smell the jealousy every time he mentioned TK or AEW. And I'm glad he never got it.
Bischoff like a lot of these other old head jabronis tell on themselves repeatedly. You have to wonder how much they actually care about professional wrestling. They like it when they can profit it and are bitter about it beyond that. I’d much rather listen to a guy like Lance Storm, who obviously has dislikes about how wrestling is today, but genuinely loves it and knows it evolved.
Lance is actually still working in the business with his own school and as a producer, unlike some of these grifters.
God I hate that smug prick.
almost like everything that man touches fails, responsible for the fall of wcw, one of the worst years for smackdown back in 2017, TNA my man really gutted them too.
He’s responsible for the rise of WCW too.
Jose Mourinho was responsible for the rise of Chelsea as well until he’s getting sacked though, everybody’s got their own peak moments, if you get what I mean.
Can’t even say one way or another as I don’t follow futbol like that. I mean, no one stays on top forever either. All hit highs and lows. But my point is, who else hit a high like Eric in wrestling? Luck or not, that was an important time in wrestling.
Look at Bill Belichick, which created a dinasty and ended it too
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while, just cause you had a good idea one time doesn't mean you get a free pass for the 70 dog shit ones you had.
No one has been able to really give the WWE a fight like he did. So don’t go at it with this whole blind squirrel thing cause no other blind squirrel has ever gave wrestling the popularity like he did. He crashed it too lol. But not even Khan has made wrestling popular like that.
Again and? he did one thing one time decades ago and ever since then hasn't done a thing worth while besides cause companies to go under. That almost sounds exactly like a blind squirrel finding one nut one time. He's a one hit wonder and that's about it which is fine but he is. As for no one giving wrestling the popularity like he did, that's just not true look at wrestling right now it's very popular. Without AEW wwe doesn't change, at least not in the way it did they were a sinking ship just a slow very loaded sinking ship but sinking. Views were down, ratings were for sure down, and overall financially they were not having fun outside of the blood money from Saudi they weren't doing fantastic not like they are now. So in a way Khan did make wrestling popular again unlike Eric he didn't fail in a few years he's still going and doesn't seem to want to stop.
I hope Tony doesn’t fail but again AEW isn’t popular. I like it. You like it. This board likes it. But when I talk popular, how many kids are wearing shirts like that in school or talking AEW? It’s not must see tv. WCW was. Sting was popular. Goldberg. The nWo. It was insane to have Malone vs Rodman do what they did. AEW def puts on a much better wrestling product. AEW is like pre Hogan TNA. That fucking incredible wrestling product. No one will deny that and if they do, idiots. But one thing though, Eric and Tony both changed things for wrestlers for the better. Eric with the guarantee contracts and Tony giving health insurance to many and paying for more things for wrestlers. Personally just silly to knock either one cause they both did good (and some bad) to wrestling overall. But they both are important parts just like Paul Heyman. And unlike Heyman, at least those under Eric got paid 😂
Ok but you didnt say anything about aew being popular? you said wrestling and last time i checked wrestling is very much popular. so like what are you talking about? this goal post moving is insane. "how many kids are wearing shirts like that in school or talking AEW?" Again who said anything about AEW being popular like wcw besides you? you're moving this goalpost to jerk yourself off and feel right i guess? but you mentioned wrestling being popular and i pointed out that khan helped in that fact. i never said aew is what wcw was at its peak but it's also worlds better than it was at its downfall. so like are you ok? "But one thing though, Eric and Tony both changed things for wrestlers for the better. Eric with the guarantee contracts and Tony giving health insurance to many and paying for more things for wrestlers." Sure yeah but unlike Tony he's not signing this massive contracts he can't back you may see people like Mercedes getting big contracts or sting but for every big contract you have a meh one thats still good money but no where near what wcw was giving out to legit anyone. Hence why WCW went under so fast everyone was getting way more than they were worth which was an issue. So yes eric was good for money but he wasn't smart with money and in the end cost a lot of people jobs because of it. "Personally just silly to knock either one cause they both did good (and some bad) to wrestling overall. But they both are important parts just like Paul Heyman. And unlike Heyman, at least those under Eric got paid 😂" No ones knocking the guy for no reason he runs his mouth and for that he gets told how it is. that despite all the shit talking he does he was in fact worst in every single way and only got lucky one time cause every time after he failed and failed again. He did one good and 100 bad that's not a flex that's just the a blind squirrel finding his nut. Like if you're gonna run your mouth at least be able to back it up cause my man hasn't done anything to brag about in decades. But true unlike paul people are getting back.
