Eric Bischoff on WCW Trying to Curb Time Off Abuse By Lowering Injured Wrestler Pay After 30 Days

– On the latest 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff addressed reports that WCW changed its contracts in 1999 to lower pay for injured wrestlers who were off the road for 30 days. The company changed its policy, which originally said that talent would take a drop in pay after they were gone for 90 days. As Bischoff related, this was because talent would regularly take advantage of the rule to stay out longer than they needed and still get paid the same.

“Let’s be honest, it happened pretty consistently in WCW,” Bischoff said. “It was an issue, and it was, I think those policy changes did reflect WCW’s effort to kind of curtail the abuse of that kind of a situation.”

He noted, however, that when talent was legitimately hurt and in a bad way, he made sure that they were taken care of. “Keep in mind, there were people who were hurt, seriously hurt, who I did take care of,” he pointed out. “Eddie Guerrero being one of them for a long period of time. I could have easily, if I didn’t have a heart, or we were strictly business so to speak, have followed the letter of the contract, that wouldn’t have been the case. So we always had options, even though legally yes, we did have contracts that tried to protect WCW. It didn’t mean that in every situation, we wouldn’t make an exception.”

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