Eric Bischoff says WWE should “disinfect” its product: “It doesn’t feel alive anymore”

Eric Bischoff can only sing praises to the WWE business model; however, the notes are not so sweet when it comes to the creative team.

Bischoff led World Championship Wrestling against the WWE (then known as the WWF) for a year in the lead. The reservist, TV executive and wrestling personality had his longest stint in the WWE between 2002 and 2007. Speaking to CBS Sports, Bischoff praised WWE’s production value and business capability, noting how much stock prices have risen over the past year, but in his view. the creative process is limiting greater growth potential.

“It would be the structure of the story. It would be to take a more pragmatic view of the structure of the story. Actually, discipline would be a better word than pragmatic. First it would be to recognize that a good story must have structure. It wouldn’t be any different. recording and not really knowing what the end of the film is.You couldn’t be in the film business like that.You couldn’t produce TV shows like that.You can’t even write a book like that.I think because of the high volume of products they produce weekly with WWE around the world, story structure that it only creates a more pronounced need for a more disciplined and well-thought-out.

“That’s part of the mistake of WWE creativity, at least in my opinion, is that there’s a similarity in everything. Okay, a show is red and a show is blue, and there are different names on the list, but looks and looks. it’s very popular and has felt so popular for so long. I think it should be disinfected. you want the audience at home to feel part of that event because of an event. Sometimes overproducing that show can take that away from the home audience.

See the full interview with Eric Bischoff below.

In recent years WWE’s first real competitor has risen since WCW days, All Elite Wrestling. Bischoff has made a number of appearances in the AEW, most recently in May 2021. But his relationship with AEW owner Tony Khan seems to have deteriorated, with Khan’s former WCW owner Ted Turner not taking possession of 1% of his fighting knowledge, and if Turner did so, WCW would still be on the air.

In the podcast “83 Weeks With Eric Bischoff,” Bischoff called Khan’s comments “uninformed” and “ignorant.”

“We were polite and courteous. There was mutual respect there. All good things. It wasn’t until recently that they asked me a question and I answered it and I think it caused me strong feelings for Tony,” Bischoff said. “I tried to call Tony and he didn’t come back. Someone told me, who was Tony complaining about, I told him how upset he was about things.” Hey, why don’t you give Tony a call. “I said,” Sure! ” I’m not angry with Tony. ”

“I don’t get angry. It doesn’t change the way I feel about Tony, I had to express my opinion and react to something Tony really said and I considered it disrespectful and even disrespectful of my accomplishments. And honestly, ignorantly, he did it about Ted Turner. related to the comment.That’s how I reacted.But I wasn’t angry with Tony.When he told me to call my friends, I thought, “Okay, I’ll call him. I left a message and I haven’t heard a response, so obviously he’s a little angry. But that’s okay. ”

Bischoff and Fusient Media stated their intention to buy WCW, which was experiencing financial problems before it collapsed in 2001. The team was ultimately unable to raise money fast enough to buy the company before Vince McMahon and WWE did. in a move that gave him control over decades of the WWE professional wrestling landscape.

According to Bischoff, most of the major WCW stars were planning to stay if their team could make a purchase in 2001.

“Hulk Hogan would be involved. Bill Goldberg would probably be involved. Sting, a lot of the big names you already knew in WCW,” Bischoff said. “Not all of them, by the way, but most of them would probably participate. There’s another group on that list that would probably participate. But honestly, we didn’t have much. We were trying to get WCW to formulate a creative strategy in the meantime. “Most of our energy was spent on $ 67 million, which was the price at the time.”