411’s WWE Photo Shoot: Eric Bischoff Report

411’s WWE Photo Shoot: Eric Bischoff Report

-The WWE Network has dropped a new show, and yours truly was asked to check it out and see if it worth your 20 minutes to watch. I saw the previews for this show and it really didn’t interest me with the first couple episodes, but I was asked to review this one. The premise of the show is they sit down some legend and show him photos from his life and career. He then comments on the picture and we continue from there. This episode focuses on Eric Bichoff (who happens to share a birthday with me) and being a massive nWo/WCW fan, I am going into this hoping for a fun way to spend 20 or so minutes.

-The first photo is from the Nitro announcement press conference and it is a shot of Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, and Randy Savage. Bischoff chuckles at the picture and says it was a roller coaster relationship between those two. He says at times they were brothers and then they were a strange married couple that couldn’t stand each other. He says their relationship led to a lot of tense moments, but also some of the defining moments in each man’s career in the WWE and in WCW. Hogan/Savage is still my favorite rivarly of all time, and nothing will ever top the Mega Powers exploding and the mother of all promos Savage gave before cracking Hogan with the WWE Title.

-Next up is a picture of Bischoff in a leather jacket with his infamous smile while pointing at his cheeks. Eric laughs at the photo and says “you cheesy son of a… gun.” He says playing the boss everyone loves to hate because all he had to do was turn up the volume on what was his already cocky nature. They show highlights of Bischoff firing Randy Anderson in front of his kids while Hall and Nash laugh hysterically. His role was to play the boss everyone hated and wanted to see get his ass kicked, and it was a lot of fun. I always like to note the Bischoff heel boss character showed up over a year before Mr. McMahon. Now obviously, Mr. McMahon was a better character, but Bischoff was right there with him. Sadly, Bischoff just didn’t get his comeuppance as much as McMahon did and that’s probably what hurt in the long run (among other things).

-We move to a black and white photo of a very young Bischoff sporting a gi and a porno mustache. He talks about being a black belt and even points out that he has a porno mustache in the picture. It was a fun time in his life.

-A photo of the b.W.o is next and Bischoff says imitation is, and in this case a bad imitation, is the sincerest form of flattery. He thanks them for the compliment and then we move to the next photo.

-This one is a photo of the Mall of America during the first episode of Monday Nitro. He says that people ask him why he had the show in a mall and he admits that quite frankly they couldn’t draw a crowd in an arena anywhere in the country. He wanted to produce a show that looked good on camera and he wanted to be different. The one thing you can say about WCW is they weren’t afraid to try new things with locations of their shows and set designs, and that is sorely lacking with the WWE (outside of Mania). It was also kind of fitting Nitro opened and closed with different locations (Mall of America and on a beach in Panama City).

-Sid choking Eric while Booker T looks on is next and Eric says he knows he has a reputation of having bad relationships with certain people. He says that he always got along with Sid as he was a very down to earth guy and an easy guy to work with.

-Photo of Hogan and Bischoff taking over The Tonight Show Set. Bischoff calls it a great time and they built a replica of Leno’s set to take every week to Nitro. They show Eric doing some of his monologue with Elizabeth as his co-host and all I can think is how fantastic she looks. I forgot how amazing she looked during the nWo era where she turned heel and now I am sad realizing how forgotten she has been since her death except for the times Savage is mentioned. As a boy growing up in the 80s on wrestling there was nothing better than Miss Elizabeth.

-That last photo leads to the next one which is Jay Leno delivering a low blow to Bischoff at Road Wild. Bischoff says he hates Jay Leno for that punch and says it was a little snug judging by the look on his face. He knows it was controversial at the time, but it got WCW an amazing amount of publicity that they couldn’t afford to buy.

-Next is a picture of a FedEx envelope and that draws a big laugh from Eric. He knows where this is going and mentions that he and Austin talked about this on Austin’s podcast. He mentions that he was actually required to send the termination papers by FedEx, but he is also willing to accept the burden of being known as the guy who fired people by FedEx.

-Flair screaming at Bischoff during a promo is next. Bischoff says they have had an up and down relationship for 25 years. They show highlights from the feud and Bischoff mentions they took their real life issues and turned them into some of the best storylines they ever did in WCW. He has a lot of respect for Ric Flair now and calls him a great guy. I am always one for seeing people bury hatchets, and it has been great seeing it from guys who legitimately hated each other at one point.

