Eric Bischoff Responds To Chad Gable Blaming Him For Shorty G

On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff addressed Chad Gable’s recent comments on Cody Rhodes’ podcast, where Gable said that if he had to whittle down responsibility for the Shorty G character, it would come back to Bischoff. Gable has been open about how he considers the character a low for him. You can check out Bischoffs comments below:

On Where Shorty G Actually Came From:

“That was a Vince McMahon idea. It was something that Vince — here’s my interpretation, because we didn’t spend more than a couple weeks on that idea, from what I remember. Maybe a month, month and a half at most, in any serious conversation. I had weekly meetings with Vince, and there was no specific agenda for those meetings other than to bring any issues that I had with creative, or ideas or suggestions, and bring them to Vince. And Vince would then share whatever observations or challenges he wanted to present to me to work on specifically for my brand.

“So it was a regularly scheduled meeting, and in one of those meetings, Vince said, ‘Hey, I’ve got an idea for Shorty G, or for Chad Gable, and I see him as this character.’ And he proceeded to lay out the character, and I think he even had some artwork previously done. I’m not 100% sure if that’s the case, but I immediately went to the marketing department, because if you’re going to create a brand — what I would do is take the basic idea, go to marketing, describe to them the personality, the character, in as much detail as you can. Our department goes to work. They come back with two or three ideas. They would come back with those ideas, and I’d kind of filter through them — the visuals, merchandise design, that type of thing, logos, brands, et cetera. I’d filter through the ones that I thought would probably be the most appropriate based on our previous discussion, bring them to Vince, we’d kind of go through them, filter through them. I’d take his notes, go back to marketing.”

On Bringing the Idea To Gable:

“So that process went back and forth for a couple of weeks. And I think one of the steps that I took once we started narrowing down some of the ideas — again, Vince’s idea, I’m there to execute based on my interpretation of his vision as it was — I brought Chad into it a little bit to get his input. Vince liked that. Vince liked the talent engaging and being part of the process. So obviously I agreed with that as well, and I engaged Chad a little bit. And I don’t recall why — in fact, I think they probably walked away from the Shorty G gimmick shortly after I left. I don’t remember hearing about it. But were my fingerprints on it? Of course, it was my show. But it was really a Vince McMahon idea.”

On Being More Than Just the Messenger:

“More than a messenger. I mean, I took the idea and developed it. So like I said, my fingerprints were definitely on it. It’s just that wasn’t my original idea. I didn’t look at Chad Gable and go, ‘Huh, I see him as this underdog, collegiate, almost Bob Backlund-ish type of white toast, milk bread babyface.’ I didn’t see that. And I’m not saying that’s what Vince saw — that’s my interpretation based on some of the conversation he had with me when he shared the idea with me initially. That’s kind of what I think Vince saw in Chad, is to lean into his collegiate athletic background. It’s not like it doesn’t make sense. Obviously the idea didn’t work, and it might have been lame to begin with. It’s a subjective thing. I would tend to agree with that. But I didn’t get hired to vote. I got hired to help execute. So there you go.”

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