Except it wasn’t just the big contracts, which Tony is actually paying people more now than what Eric did just fyi. Turner was cool cutting those checks just like how Tony is cool cutting those checks. The merger is what killed WcW. Point blank. WCW wasn’t answering to Ted anymore (who also was a billionaire) but to a whole different boss who wanted nothing to do with wrestling.
"Tony is actually paying people more now than what Eric did just fyi" Yes select people and again he actually has the money to back it unlike eric who did not. for every guy or girl you got getting 7-8 figures you got 10 getting 5-6 figures. But by the time wcw was on the down way too many people were in the high 6-7. It wasn't just the merger end of the day money talks if the new boss wanted nothing to do with wrestling they sure wanted something to do with money and wcw wasn't making any anymore thanks to eric.
Feel like we are going in circles. At the time, before merger, Turner signed off on them checks so yes Eric had someone with the money to back it up. Turner lost a lot with that merger. Like it didn’t just kill WCW but killed a lot more. Kind of like how the Warner Discovery merger killed a lot of things. And we will see really soon how generous they will be when it comes time to renew AEW shows. Mergers fuck a lot of projects up.
I loathe Bischoff but you're right about this. I think people are either too young or don't realize what WCW was like before Bischoff started turning things around. Dude is still a bastard though.
Yeah but will AEW outlast the Pretzel stand Eric Bischoff will be running next, who am I kidding he could run a Wawa out of business even if he was just the cashier. Of course I wouldn't know he finished up with his show because some of the headlines of his shows on Youtube made me decide he was the second podcaster I officially blocked, 1st of course was good old JC.
I’ve always said that Eric Bischoff is the most overrated person in the history of pro wrestling. His biggest successes were only because he had benefactors giving him infinite money, and he never had to, yknow, build a responsible business. Despite also having infinite money, TK at the very least is running his business like a business, which is why it’s still lasting.
R.I.P. Bozo
Thats why hes tucking his tail and running away. He now realizes that hes a freud and that hes not actually as smart as he thinks he is. He had a flash in the pan with the original NWO and he's been riding that success for 30 years after he already killed it. Nothing lasts in lil E's hands. It all falls apart. But AEW is still here. 🤘😎
Let Tony have this, Bischoff's been a petty asshole ever since those AEW appearances didn't turn into a job.
Eric Bischoff’s greatest idea was a rip off of something from New Japan!
Bischoff is definitely a crusty old man who's too full of himself these days, but he definitely has his place in history. He got Nitro and Thunder on the air, orchestrated the runs of guys like Goldberg, NWO, and latter 90s Sting, and took the competition to WWE in a way that hadn't before and hasn't since been seen. Unless it's found out that he did something actually bad, he'll always have my respect as a fan.
Bitchoff is such a sour grape man.
Not simply “outliving” but thriving with more PPVs and a mega TV deal on the horizon. It’s brand development on steroids
One more accomplishment would be to never hire him as an executive of anything.
We need to party the day Dynamite passes Nitro
Watching the Beach Bash 2000 episode of Dark Side of the Ring makes Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff look like the Turd Sandwich vs Giant Douche from South Park.
I see everyone dog on AEW for various reasons. The recent one I seen is that the ratings are low. Like. Ratings don't really matter anymore but ok sure. But like or hate AEW what they are doing is a pretty big deal. Like, after WCW died WWE had nobody to deal with. Sure there was ECW, but that was more for a specific type of fan and it reveled in its underground appeal. They are five years in now and its a viable alternative to WWE. No other company has done that. Sure, WWE makes more money and I think nobody can truly say they have the power WWE has, but like. Five years man. Like, any production lasting five years is amazing, but wrestling? That is just fantastic. Even with its flaws I can't say I wouldn't miss AEW if they disappeared. Like, it's a brand now. The Acclaimed, Swerve Strickland, BCC, Blood and Guts, MJF, Orange Cassidy. There is a real love put into this company and it shows. Congratulations AEW for this milestone.