-Shane/Vince from the RAW/Nitro simulcast is show and Eric is kind of at a loss for words at first. Eric doesn’t have a lot to say because of what went down with him trying to buy WCW. He admits that he didn’t watch the last episode of Nitro, and they cut to video of Shane announcing that he now owns WCW. Bischoff says he heard about it and calls it surreal, but it was a big moment.

-A photo of Vince bringing out Bischoff as the new GM of RAW. Eric says he thought he was done with the wrestling business until one day he got a call from Vince McMahon. He says Vince was as courteous, and supportive as he could possibly be. He knew within 90 seconds that it was going to be great working for Vince. Outside of his lawyer and wife, nobody else knew that he had signed with the WWE. He talks about the looks he got from some of the talent when he debuted, but everything he saw around him enforced the idea that it was a good decision for him and the WWE.

-Chuck and Billy’s Wedding: Fantastic payoff to the Chuck and Billy wedding here! Eric says fans still talk to him about this angle. He had to get to the arena at 9 AM to start the make up process, and he made sure to get fully into character. For those who don’t know the WWE had a wedding for Billy and Chuck on SmackDown and it got them legit good press from LGBT community but the WWE got cold feet and didn’t go through with it. Billy and Chuck stopped the wedding and blamed Rico as it was only supposed to be a publicity stunt (which angered LGBT community). The real payoff was that Bischoff was the preacher (which nobody saw coming) and when he took off the makeup the crowd reaction was fantastic. Sadly they don’t show 3 Minute Warning arriving and destroying everyone including Stephanie McMahon (in a crazy looking bump). Please do yourself a favor and find the wedding on YouTube as it is great fun.

-Next is a picture of Eric on his knees while Big Dick Johnson is around him wearing a thong. Eric says that he completely forgot about the moment until right now and from the video it was DX holding Eric so Big Dick could grind on him. He thanks everyone for reminding him and that’s basically it.

-Photo of Bischoff and Austin face to face in the WWE. Eric credits Austin for building his character by telling everyone he was fired by FedEx. Eric loved working with Steve and says they were able to use their past to make for great TV.

-That leads to a picture of Austin and Bischoff in a skybox at a PPV with Eric drinking beer. He says it was fun to perform with Steve as they loved improvising. They knew where they had to go, but had no clue how they were going to get there. He puts over Austin as being one his better friends and anytime they are in LA they always go out to have a beer.

-Wonderful photo of Vince looking on in the background as Heyman is cutting a promo on Bischoff. This was the build up to the first ECW One Night Stand and was touted as the first time ever that all three men were in the same ring. It was pretty surreal and I don’t think the audience fully understood the history involved. Bischoff says this is one of the pictures that he actually kept. For him it was a lot of fun as the fans felt there was a heat that existed between him and Paul. He talks about Paul being a friend and their relationship goes back to the late 80s. He puts over Paul huge for his passion and dedication to the business and for his greatness on the mic.

-Moolah giving Eric the bronco buster is the next shot. Eric says that people always thought this was a way for Vince to embarass him, but he never took it that way. He couldn’t say no because Vince has had far worse things happen and he knew if the boss had no problem embarassing himself, than he had no reason to complain. He even points out that Vince pissed his pants on live TV, so why should he complain.

-The Elimination Chamber is shown and Eric talks about how it was one of the greatest creations of his career. He says he worked long and hard to think of a way to create a match that would capture the imagination of the fans. He then laughs and says to this day people thank him for creating The Chamber or RAW Roulette and while he would like to take credit, he had nothing to do with any of them, but it was fun.

-Next is a photo of Vince in a judge’s robe in the ring with Eric. This was the trial of Eric Bischoff and led to him being fired on camera. He loved the trial and said it was great way to go out the door and that leads to our last photo.

-Vince McMahon dumping Eric in the back of a garbage truck. Eric says the original idea was for Cena to dump him in the truck, and didn’t think that was the right way to go. He called Vince and told him that it would be better for Vince to be the one to toss him into the truck. He says the ride to the back was interesting as he was bouncing around and at one point caught himself in the face with his knee. He calls the moment one of his favorite inside a WWE ring and it happened to be one of his last. He got out of the truck, said goodbye to Vince and that was it.

-Eric wraps things up by thanking everyone for the trip down memory lane and says he had a great time.

-As I suspected this was a fun way to spend 20 minutes and that seems like the perfect length for this show. Bischoff was great here as he had no problem making fun of himself and added some backstory and context to the pictures. There are two other episodes in this series with The Miz and Cesaro and I will try to get to those as soon as possible since this first show was entertaining. We will just see how long this show lasts as history has shown anything I get asked to review disappears rather quickly.