Eric Bischoff
Eric Aaron Bischoff is an American television producer, professional wrestling booker, promoter, and performer. Currently, he is the chief media officer for Real American Freestyle. He is best known for serving as Executive Producer and later Senior Vice President of World Championship Wrestling and subsequently, the on-screen General Manager of WWE's Raw brand. Bischoff has also worked with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling where he served as Executive Producer of TNA iMPACT!. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021.
With an amateur background in martial arts, Bischoff also sporadically performed as an in-ring competitor, becoming a one-time WCW Hardcore Champion, and headlining the 1998 Road Wild pay-per-view event, teaming with "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan against Diamond Dallas Page and Jay Leno. He wrote an autobiography titled Controversy Creates Cash, which was released in 2006 under WWE Books, and a second book, titled Grateful, which was released in 2022.
Early life
Bischoff was born on May 27, 1955, in Detroit, Michigan, and attended Dort Elementary School in suburban Roseville. In 1968, the family moved to Penn Hills, Pennsylvania. Bischoff is of German and Scottish descent. Before getting into professional wrestling, Bischoff had a number of occupations. He acted in a training video for bank employees regarding fair lending practices, owned a successful landscape construction company, worked as a veterinary assistant, competed as a professional kickboxer, and ran a butcher shop, where he sold meat via van delivery. Hulk Hogan would famously refer to this time in his life during his heel promo at the end of the 1996 WCW pay-per-view event Bash at the Beach in Daytona Beach, Florida, saying, "If it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff would still be selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis."Professional wrestling career
American Wrestling Association (1986–1991)
Bischoff started in wrestling working for the Minneapolis, Minnesota based American Wrestling Association in 1987 under the ownership of Verne Gagne. In 1989, Bischoff would become an on-air interviewer and host of the AWA until the company folded in 1991. Bischoff at first worked in the sales department on the AWA's syndicated programming, and became an on-air personality virtually by accident and at the last minute. Larry Nelson, whom at the time was employed by the AWA as an announcer, was arrested under suspicion of a DUI. Because of Nelson's sudden unavailability, Verne Gagne and his son, Greg opted to recruit Bischoff to fill-in on the interviews. Bischoff believed they thought he would be a good replacement due to his immediate availability in the television studio, and the fact that he was already wearing a suit and tie.During the gradual demise of the AWA, the company was unable to meet payroll, and Bischoff auditioned for an announcer's position with the World Wrestling Federation in 1990 but was not hired. During his audition, Bischoff was asked to do an on-camera interview to a broom, which Bischoff would later consider a huge embarrassment for himself.
In his autobiography Controversy Creates Cash, Bischoff mentions working in his office during his time in the AWA when he had heard a legitimate fight outside of his door. He said he had looked up just in time to see wrestler The Sheik's head come breaking through the wall. He said despite this, the Sheik continued the fight while a stunned Bischoff looked on.
World Championship Wrestling (1991–2001)
Arrival and ascent to power (1991–1996)
In 1991, Bischoff joined World Championship Wrestling as a C-show announcer, recognized by many as “B-dawg on the C-show”, debuting at The Great American Bash. As an announcer, Bischoff reported to producer Tony Schiavone and WCW's Vice President of Broadcasting, Jim Ross. In 1993, after WCW Vice President of Wrestling Operations and marketing Bill Watts resigned from WCW, Bischoff went to TBS executive and WCW President Bill Shaw and WCW Executive Vice President Bob Dhue to apply for the job of Executive Producer. Ross and Schiavone seemed to be the two top candidates, however, Bischoff was hired in Watts' place. Schiavone remained a producer and commentator until WCW's demise, but Ross was granted his release from WCW and went to work for the WWF. Initially, Bischoff and Dhue worked together as partners, but frequently clashed over the direction of WCW.In 1994, Bischoff was promoted from Executive Producer to Senior Vice President, putting him in charge of everything WCW. Dhue resigned, as did event manager Don Sandefeur and junior vice president Jim Barnett. Bischoff convinced Turner executives to better finance WCW in order to compete with the WWF. He moved WCW production to Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida. Hulk Hogan, who was filming a show called Thunder in Paradise at Disney-MGM Studios, was approached by Bischoff and Ric Flair and signed to a contract with WCW. He also invested money in production values and increased the number of WCW pay-per-views. He also started a weekly live program on TNT, WCW Monday Nitro, that went directly against WWF's flagship Monday Night Raw. Bischoff remained an announcer on Nitro, regularly spoiling Raw results to boost ratings. This created what became known amongst fans as the Monday Night War, as both WCW and WWF fought for viewers and in the process kick-started a new level of mainstream popularity for pro wrestling. The changes paid off, and in 1995, WCW turned a profit for the first time in WCW's history. By 1997, Bischoff's official job title was President of World Championship Wrestling.
