As hated as Bischoff may have been, without him wrestling might never have made it out of the 90s. Before Nitro began, wrestling was for kids and generally insulted its viewers intelligence. Bischoff forced wrestling to modernise its presentation, and even though WCW ultimately lost the war, it gave WWF/E a much-needed kick up the backside, producing arguably the best TV wrestling ever (1998-2001). Edit: Heyman has to take some credit too.
How so? Austin wasn't living up to his contractual agreements, WCW and Eric were totally in the right to fire him for no-showing. The WWE later had the exact same problem with Austin when he packed up his bat and ball and went home in 2002 over not wanting to do the job for Brock Lesnar.
It is generally acknowledged that Bischoff firing Austin was the catalyst for Stone Cold. ECW for Austin was just a place to brainstorm and prepare him for WWE. WWE forced the Ring Master gimmick on Austin but thanks to his ECW time he was able shake off the gimmick fairly quickly unlike many who are usually buried by WWE gimmicks.
Agreed I can’t stand that guy, so unprofessional in getting guys fired and sandbagging wrestlers to make them look bad. That was Shaun in the 90s early 00s.
The hilarious thing about the Blayze segment was the actual crowd did not give one single shit about it, and Bischoff proceeded to book Blayze even worse than the WWF had. She would later admit that the whole thing was a horrible mistake.
@@penskepc2374 honestly this statement could reused fire every year accept for 2016 women wrestling really didn't become actually watchable in America until then
My favourite comment about Eric Bischoff came from Chris Jericho on the Rise and Fall of WCW dvd : "I don't know if he was drunk on power or just drunk!!"
Nothing in those WWE produced shows about WCW can be taken at all seriously. Everyone who features on them, except perhaps Bischoff himself, is saying what they need to say to keep their employer (McMahon) happy. They are scripted to make WCW look and sound as bad as possible.
@@cathallynch8269Jericho has contributed POSITIVELY over 20 years to wrestling vs EB who has less than 5 😂 so you and the woman who birthed you can go eat sh*t
Wasn't a WCW or ECW kid but I think we can all agree without Bischoff WCW pushing WWF and ECW being innovative and psychotic we wouldn't have gotten The Attitude Era and wrestling would be VERY different today than it is
Crazy to think Vince not hiring Eric in 1990 and jim Ross going to wwf in 1993 not long after changed the entire business years later and lead to the Monday night war
Vince Russo was that era's most hated man. I like Bischoff and respect him for at least attempting to save WCW by trying to buy the damned thing Russo just killed off. Paul Heyman also pissed off a lot of his talent by not paying them too. He was hated by people like Tommy Dreamer who almost whacked him at a Wrestlemania and would of then took his own life. Yeah brutal.
I never actually hated ANYONE in professional wrestling. I always chose to separate the wrestler from the person in every facet of what i saw on TV back then. Social media and all these accesses did not exist so it was REALLY easy to be ignorant of the real facts behind the scenes, unlike today where if a performer farts backstage at least 3 people uploaded it to social media already. I liked Eric, because I think he enjoyed his character, but you could tell later on when the smile left his face it was no longer a choiceful act to do the things he had to. Listening to his podcasts, he's quite modest about his mistakes and plenty of them in his own words. I respect him more than any dislike for him now, but I loved his character.
I don’t hate 90s bischoff, but I can’t stand him now. He made a lot of real stupid calls back in the day and nowadays he does whatever he can to claim that all the bad ideas were someone else’s fault or that the audience just didn’t understand what he was up too. We get it Eric, you stole an idea from a Japanese promotion and then drove it into the ground while inserting yourself into it… because you had no idea what to do with it after that.
6:24 Did Jim Ross describe Bischoff as a “young punk” or are you describing Bischoff as a “young punk”? I ask because Jim Ross and Bischoff are basically the same age, lol. Even though JR (arguably) looks much older than Bischoff back in 1993, JR is only three years older than Bischoff. When these specific events were happening, Bischoff was in his late 30s and JR was in his early 40s.
I still don't believe Hall (RIP) and Nash saying they "would have stayed" in WWE. If a company offers you more money, creative control, better merch deals and more days off.... essentially a better life there would be something very wrong if you turned that down.
One of the best things he did. Gangsta maskless Rey was so over and was much more relatable to fans than he was in a mask. It only made Rey's character stronger. Same with Juvi.
I specifically remember Rey Mysterio being on an episode of WWE Tough Enough, and he took off his mask for them, but in a way that the camera couldn't see it. I remember thinking "Sorry. Cat's already out of the bag!".
Corny and Russo is the biggest feud but it's like one sided corny goes off the rails lol then Vince will just simply says I don't remember it happing like that then corny gets so enraged lmao
DDP is the realist ever and there's no RKOs outta nowhere without those many carats of Diamond Cutter. The one he hit on Eddie G. on Nitro the late 90s is STILL coldest shit I've ever seen on live TV 🤯
Bischoff has a lot in common with McMahon. They broke a lot of unspoken rules in their separate rises to power, which ultimately pushed the medium forward.
