Eric Bischoff on what WWE needs to change, his relationship with AEW President Tony Khan, which wrestlers were going to be part of WCW had he been able to lead an acquisition of the company

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

CBS Sports interview with Eric Bischoff
Host: Shakiel Mahjouri
Podcast available via CBSSports.com
Video available at SHAK Wrestling YouTube Page

Eric Bischoff on what WWE needs to change: “It would be story structure. It would be taking a more pragmatic approach to story structure. Actually, discipline would be a better word than pragmatic. It would be first recognizing that a good story has to have structure. It would be no different than shooting a movie that doesn’t have a script blocked out and not really knowing what the end of the movie is. You couldn’t be in the movie business that way. You couldn’t produce television shows that way. You can’t even write a book that way. I think with WWE because of the sheer volume of products that they produce globally every week, it only creates a more significant need for a more disciplined and well-thought-out story structure.

“That’s part of the flaw with WWE creative, at least in my opinion, is that there’s such a sameness to everything. OK, one show is red and one show is blue, and there are different names on the roster, but the look and feel, the story-telling technique, or lack thereof, everything feels so familiar and has felt so familiar for so long. I think it would need to be de-sanitized. The WWE is such a perfectly executed live production that it doesn’t even feel live anymore. It feels like you’re watching a feature film. I think with wrestling because of what it is, an arena-based event, you want the viewers at home to feel like their part of that event. Sometimes overproducing that show can take that away from the home viewer.”

Bischoff on his relationship with Tony Khan: “We were friendly and cordial. Mutual respect there. All that good stuff. It wasn’t until recently, I was asked a question and I responded and it caused, I’m guessing, hard feelings from Tony,” Bischoff said. “I tried to call Tony and he didn’t call me back. Someone told me, who Tony was complaining to, about how upset he was about the things that I said. He said, ‘Hey, why don’t you give Tony a call?’ I said, ‘Sure! I’m not mad at Tony.’

“I don’t carry grudges. It doesn’t change the way I feel about Tony, I just had to express my opinion and react to something Tony actually said that involved me and I took as being disrespectful of my accomplishments and even more disrespectful, and quite frankly, ignorant, with relation to the comment he made about Ted Turner. That’s what I reacted to. But I wasn’t angry with Tony. When my friend said to give him a call, I thought, ‘alright, I’ll give him a call.’ I left a message and I haven’t heard back so, evidently, he’s a little pissed off. But that’s OK.”

Bischoff’s plans for the WCW acquisition in 2001: “Hulk Hogan would have been involved. Bill Goldberg likely would have been involved. Sting, a lot of the top names that you were already familiar with at WCW,” Bischoff said. “Not all of them, by the way, but most of them would have likely been involved. There is another group within that list that would have most likely have been involved. But to be honest, we didn’t really have much of a chance to formulate a creative strategy during the period of time that we were trying to acquire WCW. Most of our energy was focused on raising $67 million, which was the price tag at the time.”