Eric Bischoff Discusses Putting Together the First Edition of WCW Monday Nitro, Addresses the Process of Signing Back Lex Luger

– Earlier this month, Eric Bischoff spoke on the 83 Weeks podcast about putting together the very first edition of WCW Monday Nitro, bringing Lex Luger back to WCW in 1995 and getting Luger to appear on the first edition of Nitro. Below are some highlights (transcript via WrestlingInc.com).

Bischoff on putting the first Nitro together in a matter of months: “Keep in mind, we didn’t get a long lean time between the time that Ted Turner wanted to have this show to the time we had this show, it was a matter of months. The gestation of television of this magnitude was pretty quick, was a pretty quick turnaround. We knew that we were going to grow into our brand a little bit but we couldn’t put it all together here… when we left The Mall of America that night I had no idea if we were going to bomb, if we were going to explode or if we were going to land somewhere in the middle. So, while we were thinking about all of the graphics, designs and packages and all the fun stuff that it takes to launch a broadcast, nobody knew how this was going to do. We weren’t too anxious to move too quickly either.”

Bischoff on picking Jushin Liger vs. Brian Pillman as the first match: “It was consistent with a lot of the research that I had been doing. The tip of the hat to Brad Siegel, President of TNT, he was really adamant of doing research. We wanted fast-paced action. Again, I was making an effort of having more of an international flavor to our brand and it appeared to be, or perceived to be more international than we really were in fairness so it just made a lot of sense. I knew it would start off hot, and knew that the hardcore wrestling fans would enjoy this match, but I also knew because it was going to be a fast paced, high altitude type match. The non-wrestling fans, which made up a pretty good size in the audience there at The Mall of America would like it as well.”

Bischoff on how Sting convinced him to re-sign Lex Luger: “I had a lot riding on this. I didn’t want to sign Lex Luger but Sting convinced me to do it. I wasn’t really sure how it was going to work out but I knew one thing, which is that WWE thought he was under contract and the audience thought he was under contract. So I knew that having him come out that night it was going to be a big deal. But we had to work really hard to keep quiet because all of the dirt sheets, and Dave Meltzer and all of the stooges and rats were all over the place that when you tried to surprise somebody with something it would be all over the internet or all over the Dirt Sheets or wherever it was during that time, so we really wanted it to work. Lex Luger flew himself to Minnesota and booked himself to a separate hotel, so we really didn’t bring him over to the building until right before that appearance.”