New World Order (1996–1998)
In 1996, Bischoff signed WWF superstar Scott Hall, better known at the time as "Razor Ramon". Two weeks later on Nitro, Hall was joined by Kevin Nash, most previously known as "Diesel" in the WWF, to become "The Outsiders". Bischoff intentionally depicted the duo as WWF rebels who were not under contract to WCW. To avoid legal action by the WWF, Bischoff in a worked interview at The Great American Bash, asked point blank if they worked for the WWF, which both Hall and Nash denied. The Outsiders expanded and became the New World Order when perennial fan-favorite Hulk Hogan aligned himself with the Outsiders in July 1996.The nWo was depicted as a rival company engaging in a "hostile takeover" of WCW. Week to week, the angle grew more complex, with a mixture of main-eventers, mid-carders, executives, referees, managers, and announcers involved in various subplots related to the onscreen "WCW vs nWo" power-struggle. Led by the nWo storyline, WCW overtook the WWF as the number one wrestling promotion in America with Nitro defeating Raw in the ratings by a wide margin for 83 consecutive weeks. During this era, Bischoff moved from his role as commentator and joined the nWo as a manager. His television character, dubbed "Eazy E" by Hall, became a dictator and egomaniac as the nWo boss. In the summer of 1998, Bischoff hosted a Tonight Show like segment on WCW programming with Miss Elizabeth. Ted DiBiase has said in shoot interviews that Bischoff originally hired DiBiase to be the spokesperson and financial backer for the nWo, but when the nWo was getting to be a more prominent storyline, Bischoff replaced DiBiase as nWo spokesperson.
Downfall of WCW (1998–1999)
When the WWF rebranded their product as "WWF Attitude" and began to focus on new superstars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and The Rock, and made owner/longtime announcer Vince McMahon into a character, this eventually resulted in a ratings turnaround for WWF. On April 13, 1998, WWF ended WCW's year and a half run on top of the ratings war. Despite losing in the ratings to WWF, WCW continued to post strong ratings, attendance, and PPV buyrates throughout 1998. In 1998, WCW built one of its most popular homegrown superstars in Bill Goldberg, and gave him the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on July 6, 1998, at the Georgia Dome in front of 39,919 people on Nitro.In late 1998 he feuded with Ric Flair. Bischoff defeated Flair at Starrcade and the next night lost to Flair on Nitro.
In early 1999, Bischoff promoted Kevin Nash to head booker. Despite Goldberg drawing at the box office and doing three shows in December and January that did nearly a $1 million gate, the decision was made to end Goldberg's undefeated streak and put the belt on Nash. On the January 4 Nitro, at the Georgia Dome, Nash dropped the title to Hogan in a match that became known as the Fingerpoke of Doom, and the nWo was rebranded. By March ratings began dropping, and WCW began experiencing an endless streak of ratings losses.
Throughout 1999, Bischoff reverted to focusing on aging WCW stars such as Hogan, Diamond Dallas Page, Randy Savage, Sting, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Nash, Ric Flair, and Sid Vicious. In an effort to improve ratings, WCW also began to focus heavily on several celebrities such as Master P., Chad Brock, Megadeth, Dennis Rodman, and Kiss. One of the last deals Bischoff structured was a deal with the members of the rock band Kiss to have their own wrestling character known as The Kiss Demon.
By late 1999, WCW began losing around $5 million a month. Attendance, PPV buys and ratings were down significantly. On September 10, 1999, the decision was made to relieve Bischoff of power.
Replacement (1999–2000)
On September 10, 1999, Bischoff was relieved of his management position with WCW by Turner Sports chief Harvey Schiller. The job title "President of WCW" was eliminated. He was replaced with WCW Vice President of Strategic Planning Bill Busch, who was named Senior Vice President. One of Busch's first acts in charge was the additions of former WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrara to head up WCW's creative direction.In April 2000, Bischoff returned as an on-air character alongside Russo to lead the heel faction The New Blood; Bischoff also worked on writing the shows with Russo during this time. He defeated Terry Funk for the WCW Hardcore Championship on June 6. Bischoff's last on-camera role in WCW was on the June 12, 2000 Nitro. He would exit WCW in July 2000 at Bash at the Beach, when Russo did a worked-shoot promo on Hulk Hogan.