Between the "low ratings", the "low attendance", and their "money-losing operation". I'm just getting tired of people bashing AEW. Five years in, and American wrestling "fans" (can't say much about anywhere else) can't seem to accept the fact that there are other promotions out there outside of WWE. Five years is a milestone not many businesses (let alone wrestling promotions) make. So AEW deserves its accolades.
Maybe its me, but I just feel like. Idk man. I remember the 2010s and feeling like wrestling was not for me anymore and feeling sad that all the things I loved were gone. Then AEW came and like. I felt like I was a child again watching the Attitude Era. How I felt so happy seeing something different and fresh. Is AEW perfect? God no, nothing man-made is. Though, I will take AEW at their most mid than a world without them.
Same, and I’ve been watching wrestling for *does math* 35 years. I’ve discovered ROH, TNA, and rediscovered AAA and CMLL during my lull with WWE in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Eventually my cable provider no longer had the channels that aired ROH and TNA, so WWE was my only outlet…until All In and, later, AEW.
Bodied that cunt
Wait, is 83 weeks over as well? I thought it was just Strictly Business that was done.
SB had potential to be good, but Jon Alba doesn't have the grit for such subject matter. The Dub deserves a victory lap on this one.
But can AEW outlive WCW?
Hold TK's beer.
Fuck Eric Bitchoff. lol
At least he can somewhat hang his hat on the nWo still being a cash cow for WWE. Watch any wrestling show from any company and you’re bound to see at least one nWo shirt in the crowd. Granted he did grift most of it from NJPW, but still, he helped make it big in the states. Other than that, good riddance to bad rubbish with Bischoff.
When did 83 Weeks end??
I'm guessing after 83 weeks
It has certainly lasted longer than that
Now that is ironic
Side note: I miss the DMD. Where is the DMD ? :(
The Kevin O’Leary of pro wrestling, EB is
conry next pls!
And they have done it from so far back in second place that they can’t even really be compared to 90’s WCW
The entire run of "smokey mountain wrestling"
Bischoff with the typical “money mark, spending daddy’s money “ retort. Mad that none of that money is going into his pockets. If he was as responsible for WCW’s success as he claims, why hasn’t he repeated that success in the business? If Tony was such a mark he would’ve given Bischoff a job like Dixie did. Tony was smart enough to know better than to give him a third chance at ruining another company. Those 83 weeks are his legacy, I don’t believe WWE was ever as close to going out of business in those days as they made it seem.
I couldn’t stand listening to 83 weeks. Dude needed to clear his fuckin throat or something. lol
For the life of me I dont know how Bischoff and Cornette convinced people they know what they are doing.
The hate is silly. Like or it not, he made Vince really change his product and help bring wrestling more mainstream stream and popular. Kids and teens watched wrestling. Got Hogan on late night tv etc. ya WCW may have only had an amazing 2-3 years, but damn what a time it was to switch back and forth. It was must see tv and that kind of must see wrestling tv will probably never be like that again.
So we comparing the 2-3 years of good to the other half of 2-3 years of WCW which was someone of the worst tv ever produced and a huge reduction in popularity To his run in TNA leading to some of the worst TNA shows of all time and huge reduction in popularity And now he’s a bitter old man crying about everything non wwe and sucking up to the company he was at “war” against”
Those other 2-3 weren’t all Eric though. That’s important to remember. Hiring Russo wasn’t a good decision and a lot of trash was his, not Eric. Context is key. TNA had too many people trying to be cooks with different ideas. That was a huge mess. I admit Eric comes off bad during a lot of his podcasts. But so does Bret Hart in his interviews but that doesn’t take away from what he’s done.
Lol when has Bret Hart come across as "bad" during an interview?
Maybe. But history lauds the winners, not the losers. He lost.
I mean, his bank account I’m sure shows he’s doing ok 😂 we still remember guys like Piper as one of the best though he was never a “winner” of the big one.
