Eric Bischoff Says He Wasn’t Intentionally Trying to Steal Anybody From WWE During the Monday Night Wars

– As previously reported, the latest edition of The Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast featured Eric Bischoff, Bruce Prichard, and former WWE Superstar JBL. Below are some additional highlights (transcript via WrestlingInc.com) from the show.

Prichard on Eric Bischoff’s tenure at the helm of WCW: “When Eric came in to WCW and was really competitive and they came after us with a vengeance. All of a sudden we weren’t the only game in town. We were the ones that were fighting for that existence, and just fighting to be part of everything. They were doing great numbers, which made us to do better numbers; the business got healthier as a whole and I think that is what is missing today, which is good and healthy competition.”

Bischoff on how he never intended to steal anyone from WWE: “There was never really anybody that we sent back in a dark room, with a six-pack of beer and said, ‘OK, let’s see if we can get this guy or steal this guy.’ Whether it was talent, or Producers, whoever it was trying to come to WCW, it was them coming to us; there was never really us trying to cherry pick talent. The only person that I tried to covet, and I didn’t even know him at the time, was Pat Patterson because there was so many people that were working for me that had worked with Patterson, and obviously worked with Vince McMahon that they just kept telling me what a great ‘finish’ guy he was. I had never worked with him or met him, but I knew that looking at our product and what was lacking with our product was that I needed somebody with that depth of storytelling ability.”

JBL on how he met Bischoff at the arena airport: “I ran into Eric Bischoff at a bar in an arena airport, which was the first time I met him around the time the Attitude Era first started. I ran into Eric leaving Japan, and it got back to WWE and I was in the middle of a contract negotiation, and Eric never offered me a contract, so it was terrific.”

JBL on his friendly rivalry: “We had a very friendly rivalry. That night when we invaded WCW, we didn’t know what was going to happen because we invaded that afternoon and we were live. Gerald Brisco went around and told everybody to wait by the parking lot because we didn’t know what was going to happen. We had the Harris Boys out there, we had Ken Shamrock. We were kind of hoping that Ken Shamrock and Haku would get into a fight because it probably would still be going. It was a crazy time, until the show was over and Vince [McMahon] had left the arena.”