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Eric Bischoff On If He’d Change Anything About Dennis Rodman In WCW, Possibility Of Hogan Leaving In 1998

February 23, 2023 | Posted by Bob Colling
Dennis Rodman WCW Image Credit: WCW

On a recent episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff discussed WCW Superbrawl VIII. Bischoff talked about if he would have changed anything WCW did with Dennis Rodman, and the possibility of Hulk Hogan leaving in 1998 for the WWE. Some highlights are below.

On whether he would have changed anything with Dennis Rodman: “Absolutely not. Dave (Meltzer) has a tendency to project, it’s one of my biggest issues with him is his own personal take on things. Kind of overshadows any of the information and facts involved. Were we disappointed in the buyrate? Absolutely freaking not. I think what Dave tries historically what he’s trying to do is project the way he would look at a buy-rate and how he would react without any real understanding of how those of us in WCW that he didn’t know our expectations. He had no idea what our strategy is going forward he had no idea how we valued or didn’t value things. He only looked at it from ‘oh they brought in Dennis Rodman at $750,000’, which, by the way, is wrong typically wrong.

“No, man I thought the way we used Dennis, I thought the press that we got out of Dennis, the awareness that was created for WCW and Nitro. Because of Dennis, I think I could have cared less what the buy-rate was to be honest it didn’t matter. It’s not like every time we put on a pay-per-view we were like we had a gun to our head and we had to do a certain revenue you know reach a certain revenue threshold wasn’t the case. I wouldn’t have changed one thing with regard to how we used Dennis. It wasn’t $750,000 it was a million. It was worth three times that much to WCW as a brand. That’s the part that people that have never really been in the business can’t understand. It’s not that they’re not smart or they’re not intelligent or they’re not capable of learning things. It’s just they’ve never been in that situation, so it’s not apparent to them hoe someone like Dennis could have such a powerful impact on Nitro and WCW as a brand irregardless of whatever the buy-rate was. Buy-rates are not the end-all be-all.”

On the possibility of hulk hogan going back to WWE in 1998: “I never felt that way. I was never concerned. I mean, I think we talked about it once on a previous podcast where I think we were in Denver and after the show typically Terry and I would get together and go out grab a bite to eat, or have a beer whatever, watch the replay and Hulk say ‘I got a meeting with Vince. Because yeah, Vince is in town and wanted me to come over and meet him.’ I said ‘Alright, let me know what happens.’ I wasn’t worried then. I was never worried or concerned that there was any gamesmanship going on.”

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