WWE

Eric Bischoff Reveals Why He didn’t sign Two WWE Superstars back in WCW.

by
Andrew Aung
October 6, 2019

A Major Change For Eric Bischoff And Smackdown

Amy Parkinson, via Flickr

WWE

Eric Bischoff

Eric Bischoff is a former Executive Producer of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Impact Wrestling (TNA), the brain behind beating Raw in the ratings for 84 consecutive weeks. He is currently the Executive Director of WWE’s SmackDown show on FOX.

A few days ago on his 83 Weeks podcast, Conrad Thompson asked Easy E on why he did not try to sign The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels back in WCW. During that time, WCW was beating WWE in ticket sales and ratings. In the meantime, wrestlers from both companies were jumping ships from one company to another.

But there are a few superstars from WWE that Mr.Bischoff could not negotiate with to join WCW and the two he mentions are Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker.

This is what he had to say about the heartbreak kid: Shawn Michaels

“I never got into the talking stage with either one of them. Never had a syllable of conversation with either one of them, and that’s really interesting. Shawn, not so much. I knew Shawn had a history. Shawn had a reputation, and I think he will admit — Shawn will admit — that he was not the easiest person to be in business with back during this period, and I knew that very well.

And by this point, both Scott [Hall] and Kevin [Nash] were very, to say a handful, would be an understatement. And I had no — No. 1, I didn’t need him. We were top talent heavy by ’97 and ’98, so there was no real need to bring in somebody at Shawn’s level, especially with Bret Hart coming in the near future. And even if we did need somebody, bringing in somebody with Shawn Michaels’ history back at this point was not something I was interested in doing.”

Eric Bishoff knew the Undertaker’s loyalty to Vince Mcmahon

“The Undertaker, I just knew — well, I didn’t know, I should say. I had heard and respected the fact that he was extremely loyal to Vince [McMahon], and there would no way he would even entertain coming to WCW. So, I just never made the effort to even try to reach out to them. What’s really interesting, I think now, when I see Undertaker — I saw him when we were together in the UK several months ago before I came to WWE, we hung out together, and we don’t have any history, but we get along almost like we did or we do.

I think I just have so much respect for the guy, not only for what he’s accomplished over the years; but he was one of the guys that never reached out to me; never had an agent, or a surrogate so to speak reach out to me on his behalf. He was loyal to WWE or WWF at the time, and you know; he stayed loyal and never reached out to try and improve his position financially. And I gotta respect a guy like that. And I enjoy his company to this day. I don’t spend a lot of time with him, but the little bit of time that I do; he’s one of the guys that I really like to hang out with and hear stories from.”

Now he faces brand new challenges: Smackdown to FOX

The Author of Controversy Creates Cash and former WCW Hardcore Champion will have his hands full, that is if he fully takes control over Smackdown show as Paul Heyman did with Monday Night Raw. A few days ago, he did send out a tweet about the Blue Brand moving to FOX.

Eric Bischoff tweeted:

“The end of a long day. Makes me realize how long and hard so many men & women have worked for so long to bring #SmackDownLive to network television. Props to all of you and my sincere gratitude for the oppty to be a part of this team; that gets to experience this Fri night on Fox.”

Let’s see what Easy E has in his sleeves today on the new Smackdown show on FOX.