Eric Bischoff Recalls Eddie Guerrero’s Most Iconic WCW Matches, Origins Of LWO

On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff talked about some of Eddie Guerrero’s most iconic WCW matches and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko at Starrcade 97: “I thought the match was a great match. I don’t think it was one of the better ones, I don’t think it was the best match on the card. We’ll talk about Kurt Hennig and DDP in a little later, but the one thing I did notice in watching the match back is for an Eddie and Dean match, it was a slower-paced match. And again, one of the things I love about doing this show with you and kind of being forced — not against my will, but being motivated to go back and look at some of this stuff, is the way I look at it now and the way I looked at it then. And I think for me now, because I certainly didn’t get involved in matches, I didn’t tell people or suggest or even pay attention to how matches were laid out. I left that to other people who were more experienced than me. But today? I would have sat down with these guys and had a conversation about ‘Okay, here, here’s who you guys are as characters. Here’s what the audience expects of you guys as characters in this cruiserweight world, which is an extremely important part of who WCW is right now. And the success that Nitro has experienced is because of you Dean, and you Eddie. And here’s what this match needs to be.’

“And instead of it being however long it was, I didn’t look at the time on it, but it was a long segment. It was a good 12, 14 minutes minimum, maybe more. Eddie and Dean should have had a faster-paced match that looked more cruiserweight-ish than this one did. It was a great match, don’t get me wrong. And I’m going to go on record right now, I’m going to start a Dean Malenko fan club here in 83 Weeks. Because every time I go back and look at something that we’re going to be talking about, and every time Dean Malenko is in it, I say to myself, ‘Damn, he — without question one of the most underrated talents in WC, and for the minimal amount of time he was in WWE.’ He is so good. His character is so believable from the minute he walks through a curtain, people should study. Young guys and girls coming up in the business should look at Dean Malenko and study him in terms of his ability as an actor, as a performer, whatever you want to call him, his ability to make you believe. The minute he walks out to the ring, he creates one of — my biggest bitches when I watch wrestling, and not so much when I watch it anymore because I don’t. I don’t watch it for the same reasons anymore. But, you know, when I was writing and especially the last few years in my career, I used to beat people over the head. Bully Ray, if we ever if you ever interview Bully ask him to tell you about the time in creative meetings at TNA. I would just beat my fist, almost bloody pounding on the table, trying to get people to understand and invest in the idea that in order for any storyline to matter, there has to be stakes that people believe.”

On Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio at Halloween Havoc 97: “I think the Halloween Havoc match was absolutely the best. I mean, that match was so crisp and the pace was so fast, and there was nothing that wasn’t spectacular about that match. This match wasn’t quite as good. And there were a couple beats, if you go back and really break this match down and look at it very, very closely, you’ll find probably two or three spots in this match where timing was a little off, positioning was a little off once or twice. Either Eddie or Rey, couldn’t really tell which one, wasn’t really sure where they were at, but they made up for it so quickly that unless you really put this match under a microscope, you wouldn’t recognize it. And I’m being super critical here because this match is fantastic. And by any other standard or by all other standards, probably one of the best you’ve seen in that year.”

On the origins of the LWO: “I’m gonna do my best to recall as many of the details as I can on this idea. I think I got most of it down pretty well, but I was in Los Angeles for a meeting with Mandalay Sports and Entertainment. Jason Hervey was there at the time and we went out to lunch. I believe we were either in a Greek restaurant or a Mexican restaurant. I can’t remember which, but that’s when we got into the conversation about the NWO and how successful it was. We’re talking about that, and I think it was Jason Hervey that actually came up with the idea of the Latino World Order. Jason wasn’t working for us at the time. He was working for Mandalay Sports and Entertainment, but we were friends and Jason was obviously a big wrestling fan. Jason and I had some projects together during that period of time. He threw the idea out there, and I’m not sure if he threw it out as a joke, or if he was serious about it or a little bit of both. But nonetheless, it kind of took on and I talked to Eddie about it. Eddie thought it was a pretty cool idea. He got excited about it and there you go.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.