Eric Bischoff On the Arn Anderson-Sid Vicious Stabbing Incident, How WCW Handled It, Ric Flair Helping Save Arn’s Job

– On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff looked back at the infamous Arn Anderson/Sid Vicious stabbing incident from 1993 and its aftermath. The fight is one of the most famous non-kayfabe fights in the history of the industry, and took place on October 27th, 1993 in Blackburn, England. There are several versions of the story depending on who you spoke to, but they all generally agree that the fight spring from an argument in the hotel bar where members of the roster were having beers.

Sid’s version of the story is that Anderson asked ‘What’s wrong with our business? Why aren’t we drawing?’ and he responded that ‘We have an old man in Ric Flair who needs to get the f**k out of the way.’ According to Vicious, that led to an argument between the two that resulted in beers thrown. Vicious said he went back to his room but was confronted by Anderson on the way, who had broken a beer bottle and was threatening him with it. Sid went to his room and stewed until he decided you have to draw a line, broke a leg off a chair and went to Anderson’s door. He heard Anderson stumbling inside while they yelled at each other through the door and he tossed the chair leg away; when Anderson came out he had scissors and stabbed him until he got the scissors and stabbed back.

Anderson’s version of the story is that Sid was bragging about holding up WCW for $100,000 a year raise while Anderson got a similar pay cut, and that Vicious said that the “old f**kers need to retire.” He said that he ended up back in his room after the bar argument with help from Doug Dillinger and that when Vicious appeared at his door calling him out, he opened the door and got hit in the head, knocking him out. When he came to, he said Sid was on top of him throwing punches, and Arn scrambled and found the scissors.

Anderson suffered twenty stab wounds to the chest and stomach, and Sid himself was stabbed four times. Both men were sent back to the US and no charges were filed, but Bischoff fired Vicious, reportedly because several talent members threatened to leave if he wasn’t. Anderson was suspended.

Highlights from Bischoff’s discussion are below, as well as the full podcast:

On hearing about the fight: “I was at home. It was — I don’t remember what time of day it was, but I think it was pretty late in the evening when I got a phone call from Doug Dillinger, who gave me the first account of what happened and kind of gave me the status of everything. At that point, I think Sid was in the hospital or had just gotten out of the hospital, so the first report I got was that it wasn’t life-threatening but it was serious, obviously. God, I was to say it was, I don’t know, around 8:00, 9:00 at night maybe? Maybe a little bit later. I don’t remember what time it was, but it was Doug Dillinger who gave me the first piece of news.”

On firing Vicious but not Anderson: “Well, it wasn’t me by myself [that made the decision]. You know, Bill Shaw had a lot to say about it. He was the final decision, ultimately. I had opinions about it, I expressed them. I had influence over the final decision, but the final decision was really Bill Shaw’s. Not that I’m putting it on him, because I think I did have influence. And I think I had a lot of influence. Ultimately, we had to look at two different things. We had to look at the incident itself, the message that it sent. The perception or the reality in this case, of how well management handled it. At the same time, we had to balance that with the real world financial implications of having some of our top talent involved in this incident. So we did our best to try and find that middle ground. And so often when you compromise and you make decisions and choices that aren’t rooted necessarily in policy, but you’re reacting to a situation and you have to be fluid enough to cover your ass, both from a management and a legal perspective as well as a creative and a talent management perspective, you find yourself in that dangerous middle ground. And that’s exactly where we were.”

On WCW being criticized for how they handled it: “I want to say this before we get too far into this. I know WCW, myself in particular were criticized for the way we handled the situation. Part of the reason we were in that dangerous middle group I just referred to a few moments ago is because there was no definitive story that we could really believe. It was half a dozen people giving you different versions of the same incident. That makes it a little more difficult to come down and make a definitive judgment or definitive decision on how best to handle that, when you’ve got so many varying stories. That was part of the reason why — not an excuse, just the reality. We couldn’t really get a clear picture. And the fact that there was alcohol involved, I could certainly see it happening.”

On Anderson and Vicious’ different stories: “You know, when I heard about it, I could just, knowing the personalities even then as I knew them, I could see how something — a version of Sid’s story could be true. There’s not many people I have more respect for in many respects than Arn Anderson. But Arn Anderson, once he put his crosshairs on you — and I can only imagine what that would be like if he was hungry, angry, lonely and tired, and oh by the way, drinking. [chuckles] I can only imagine how vicious Arn can be verbally. How abusive he can be in front of people. And one of the things about Arn is, he’s so damned good at it that I could see that situation escalating.

“It’s hard for me to imagine Sid making some of the comments that allegedly he made about Ric Flair, and getting out of the way, and bragging about his $100,000 raise and holding up the company and all that. I’m not saying it didn’t happen, because I wasn’t there. And I don’t know Sid all that well. I feel like I know him a little bit, and certainly in my dealings with him I never saw that side of his personality. Again, not saying it didn’t happen, but it’s a little harder to imagine for me, Sid kind of taking on that position in front of the boys. That said, we’ll never know who’s telling the truth, and the fact that there was so much alcohol involved, I’m not sure anybody can really remember what happened definitively.”

On why Anderson wasn’t fired: “Ric Flair did help save Arn’s job. There’s no question about that. I had numerous conversations with Ric Flair about the situation. And going back to, again, the scenario that we’ve all heard including Sid’s recollection of the story. He did go back to [Anderson’s] room. He did. If Sid would have — you know, it’s easy to be really smart about situations after the fact and in retrospect. But as out of line as Arn allegedly was in breaking a beer bottle and threatening to cut Sid. That was completely inappropriate. Unprofessional to say the least, borderline criminal if not criminal. Should have never happened.

“But the fact that Sid did go to his room. The situation was over, Arn was no longer in the hallway. The situation didn’t have to happen, and wouldn’t have happened had Sid not gone back and decided to instigate act two of this three-act disaster. And that’s probably why Sid ended up on the receiving end of harsher punishment, and was terminated. Because that really was the defining incident. That’s what led to the stabbing. Sure, there were a lot of things, there were a lot of other things that led up to it earlier in the day, and at night at dinner when they were waiting for food and having beers and all that. It escalated from there, but the fact is the situation was over once, according to Sid, Sid went back to his room and Arn went to his room. And Sid decided to, you know, re-engage. And I think it was the re-engagement, going back to Arn’s room that landed Sid where he landed as opposed to Arn. And Ric did have, to the last part of that question. Ric did have a lot of influence. He petitioned in a big way to save Arn’s job. And I think that definitely had some impact in Bill Shaw and certainly had some impact on me.”

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