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Eric Bischoff On Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair At WCW Halloween Havoc 1994, Idea Behind Doing Retirement Match

October 5, 2021 | Posted by Blake Lovell
Hulk Hogan Ric Flair Halloween Havoc Image Credit: WWE

In a recent edition of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff discussed Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair at Halloween Havoc 1994, Flair’s contract situation, and much more. You can read Eric Bischoff’s comments below.

Eric Bischoff on Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair at Halloween Havoc 1994 and Flair’s contract situation with WCW: “Ric was wound up pretty tight going into this pay-per-view. Ric can be a very emotional person. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. This was a retirement match for Ric – that was the stipulation. He hated it. Hated it. Really, for me, it was such an overwhelming challenge that I had on a daily basis in the weeks, and even the day of, in dealing with Ric and trying to work things out. He wanted to renegotiate his contract – ‘If I’m gonna be in a retirement match, I’m gonna renegotiate my contract.’ I think Ric at least believed it was possible that somehow he was gonna get dropped after it was over and he’d get written off TV. Ric was very concerned and drew a pretty hard line in the sand about renegotiating. I had to fly in Bill Shaw – he didn’t typically come to pay-per-views. It wasn’t as much fun as it could’ve been.”

On the idea behind doing a retirement match: “There was no concern about popping a rating because Hogan wasn’t going anywhere. He had just signed a two-year contract and there was no pressure there….it really more about how do we keep this Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan storyline going? We saw it in July, and to try to draw it out to December, it seemed like a natural thing to me to take it to the next big pay-per-view as opposed to trying to draw it out over an additional three months and lose that momentum because we had momentum in July. So, let’s build on that.”

On the match almost not happening due to Flair’s contract situation: “I was negotiating with Ric all the way up to the day of the show. It was brutal. Day of the show, I wasn’t 100 percent sure it was gonna happen when I showed up to the venue because I didn’t have Ric’s name on a piece of paper yet. That didn’t happen until the day of the show, and that’s one of the reasons why Bill Shaw came in.”

On the finish to the match which featured multiple run-ins: “It was just 10 pounds of stuff in a five-pound bag. It was just too much. The finish was just too much – it’s the only way I can say it. The weird thing is, it actually played better on TV than it did at the live event because you didn’t have the advantage of unique camera angles and timing and shit like that to camouflage the cluster as much. I’m not saying it came off great at all, but it made more sense on television than it did as a live event. Just way overbooked.”

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