Eric Bischoff on When He Got Involved With TNA Initially, Says TNA Didn’t Pay His Or Hulk Hogan’s Deals

– Eric Bischoff discussed on the latest 83 Weeks when he first got involved in TNA. Bischoff came into TNA publicly with Hulk Hogan in a deal that was announced publicly by TNA in October 27, 2009. Bischoff was noted as the person who negotiated the deal on Hogan’s behalf. In the discussion, Bischoff discusses why he was negotiating for Hogan and makes clear that despite common belief to the contrary, TNA did not pay out for his or Hogan’s expenses, and that Spike TV paid for those.

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

On when he got involved with TNA: “I wasn’t a part of the original conversation. I’m guessing — it’s just a guess — that Jeff Jarrett reached out to Hulk. [But I wasn’t part of it] at this particular time. And I’m glad you cleared up the timeline issue there, it makes sense that Hulk would have done something with Jeff in 2003 that I wouldn’t have been knowledgeable of or a part of. But by 2008, again just to kind of clarify and put all of this into context, because of where Hulk was at with his health and his personal issues with the divorce, I was kind of a filter for a lot of the deals that were coming to Hulk at that time. And I’m pretty sure that [Jarrett] and/or Dixie would have reached out to Hulk, and Hulk would have said, ‘You need to talk to Eric.’ Because at that period of time, that’s where his head was at. And that’s really how I got involved in the discussions.”

On TNA not paying for Hogan or Bischoff’s deals: “I negotiated Hulk’s deal with TNA. It was actually with Spike TV, Spike paid for it. And that’s another thing that I really want to take this opportunity to clear up. Because over the decades there’s been so much written about how Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff came in, they took so much money out of TNA and didn’t really contribute. All of that is false. TNA didn’t pay for my salary — or it wasn’t a salary, I wasn’t an employee. But they didn’t pay for my expenses. They didn’t pay for Hulk Hogan’s expenses, they didn’t pay for Sting’s expenses. There were a lot of big names that came into TNA that Spike paid for, and that’s public record. Spike’s public relations department has come out and talked about that in the past. So people that are listening to this that are under the assumption because you read dirt sheets that Dixie Carter and TNA were paying the freight for Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff: absolutely nothing further from the truth. Do your research, read what Viacom had to say and their clarification of that.”

On his involvement with TNA coming out of the Hogan negotiations: “But my involvement came again, because Hulk was at a point where literally, I’m not going to exaggerate this, there were times when Hulk couldn’t even get out of bed, the pain was so bad. He couldn’t even roll over to pick up the phone, the pain was so bad. And at that point, I was handling a lot of his stuff and that’s how I got involved in the deal. And it started out with me negotiating Hulk’s deal on his behalf. Originally I was not a part of that deal. That kind of evolved subsequent to the initial contact and the initial negotiations for Hulk.”

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