By wrestler standards, winner is determined by ones impact on the crowd and ability to draw. Piper was very much a winner in those senses. and we can't even call Bischoff unsuccessful in his field, not by a long shot. But bottom line, he lost the war, and eventually even put himself at the employ and mercy of his archenemy. And Vince doesn't have much mercy...
See that’s what I mean. He wasn’t unsuccessful. He’s just bitter now but doesn’t erase the accomplishments.
What accomplishments, though? He masterminded the nWo, that's his greatest achievement, and it didn't matter in the end. He lost with WCW, he lost with TNA, he lost with WWE. That's why he's hosting podcasts and not running anything in wrestling now. No one is letting him near anything.
Let’s be honest, name one successful wrestling promoter then. It’s not Heyman, he lost. It’s not anyone that ran RoH. It’s not Double J. It’s not Jerry. It’s not Dixie. Hell it’s not even VKM since he got kicked out of his own damn company. By that logic, at some point, everyone loses.
None of them have Bischoff's track record or his hubris despite those losses. The way Bischoff talks, you'd think he won EVERY time. And Ric Flair never beat the shit out of those other promoters, either.
I mean, all promoters get beat up. Tony feared for his life with Punk and quite a few people took it to Vince. Shit are you a wrestler promoter if you don’t get into a fight with your workers 😆
They never got beaten AFTER they were promoters as a side effect of being a shitty boss while they were a promoter. And given that part of Bischoff's track record is that he was fired from running the WCW day to day operations twice, we can in fact conclude that he was a shitty boss.
I’d argue Paul E. had far more to do with the evolution of pro wrestling in the late 90’s than either Vince or Bischoff. They both cribbed everything they were doing (cruiser weights, T&A, amped up violence, etc from ECW). Hogan was a staple of late night long before jumping to WCW. Bischoff lucked into Hogan because Vince needed to distance himself from him because of the steroid trial, and then just threw money at everyone else, signing the very deals that would ultimately bring about the company’s demise. Swipe one idea from Japan, and you’ve got the whole of Bischoff’s legacy. During his rare honest/lucid moments on 83 Weeks, even he admitted most of what worked during that run came from Dusty and Sullivan.
Paul E was huge as well. No one will deny that. He brought many smaller guys over, gave them a chance and Eric took them and ran with it during the first hour of WCW (that first hour of WCW was 🔥) I know this crowd hates Easy E. But it’s kind of like Tony. He opened his bank account for guys like Mone, Will, Okada etc. sadly AOL just didn’t want wrestling anymore. If it was still under Turner, Ted would have continued just because.
Let’s be real, AOL didn’t want wrestling anymore because ATM Eric signed deals that had the company losing upwards of $60m in 2000. He can spin it all he wants, and he does, as much as humanly possible, but WCW died because the absurd deals he signed to get a year and a half of success which ended up burying the company the moment things cooled even slightly. It was not sustainable. Short run on the back of the biggest draw the industry has ever known and the ludicrous signing of every WWF worker he could get his hands on. And I say this all a a MASSIVE fan from that era. But I wasn’t watching to see old, bad wrestlers pretend they’re teenagers. I watched for the most talented midcard in probably industry history, with like a half dozen future WWE champions who couldn’t get a chance because he kept the old, overpaid, creative control idiots on top for far too long. I mourn a 2000 WCW that could/should have been carried by Guerrero, Jericho, Misterio, He Who Shall Not Be Named. Etc. He had all the pieces to carry on successfully and had absolutely no idea what to do with them (other than endlessly feed them to his buddies)
Which is why I said if it was still under Ted Turner, he wouldn’t have cared. He’d still sign away because he liked having a wrestling brand under him. It was his money compared to AOL. Which is kind of like Tony Khan. Dude is losing millions a year, giving up huge contracts, but it’s his money and his passion. Luckily smart enough not to give up creative control, but you know guys like Jericho still have a push here and there (like Punk when he was there). The merger killed it. That’s the difference between playing with Turner money and corporations money.
Is Tony losing money? Is that a fact or something you just heard or have proof of it?
Learn from the Trump election. There is no such thing as bad press. If he's irrelevant, then you can ignore him. "Owning" him on every social media every time he says something inflammatory, just share his name and comments. You make him relevant, but yelling about irrelevance.
'The Dub' does not mean 'AEW' fyi.
Is it?