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Eric Bischoff On Regrets With Not Making Dustin Rhodes A Bigger Star In WCW, Lex Luger Jumping From WWE To WCW

September 23, 2020 | Posted by Blake Lovell
Dusty Rhodes Dustin Rhodes Image Credit: WCW

In a recent edition of After 83 Weeks With Christy Olson, Eric Bischoff discussed regrets with not making Dustin Rhodes a bigger star in WCW, Lex Luger jumping from WWE to WCW, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Eric Bischoff on his regrets with not making Dustin Rhodes a bigger star in WCW: “I was thinking when you laid that question out to me – why didn’t we make more of an effort with Dustin? Because everybody loved him as a performer, as a person, as a professional. Everbody that worked with him loved working with him. He was a pro’s pro. I have to say this and I’m gonna have to reach out to Dustin and tell him I said this publicly – I kind of feel like I owe Dustin an apology. Because sometimes – you know the old saying ‘You don’t really know what you have until it’s gone’ – I think that’s probably very applicable in Dustin Rhodes’ case because there was nobody that wasn’t really, really high on him as a future talent. But we didn’t really take the action to back that up.”

On Lex Luger’s initial contract when he jumped from WWE to WCW: “It was the for the same dates that everybody else had. It was a standard agreement. The issue was Lex wanted to come back, and I didn’t really want him to. He wanted to prove to me he did and I gave him a really nasty bitter pill to swallow and decided that if he swallowed it, he was serious, and if he gagged on it, he wasn’t. And he swallowed that bitter pill and proved himself and I was anxious to give him a raise after that. So I think it was really smart and honest. More importantly, I think it was honest. Lex took responsibility and he agreed with it or not, he at least understood the perception he had by me and others in WCW and knew he had to prove himself and was willing to be honest to commit in actually doing so. Have a lot of respect for Lex for doing that. The guy was making $750k a year and he’s coming back and I offer him $100k. Think about that.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit After 83 Weeks with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.