Eric Bischoff Says R-Truth Situation Was Likely Caused By Agents Playing Hardball

On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff talked about the recent controversy surrounding R-Truth and his WWE contract negotiations, which were covered on WWE: Unreal season two. Truth was under the belief that WWE had released him after telling him they weren’t going to renew his deal, and later signed a new deal. You can check out some highlights below:

On the R-Truth Situation:

“They were negotiating. Ron jumped the gun, ot was an amateur move. I like Ron, it is what it is. But guess what? Here’s a little piece that came in at the end that I didn’t know at the front end of this discourse is there were agents involved. Ick!”

On Problems With Agents:

“Things are going to get effed up when you get your agents involved. Ick, it’s unfortunate. I believe Paul [Triple H] in this case. I don’t dog in a hunt. It’s not like Paul and I are friends. I mean we’re friendly, right? But we don’t hang out, I don’t get a Christmas card, none of that stuff. But I absolutely believe him, and I believe him because similar things have happened to me in the past. When you’re dealing with agents, you’re in a negotiation. It sounds to me like they had to make a point. Here’s the point: ‘We’re not going to renew your contract at the current rate. We can’t afford you,’ which is a valid point. At some point, you’ve just got to look at talent, how often you use them, how you can use them, when you can use them, and all that. The audience’s reaction to them. There’s ways to kind of get a feel for that, right?

“And sometimes when you got an older talent, you’re just not using them as much, you can’t afford to pay him as much. It’s just a fact of life. And I’m sure because there’s an agent involved, we’re going to play hardball. They played hardball — Ron’s agent, I’m guessing. And they’re playing hardball with a guy from Hollywood who negotiates deals, massive deals. That was stupid as an agent for overshooting. And they probably called their bluff, and that’s where things fell apart. Because Ron probably got the word, as he said — I believe Ron too. There’s no reason for him to twist that stuff around. I could see how it happened. It’s really unfortunate.”

On His Advice On the Matter:

“My only thought is, if there’s anybody listening to this, just don’t tweet right away. You know, give yourself 48 hours to process things before you’d make any decisions like that. Because you’re reacting out of emotion and frustration. Nine times out of 10, that’s going to work against you. This is unfortunately one of those cases. But I don’t think anybody’s lying. I think they’re both telling the truth, but the devil is in the details. And the details in this case are, how is that communicated by whom? And is the first word you. I think when there’s an agent involved, it gets a lot trickier.”

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