Andrew Lutzke
“Timeline WCW 1994 with Eric Bischoff”
Produced by Kayfabe Commentaries
Hosted by Sean Oliver.
Bischoff offers apologies beforehand if he gets some details wrong since things were happening fast and furious in his business life during this period.
Eric debunks the thought that Ted Turner had any sort of active role in the WCW business affairs.
Dusty Rhodes and Ole Anderson had sunk the company with bad booking in the early 90s, but Eric didn’t take an active role in steering the creative direction until he was several months into his reign as WCW Vice President since he had so many other things to fix.
Bill Watts was a disaster as WCW Vice President and Bischoff was walking into a situation where the company was losing 10 million dollars a year. He was too ignorant to be scared of the challenge.
Most WCW guys looked at their job as a big and easy payday. Larry Zbyszko told Bischoff that if he stayed out of trouble and kept a low profile that he could collect a paycheck forever.
One of the first major moves Bischoff did was to hire Zane Bresloff away from his role as one of the WWF’s main house show promoters. Bresloff knew who ran the buildings across the country and was hands on with giving WCW a heads up on such things.
Bischoff wasn’t worried about the WWF at this point and was focused on getting WCW into a position to be profitable.
The Shockmaster is asked about and Eric doesn’t have much to say other than Fred Ottman was a good guy.
Sid Vicious had no chance of being brought back into WCW after he and Arn Anderson had their incident in England where both men ended up stabbing one another.
Dusty Rhodes was removed as the head booker. Bischoff doesn’t like having a booking committee without a head man because then there is no one to curtail the bad ideas.
Ric Flair took over as the leader of the booking team. Bischoff thinks Rhodes was creative but stressed out and had too big of an ego for what Bischoff wanted to accomplish.
Bobby Heenan was signed by WCW. The Brain helped give WCW a major star who could help give WCW a national feel.
Bischoff says most of the WWF guys who jumped to WCW were not pursued but instead the wrestlers called WCW to see if they can get a contract. Hogan was one of the few guys Bischoff actively sought.
Michael Hayes quit after being offered “only” $75,000 per year on his new contract. Hayes had spent the past year plus nearly inactive due to a back injury. Eric puts over Hayes’ creative mind but suggests Hayes was fat and stale and needed to go.
Sean picks Eric’s brain as to how wrestlers can be labeled “independent contractors”, yet are signed to contracts that bind them to one place. Bischoff says he’s not a lawyer, but believes the system is just.
The Nasty Boys are discussed. This leads to talk of WCW’s racial lawsuit. Bischoff shrugs it off as jobbers jumping in at a Turner company that was in disarray. The guys were looking for a easy payday.
WCW drew the dirt worst of ethnic, hillbilly fans and it made their TV shows look low brow. This led to Bischoff signing a deal to do TV tapings at Disney, where the name brand could elevate WCW’s status.
The fans at Disney were often not actually wrestling fans and instead they were given cues as when and who to boo and cheer. Easy E says it was a necessary evil in order to improve the product.
Missy Hyatt thought she was a bigger star than she actually was, and her attitude led to her being fired. She ended up suing WCW for sexual harassment and such but Bischoff blows that off as sour grapes largely.
Paul Levesque (HHH) signed with WCW in early 1994. Eric is unaware who scouted him. They told HHH that he had to pay his own travel expenses because he lived so far away from WCW’s southern base.
Travel expenses were a huge issue as guys were cashing in their unused airline tickets instead of returning them to WCW’s offices. Bischoff raised Hell on this issue once he got power.
Wild Cat Willie was brought in as a mascot. Bischoff liked the idea of keeping the fans interested in between matches. He says it as being no different than an NFL team having mascots.
Dusty knew Kevin Sullivan could get heat, so he pushed for WCW to sign him. Sullivan was added to the booking team as well.
Mick Foley worked a wild style that Bischoff hated because it led to more injuries and injuries led to lawsuits.
Drug testing in wrestling is somewhat unfair, since music companies and such didn’t drug test their acts.
Sherri Martel was brought in. Eric knew her from the AWA and loved being around her.
The WCW magazine was shut down to save money.
Bobby Eaton and Arn Anderson were allowed to work with ECW in exchange for ECW plugging the next WCW PPV in Philly.
Paul Heyman and Bischoff didn’t have a relationship. Eric didn’t trust him and never knew him enough to build a relationship.
Heyman was great at twisting things to make people see his world view. No matter how bad he’d screw guys in paydays, they remained loyal to him.
Tom Zenk was an overrated dick. Cocky and average in the ring. He was cut to free up funds.
Rick Rude quit WCW while holding the “International World Title”. He was injured and becoming stubborn about doing jobs. Flair and Rude had real heat and Rude refused to go on TV and hand over the belt.
Rude met Bischoff in a parking lot and brought the title and a gun. Eric was intimidated but then realized how silly the notion that Rude would shoot him over a wrestling situation.
