Eric Bischoff Recalls Backstage Reaction to Booker T Dropping the N-Word on WCW TV

– Booker T’s infamous promo where he dropped the N-word on WCW TV at Spring Stampede 1994 was discussed on a recent episode of Eric Bischoff’s 83 Weeks podcast. The promo was discussed by Booker himself last month, when he told Hulk Hogan that it was the worst moment of his life at that time and added, “I thought that was the end of my career.” Bischoff, on the other hand, says he was surprised Booker thought he would be fired over it.

Highlights from Bischoff’s discussion are below:

When he first heard the promo: “On the pay-per-view. I was watching on a monitor in my office, which is almost the same thing [as a headset], I guess. But I was in my office, Terry [Hogan] wasn’t there. Terry was — I think I talked to Terry earlier that day, and that was in my office. I might have been on the phone with him. Hung up, watched this thing and of course, the first two people that stuck their head in the door was Doug Dillinger and Janie [Engle, talent relations manager]. And Janie, you know, I love Janie. And she’s a close friend to my family. My kids still call her Auntie Janie. She never knew how I was gonna react to certain things. I was always a little unpredictable, I guess. And she stuck her head in the door. And I knew it was serious, because whenever she was scared — not afraid of me, but not knowing how I was gonna react. And she knew it was a serious situation. She kind of opened my door, and she raised her eyebrows a little and stuck her head around the door, and said, ‘Uh, Eric, do you have a minute?’ I said, ‘Sure.'”

On his reaction to the promo: “My reaction was kinda, ‘I can’t believe he did that.’ But nobody knew [his reaction]. And I told her [Engle], ‘Don’t worry about it. We’ll get through it.’ You know, I know Booker, I knew Booker then. I know him better now, but I knew Booker then, and Stevie .. I let Janie know it was no big deal. I didn’t want to do anything to disrupt the show.”

On Turner’s standpoint on racially-insensitive matters at the time: “In my mind I was already anticipating a phone call from somebody at Turner. Because that was the one thing. Even though in ’95, ’96, ’97 Turner was hands off. I had nobody bugging me about anything creatively or in terms of characters. I didn’t have to get anything approved when it came to creative, or characters. As long as I stayed under $1 million, I didn’t even have to get budgets approved. Again, I had a $1 million spending limit on individual items or contracts. But I kind of had a free reign to do what we needed to do. But, because of the Bill Watts situation which basically led me to getting the position I was in, that was the one thing that you could expect a phone call from. And I was thinking about that, but I wasn’t angry, and there was nothing I could do about it. It was already done. The only thing I could possibly do at that point from my perspective was to be prepared for that phone call I was gonna get on Monday.”

On his thoughts about the whole incident: “Now, that being said, it was a different time. I knew Booker pretty well back then. I had a sense of him at least. And I could see, I mean, you go back and watch it now. And not to get too far out into the airy-fairy world of Hollywood and acting and all that, because I’m not an actor. Don’t try to pretend I am one, nor have I ever taken acting classes. But you know, you have a basic understanding of how it works. And a method actor has trained themselves to really believe they’re in the moment that they’re acting in. Emotionally, physically, in their heads, there’s no difference between being in that scene and pretending you’re being in that scene, or acting the scene. There’s just no difference. They really are that character, believing that promo in that given moment. And where Booker grew up, how he grew up, when he grew up, that just wasn’t an unusual type of thing to say in a tense situation. So it came very naturally to him once he worked himself into this — I’ll say worked himself into a shoot because in a way, that’s what a good promo does … but here’s what people have to remember if they go back and look at it now or they want to discuss it, or they hear us talking about it in 2019. It was a different world. We were a different culture. Not that it was better or worse, not justifying it or trying to criticize for it. It was a different time and place. And the context was something completely different. So it really wasn’t that big a deal. I’m shocked that Booker felt at the time that he thought he was going to get fired for it. I understand why, because of the Bill Watts stuff and all the things that went on with him and the bad publicity that we got as a result of it. So I understand why he felt that way. But he also knew me pretty well. So I’m a little surprised he felt that way, but I understand it.

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