They both almost killed their respective companies with stupid decisions. The only difference is that Eric succeeded, with help from Hogan and his ego and Russo's dumbass nature
I remember flipping through the channels back in the day (yes I'm old) and saw a wrestling program on, which included a guy that had a very flashy robe and yelling "Woooo!". I was like "Who is THIS guy?". Usually, I would've passed it up because I only watched WWF, but he drew me in to find out. So YES, Flair IS a draw!
Half the people who left WWF to WCW either didn't succeed or succeed to due backstage politics/creative control. And it all went downhill to the decline of WCW.
I am not Eric Bishoff's biggest fan, but the moment I knew he would be hated was the most honest moment of his entire pre-WWE career. When TLC did a documentary on pro-wrestling at the height of the Monday Night War, Bischoff legendarily stated that he was winning all of those weeks on "One third the WWF's budget." Eric was right, and he did allow more creative freedom during the 88 weeks.. something he really should have kept going. Things like Hogan and Piper pulling the end of Halloween Havoc 96, for example... also, shattering the myth that older wrestlers couldn't keep up...
More like 3 times the WWF's budget. There was creative accounting going on in WCW. Hogan, Hall, Nash, and several others had direct contracts with Turner so they weren't on WCW's payroll.
@@ManaDrain315, see it is in how you said that. Their contracts were with Turner directly. WCW itself did have the smaller budget. Thing is, people were not just watching for Hogan, Hall, Nash, etc. People crap on pre-nWo WCW all the time, but the truth was that if WWF/E was always "THE Company", WCW would have never survived long enough to fight the MNW. Sting and so many others worked to make WCW worth moving to before that. Bischoff did his part, and that is the point.
I sure that Eric Biscoff still has more money in his bank account than you've made in your whole life. You're just a mark with a loud mouth. Sit down and shut up.
You left out one huge part of the stone cold being fired from wcw part. And that was Austin got himself fired for insubordination over the phone heard by multiple wcw people. Bischoff called him and was talking to his wife as Austin refused to talk to Eric (his boss) and Eric wanted Austin to make none wrestling appearances for a wcw taping and Austin was heard in the background saying he wouldn't do it and cussed Eric out. Bischoff was right to fire him. Regardless Bischoff is a television and production genius.
Were you there in person? Do you have any actual proof? No? Well, stop defending shitty decision by a shitty man! I am not a fan of Steve Austin (how anyone can still respect him after what he did to his ex-wives is beyond me), but he was hurt and Eric fired him via a fax. That is BS!
The fact that he took the voice of wrestling Jr off of TV & fired stone cold Steve Austin is CRAZY lol I just know during the height of the attitude era Eric was MAD as heck about those decisions 😂 TRAGIC
Tony Schiavone is a better play-by-play commentator than JR and was a better fit for WCW, so it was the right call. And Austin no-showed contractual agreements, so his firing was totally justified. Steve did the exact same thing to WWE in 2002 when he no-showed Raw over not wanting to do the job for Brock Lesnar. McMahon was so pissed about it that he sent The Rock out to bury Austin on live TV.
@@TTBNetwork nah Tony and JR are the best. Tenay deserves a mention too. Tony was a better fit for WCW, while JR was better for WWF. It worked out well. The Attitude Era only happened because WCW changed the industry in 1996 to be more reality based, not because of Austin. The WWF just followed WCW's lead. And WCW was sold because of AOL TimeWarner, it had nothing to do with the WWF or Austin. Warner just didn't think wrestling belonged on TNT or TBS. Nearly 20 years later, Warner admitted they were wrong by putting wrestling back on TNT/TBS when they did a deal with AEW. The sale of WCW was a huge mistake.
@@TTBNetwork it's not really an opinion, I'm just recounting history as those who were there have told it. If you choose to believe the WWE narrative instead then that's your call.
The Russo dislike is from things that happened mostly in the 2000s (and very specifically the year 2000). So Russo wouldn’t qualify as “The 90s” most hated man in wrestling. 😂
@@suntanironmanCornette's heat with Russo primarily stems from their time working together in WWF and TNA; he really doesn't have much heat with Russo over his time spent with WCW. He's acknowledged that Russo certainly didn't help matters, but WCW's downfall was already a forgone conclusion by late 1999 when Russo had showed up there.
@@Michiganfan105 I understand that Cornette hates Russo, but thankfully this isn’t a list of everything and everybody that Cornette hates (otherwise it would be a 48-hour long video, lol).