The old timers who were brought in during the Slamboree shows never talked to Eric about the company’s direction or booking,
The WCW Hall of Fame was a bit of a political firestorm. It was also a bit awkward that WCW had only been around for 4-5 years, so the Hall of Famers had to come from other organizations.
Meng’s rep as the toughest man alive was never verified by Eric. The Meng he knew was a quiet sweetheart of a man.
Steve Regal brought the British style to WCW and created entertaining matches that told good stories. Eric was a fan.
Regal was a great foundation for the mid-card and you had to have those kind of guys to make a solid product.
Eric didn’t think Regal’s body or verbal skills were up to par to be given a main event push. He would eventually develop into a great promo.
Promo skills can carry a guy to a viable career. Bischoff points to himself, who couldn’t work a lick and was never trained or dedicated like the real pros was able to get enough heat to draw money in limited matches.
Zbyszko brought a solid and believable in ring style to wrestling and Bischoff was a fan of his work.
Bischoff was able to justify signing Hulk Hogan in April by selling Hogan’s advertising potential to the corporate bigwigs.
Hogan wanted to work with Flair to cash in on a buyrate as quick as possible.
Eric claims that Hogan was the only talent signed to a creative control contract.
WCW was just trying to make money until the summer of 95, then the focus switched to attacking the wwf.
Flair wanted to be a heel because he liked calling the match.
Hogan was booed at early appearances and that took Bischoff by surprise since he didn’t think the old school NWA/WCW fan would rebel against the WWF’s ace.
Hulk testified against Vince McMahon – afterwards as he was leaving the courtroom he turned to the press cameras and plugged the WCW PPV coming up that Sunday.
Vader was making huge money in WCW, so Eric wasn’t worried about Vader’s concerns over how his booking affected his Japan status where Vader was headlining for other companies.
Everyone had to be fired via document form, so termination papers being sent by Fed Ex was a necessary evil. It has since been used to vilify Bischoff as firing guys without being willing to do it face to face.
Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair had heat backstage for years and years, which created some issues when Rhodes made his return in 94.
Honky Tonk Man was a crony to Hogan. Honky’s ego was huge and he refused to do a job and was fired.
Alex Wright needed more seasoning to get over to the level that WCW hoped he would.
Jesse Ventura was benched when he went AWOL at a TV taping and was found sleeping in a green room away from where WCW had been taping.
Ventura tried to convince Bischoff to not sign Hogan.
“Hacksaw” Duggan could get over anywhere.
Mick Foley wanted to have more extreme angles done and WCW was just not willing to take those risks, so they parted ways.
Ole Anderson was fired in part for using WCW’s TV facilities to tape promos for his son to use while working for Smoky Mountain Wrestling.
Anderson was caught up in the past and had so much money saved that he was hard to work with since he had no fear of being fired.
Blackjack Mulligan was hired as an agent by Bischoff partly because Mulligan needed money to live. Mulligan was grateful to Eric for this and when Ole was bashing Bischoff one day and Mulligan cold cocked him.
Flair didn’t want to do the job when he and Hogan had their “retirement” match. WCW had to give him a contract extension to get him back on board with the plans.
Eric mocks the “Three Faces of Fear” and “Dungeon of Doom” gimmicks and mentions that he probably should have vetoed the silliness.
WCW helped produce a Lucha Libre PPV. This helped set the stage for the use of Luchadores a year down the line.
Hogan forced Brutus Beefcake into the main event picture. Bischoff and the booking committee just let it happen without saying a peep.
Jimmy Hart served as Hogan’s second hand man backstage and Hogan wanted to use him on screen as his manager. Eric felt Hart hurt the Hogan gimmick but loved Jimmy’s promotional efforts and on screen gimmick away from Hulk.
House shows were costing WCW money and thus were basically eliminated from the schedule.
25% of WCW revenues were expected to come from house show profits, so changes had to be made.
“Macho Man” Randy Savage was brought in late in the year. Vince wanted a full scale youth movement and was willing to risk WCW signing him in order to keep that vision.
Savage helped give WCW even more of a national power perception.
Hogan brought Savage to Eric- Bischoff did not pursue him.
Macho Man still loved Elizabeth and while their marriage was over, Savage was still willing to go out of his way to help her. He protected her backstage as well, even though she was remarried.
Vader was unprofessionally violent and Hogan refused to work with him until Vader could promise to lighten up his working style.
Sean Oliver tries to give Bischoff credit for making Hogan relevant again in wrestling, but Bischoff plays humble on the issue.
Eric tells the story of coming into a meeting with Ted Turner over a deal with China and leaving with a deal to produce WCW Nitro opposite of RAW. Turner’s decision upset many Turner execs who just wanted WCW to go away.
Final thoughts: With the glut of WCW/nWo/Monday Night Wars specials and documentaries the WWE has produced in the past 15 years, there are not too many stones left unturned on the subject. That being said, Eric is engaging to listen to even if the material isn’t fresh. As such, this was an unnecessary avenue to revisit but it is through and well done.