Yeah he did. During 99 Eric came on Nitro without his nWo heel gimmick and joined the commentary team as a face. They even ran vignettes saying how he had seen the error of his ways in joining the nWo etc. Then later on he turned heel again when he kayfabe teamed up with Russo to form the New Blood. And of course he was a heel again as Raw GM in WWE.
He did set things on motions. There was no going back. He should have moved wcw to another night during austin- mcmahon fude. So many wrestles like chyna and owen hart alongside wcw would still be alive.
No way bud. Eric wasn't "The most" hated, he may have ended up mostly disliked by many people but the man was probably single handedly responsible for making WCW nearly dominate all of wrestling. Vince Russo is much, much worse. Every promotion Russo touched turned to garbage and even when he was in The WWF(E) the only reason he had any success with The Attitude era was because there were other people there to restrain his madness. It can be argued that he helped utterly destroy WCW from 1999-2001, to the point where network executives didn't want "wrestling" i.e. "Russo's Car Crash Wrestling Federation" to be shown on their networks. Mr. Bischoff even tried to purchase WCW in its dying days but when the Networks stated that they wouldn't sign any deals with WCW, his investors and he pulled out. After that, Vince McMahon bought WCW and ever since then Professional Wrestling has steadily been in a nose dive of popularity. Did Bischoff ruin WCW? No, he probably saved it for awhile until he got tunnel vision in regards to The NWO. The advent of Vince Russo was the biggest mistake in WCW history. I was an exclusive WCW fan from 1996-2001 and I can remember that as soon as the logo changed and the storylines became stupid and juvenile, I would find myself switching the channel with a heavy heart to the competition.
@MrSniperfox29 if Russo had been given the same amount of creative power prior, when he was in The WWF, he would have ruined that too. I have watched the guy on podcasts and he's an idiot. If Eric Bischoff hadn't created The NWO, we'd still have Garbagemen and Hockey player wrestlers
The irony of it is that unlike other of Vince McMahon's rivals, Bischoff was never given the "disrespected" treatment at all. Heck, petty ire was mostly directed at Ted Turner rather than Bischoff when WWE wanted to take shots at WCW. So while they were competing head-on for TV ratings, I guess McMahon has some level of respect for Bischoff, since they both had similar gung ho, "I do as I please" attitudes. It is said that Stone Cold Steve Austin's character is actually much closer to Vince's persona than the "Mr McMahon" character he played, and there is some truth. Vince literally does as he pleases with scant regard to consequences, though his later years are more often associated with the negative side of this persona. Speaking of Austin and Bischoff, if I told you the two mended fences while working as co-GMs on RAW, you'd probably laugh me out of a building. However, this is actually true. Bischoff was invited onto Austin's podcast as a guest, and both admitted their faults when it came to Austin's dismissal from WCW.
Austin probably realised that while what happened was wrong, he ultimately ended up better of for it. Hard to hold a grudge when someone tries to fuck you over but inadvertently sets you on the path to greatness.
That promo that McMahon cut when introducing Eric as the new Raw GM was probably quite truthful. "You may not realize it, but it takes a real SOB to be successful in this industry." I'd say that Vince probably has quite a bit of respect for Eric as he was the only one to beat him at his own game. Bischoff forced McMahon to change and improve his content. WWF before 98 was really bad. Same for WCW before 96. Early 90s wrestling was just awful.
@@MrSniperfox29 WCW didn't try to fk Austin over lol, they made him a multi-time champion before he broke his contractual agreements and no-showed events. WCW were totally in the right for firing him. WWE had the exact same issue with Austin when he no-showed Raw and then quit in 2002 over not wanting to do the job for Brock Lesnar.
@@namikstudios Austin himself admitted that he was difficult to work with in the early part of his career, and to be honest, that dismissal was the wake up call Austin needed to improve his attitude or he was going nowhere. As for him walking out in 2002, it was not cause he did not want to put over Lesnar (far from it, giving up and coming wrestlers the rub is considered proper etiquette by veterans, since they do not need it any more). It was how it was going to be done: no buildup, no storyline, just Austin getting squashed by Lesnar for no apparent reason, and that was what made him upset about it. Considering the friendship between Austin and McMahon, it must be really bad for Austin of all people to say "screw this, I'm out" rather than go through with those plans.
i remember hearing about a recent book on wcw and what really happened into their cancellation as many blamed jamie kellner for cancelling wcw programming from turner. well, it turned out that he had no choice because of bischoff who wanted to buy the TV time slots for wcw and if things weren't going good for WCW. bischoff would still have those time slots and put in something else as kellner realized that bischoff was putting wcw into a no-win situation as he made that choice to cancel wcw. after hearing and then reading about kellner's decision. i can't say i don't blame him as wcw was a drain for warner at that time and the ratings were already on a nose dive. bischoff would've made things worse if he owned it and those time slots as it would've lost warner even more money as that merger with AOL was already a disaster.
That’s a bit of a double edged sword. They ended up devaluing their own product at the end of the day. Russo did more to destroy the brand than Bischoff ever did, but this gets conveniently ignored. Now look at it. Wrestling is all over Turner now because things are different.
The reason WCW was sold off was simply because AOL TimeWarner didn't have a clue what they were doing and pretty much destroyed the Turner media empire, perhaps with the exception of CNN. They didn't think wrestling belonged on TNT or TBS. Nearly 20 years later, Warner admitted they were wrong when they did a deal with AEW to put wrestling back on TNT/TBS. The sale of WCW was a terrible mistake.
@@namikstudios It’s crazy to think of how much they screwed up. They didn’t like WCW even when it was successful. Once Ted was forced out of power, the days of WCW were numbered.
Someone at WWF is a genius. Send loyal friends to ask for ridiculous contracts. When the best younger talent switches companies your mid card is beating their main event.
Bischoff's misuse of Bret Hart was absolutely criminal. Had the hottest star in the world and did nothing with him. Hart's WCW debut could've been better written by a 10-year-old. Hogan/NWO was the only thing Bischoff cared about in the company.
Greetings from Germany and keep up uploadong the cool content,please! The Russo time of wcw is barely covered by youtube wrestling historians and didn't knew of the existence of the Crush/Bomb Tag team Kronik and this footage looks awesome. Hope I find on RU-vid something from them. Update; sorry as I wrote this comment I was on a wcw russo video and after the video switched in the playlist the comment landed accidently here!😂😅😊
@@StunnedByWrestling I did that already and can't wait to see more.until then your playlists are good audio wrestling content for bedtime. Feel free to check and sub my channel as well!
Much of his success really came down to ted turners money allowing him to bring in ex-wwf talent. It was good for wrestling though as the attitude era began with Stone cold becoming a massive draw for the business. I was never a big of WCW always felt it was bad. Good for fans because after WCW fell wrestling started a large decline for me.
Notice how Hulk brings all his friends whenever he junps ship? Big mess up of Biscoff to fire Steve Austin, proves Eric didnt really know the hidden potential of some the WCW roster!
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that Bret Hart has the biggest ego no one ever talks about. Bret is Bret’s biggest fan. Ever hear his Mt. Rushmore? Talk about egotistical nepotism!
Well I'm convinced WWF put British wrestling out of business so what goes around comes around. Granada cancelled British wrestling off TV in 1988, the same year Sky brougjt WWF to British satellite. Two years later Grenada have got shares in Sky TV... But the thing that gets me is there's never been a real reason for cancelling British wrestling, as it was still going strong and some claim the strongest/Best wrestling company in the world. Now doesn't that seem a little bit suspicious? And I don't care about conspiracies or what people think.. the dates are just too coincidental.
I think if more people actually listened to what Bischoff says rather than going in automatically assuming he's just lying then more people will actually understand that he may have not done the best on the wrestling side of things but my god did he do wonders on the business & television side of things as well as working under restrictions especially after AOL bought Time Warner because in all reality AOL killed WCW, not Russo not Bischoff not anything or anyone else. It was the AOL Time Warner merger & that executives who didnt even watch the product told Eric "Hey because of sponsors we want to keep we need you to tone WCW down. The thing that brings in the ratings we kinda need you to do the opposite"
You know they talk all crap about Eric but Vince has done way more sneaky underhanded stuff worse than Eric but it's always Eric. Brett calls him a maggot but Eric made him richer than Vince and did nothing close to the screw job Vince did. Too many people have their heads up their butts. Oo and he made the NWO Vince never made anything as big as that not even 80s Hogan.
I get the impression Bischoff was a wimpy yes man for Hogan and the other over-the-hill ex-WWF superstars. He was more than happy to pick on the younger guys (the ones he should have been pushing), but he just let the crappy old guys walk over him.
Perhaps he is the most hated if your last name is McMahon or you're a massive mark for the WWE. The truth is though that Eric revolutionized the industry and made WCW better than anything we had seen before or since. 96-99 in WCW was wrestling's peak - that is why the McMahon marks hate him so much.
Why would we hate him? He took them to the very top, and then showed the entire world he had no idea what to do afterwards. The crashing of his empire was glorious
@@MrSniperfox29 because the "very top" wasn't just WCW's peak, it was wrestling's peak. WWE hate that WCW was and always will be wrestling at it's very best, as it is very unlikely that the industry will reach the heights of 96-99 ever again.
Look... despite how ruthless bitchoff was, he still lost! It was just a matter of time tbh, fkin robocop appearing as a glorified kaneo partner etc COME ON 😂😂
He won 83 times before losing when people within the company conspired to dismantle WCW. No one had ever come close to competing with Vince. Eric walked in and squashed WWF. And back in the 90s when years moved slowly and things were less stable, 83 weeks was a long long time. It's an overall win for Eric and a legacy that he can be proud of.
